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O’Gara’s company in the sin bin

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

CONGRATULATIONS are very much in order to Irish rugby legend Ronan O’Gara who was recently awarded the freedom of his native Cork City. But the former out-half will be less pleased with developments at his company Stand Off Promotions Ltd, which has just been struck of the companies register for failing to file accounts. Stand… Read more »

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Eugene McCool’s ‘trifling’ complaint

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

CONGRATULATIONS to solicitor Colin Monaghan who had good day in the Court of Appeal recently. Arthur Cox partner Monaghan has been embroiled in a row with engineer Eugene McCool –principal at the well-regarded McCool Controls and Engineering (MCE) in East Wall – since 2012 relating to complaints that McCool had made about the solicitor’s professional… Read more »

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David Ronan back in court

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

GOLDHAWK’s old pal Tipperary businessman David Ronan popped up again recently after an interesting day out in the High Court before Judge Robert Haughton at the end of April. Ronan’s most recent court outing related to the liquidation of CTO Greenclean Environmental Solutions Ltd where once upon a time, he and Stephen Griffin were the… Read more »

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Geoffrey Branigan’s Monkstown moves

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

SOUTH Dublin businessman Geoffrey Branigan looks like he’s onto a winner now that he’s put his fully renovated Victorian home on Monkstown Road on the market for a cool €1.75m, over double what he paid for it originally. Branigan is listed as a director of two companies – software consultancy Zstar Solutions Ltd and another… Read more »

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Rough times for Phelan Hotels

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

SPARE a thought for the owners of the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght, the company behind which has been hit with a judgment it can scarcely afford. Phelan Hotels Ltd – co-owned by Blackrock businessman John Raymond Phelan and Martin Phelan, head of William Fry tax advisers – had two judgments totalling over U¼m registered against… Read more »

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Sarah Ponsonby’s New Leaf

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

GOLDHAWK recently came across a company called New Leaf Health Company Gts Ltd with links to an interesting family. New Leaf – which has just collapsed into liquidation – traded as Miller’s Pharmacy in Waterford City and is co-owned by Sarah Ponsonby of the aristocratic Tipperary dynasty of the same name. The Ponsonby family first… Read more »

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Not really such a difficult choice!

Date: May 17, 2017 - The Hot Water Brigade

ONE of the more intriguing company names that Goldhawk has come across is Sophie’s Choice Ltd, which collapsed into liquidation earlier this year. It turns out that the Dublin company was behind the Tonic Hair and Beauty Bar at the Sundrive Shopping Centre in Kimmage and was owned and operated by the husband and wife… Read more »

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MEDICAL ‘ETHOS’ AT ST VINCENT’S

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

WHAT an effective bedside screen has been erected around the deal for a new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at St Vincent’s Hospital Group (SVHG). The issue has become a cause célèbre for secularists but it has also served to obscure the fact that gynaecologist and obstetrician consultants will continue to be extravagantly enriched in the… Read more »

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IAN BAILEY’S FATEFUL MONTH

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

IAN BAILEY has more than one crucial appointment with the Irish and French legal authorities this month with imminent decisions in court and an effort on his part to secure additional backing for his contention that the gardaí tried to frame him for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Next week the Central Criminal… Read more »

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Sean Lyons’s ‘Hostel’

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

LAST MONTH, the Circuit Civil Court reported that two children who had been staying in a Dublin hostel called the Georgian Court on Lower Gardiner Street, D1, were awarded a total of €8,000 as a result of significant bedbug bites suffered when they stayed there with their mother in 2013. Georgian Court turns out to… Read more »

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DRAMA AT THE ABBEY

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK wonders if arts minister Heather Humphreys will get around to announcing the new chair of the Abbey Theatre now she is back from her Easter hols. One thing is certain. The woman appointed to the position is not the person whose name will be announced. Goldhawk previously highlighted the rather unattractive terms in the… Read more »

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RTÉ THROWS THE BOOK AT GALLAGHER

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

FOLLOWING Goldhawk’s coverage of the bruising demand for discovery faced by Declan Ganley in his defamation case against RTÉ (see The Phoenix 21/4/17), the 2011 presidential candidate Sean Gallagher is getting the same treatment from RTÉ in his action over the infamous tweet referenced in the TV debate broadcast in October 2011. The Wicklow-based businessman… Read more »

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NOBODY LIKES BILLO

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

YOU HAVE to hand it to Jackie Lavin. When it comes to generating publicity for herself, she is hard to top. And it turns out The Irish Times is more than happy to play its part. Readers of the paper last weekend were presented with a full-page of gripes about the onslaught on her and… Read more »

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CHARLETON TRIBUNAL: PROTECTING CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

SUPREME Court justice Peter Charleton may find his timeline of nine months to investigate an alleged smear campaign by senior gardaí against whistleblower Maurice McCabe will extend to years in the High Court, Supreme Court and even the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Charleton will find it difficult to reach conclusions unless he can… Read more »

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SINN FÉIN IN-FIGHTING

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

LURID reports of Sinn Féin bullying and heavy-handed internal rows obscure the reality. Unfortunately, SF, far from being different to other parties – as claimed in media coverage of Kildare councillor Sorcha O’Neill’s recent resignation – is stricken with the same ambitious faction fighting as its “establishment” rivals. In 2014, O’Neill won a council seat… Read more »

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Daly Bread

Date: May 3, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

SURPRISING to see the real identity of the writer of the rip-roaring Grange Abbey family saga is low profile property developer David Daly, who wrote the Liberties Press 400-page novel under the pseudonym David Delaney. Fans of Goldhawk will recall (see The Phoenix 25/1/13) that the Indo has to publish a grovelling apology to the… Read more »

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The Hot Air Brigade

Date: May 3, 2017 -

You’d swear it was Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie crap… I don’t want it to be about that shite. I want it to be about the issue. Jackie Lavin loses her patience with “Bill and Jackie” stories, Irish Times, Submitted by reader I can’t think of anything. Sentences won’t come. I can’t force them. I… Read more »

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WAR WITH NORTH KOREA: NO JOKE

Date: May 3, 2017 - Foreign Frolics

By John Stanton THE 1953 Korean Armistice signed by the United States, China and North Korea called for a cessation of hostilities until a lasting peace agreement between the warring parties could be negotiated and signed. That, of course, has not happened. The Chinese feel compelled to let the incendiary North Korean government in Pyongyang… Read more »

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Mary Lou McDonald

BORDER POLL ON THE CARDS?

Date: May 3, 2017 - Bird's Eye View

CROWING about Ireland’s diplomatic coup last Saturday when the EU agreed that the north could rejoin the EU if it voted for Irish unity Enda Kenny said the decision was “not about triggering any mechanism”. He added: “The conditions for a referendum do not currently exist.” He’s not even correct technically. First, Britain’s northern secretary… Read more »

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Micheál Martin

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S COALITION PLAN

Date: May 3, 2017 - Last Refuge

THERE may be some Fianna Fáil front bench members and TDs who agree with Micheál Martin’s latest strident rejection of Sinn Féin as coalition partners – delivered on the hallowed ground of Bodenstown – but very few believe he will stick to that position. Martin has repeatedly ruled out SF as coalition partners – “unfit… Read more »

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Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

Ó RÍORDÁIN NEXT LABOUR LEADER?

Date: May 3, 2017 - Last Refuge

SENATOR Aodhán Ó Ríordáin began canvassing to regain his Dáil seat within minutes of Labour’s rout at last year’s general election. He has been leafletting, door-stepping and holding public meetings in his Dublin Bay North (DBN) constituency in a frenzied campaign that indicates his agenda is greater than just a desire to return to the… Read more »

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FLANAGAN FLEES BACK TO FOLD

Date: May 3, 2017 - Last Refuge

FORMER Fine Gael TD Terence Flanagan has slipped back into the party after his defection to Renua, Lucinda Creighton’s failed attempt to re-create the Desocrats in the 1980s. Terence fared badly as a Renua candidate at last year’s general election, polling just 4.4% or 3,205 first preferences and coming in 12th out of 20 candidates… Read more »

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CABINET DIVIDE ON PALESTINE

Date: May 3, 2017 - Last Refuge

THE next cabinet row between the Independent Alliance and Fine Gael could see Shane Ross don a Palestinian scarf and do battle with such as foreign minister Charlie Flanagan, Enda Kenny and others in FG over recognition of a Palestinian state. Six long years ago Labour’s then leader and foreign minister, Eamon Gilmore, boldly declared… Read more »

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DANA: ALL KINDS OF LITIGATION

Date: May 3, 2017 - Fit to Print?

DANA’S brother, John Brown, was acquitted in 2014 in a UK court of all charges of indecently assaulting two underage girls, but he and Dana have since initiated a tsunami of libel actions against the media for coverage of the case. The possibility exists of damages and legal costs running into seven figures. In all,… Read more »

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NEWSTALK SHY ABOUT RATINGS

Date: May 3, 2017 - Fit to Print?

DENIS O’BRIEN’S Irish Independent boasted three months ago that Denis O’Brien’s Newstalk programmes, Newstalk Breakfast and Newstalk Drive, had produced “significant” increases in the quarterly ratings. This, according to the Indo, was due to the “seismic reshuffle” in programming schedules. That reshuffle was down to chief executive Tim Collins whose own reshuffle out of the… Read more »

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Anton Savage’s PR

Date: May 3, 2017 - Fit to Print?

THE Irish Sun gave Anton Savage a much needed boost by reporting that the ex-Today FM programmer could be on the verge of a TV break through following his exit from the radio station. (Actually, they quoted Anton as saying he had received more overtures – unspecified – from TV than from radio). But more… Read more »

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Garry Hynes

Date: May 3, 2017 - Pillars of Society

WITH THE recent exit of Michael Colgan as artistic director of the Gate Theatre after 33 years attracting oodles of media attention, it is timely to note that another Irish artistic director has effectively been in situ for over 40 years. Garry Hynes, probably the most important player in theatre here, is the undisputed queen… Read more »

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SEAWEED SECRECY

Date: May 3, 2017 - Fowl Emissions

THE ADVERTISING gurus who market Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way will soon be able to supplement the romantic imagery of rugged coastline, dolphins and pony-riding with dramatic footage of giant robots tearing thousands of tonnes of seaweed from our pristine bays. Plans by Tralee firm BioAtlantis to bring submersible machines into Bantry Bay later this month… Read more »

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Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: May 3, 2017 - Bog Cuttings

‘About 90% of them are on drugs’ A SOLICITOR has told Ballyshannon District Court that about 90% of people who attended the Sea Sessions Festival in Bundoran were probably taking drugs. Solicitor Gerry McGovern made the claim in relation to his client, Jonathan O’Neill of Kilclare Drive, Tallaght, who admitted having 28 ecstasy tablets during… Read more »

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Keith Mahon

Date: May 3, 2017 - The Young Bloods

IN JUST a short few years, director of TheTaste.ie Keith Mahon has made himself a fixture in the Irish food media landscape. In the middle of a restaurant and hospitality boom, Mahon and his glamorous wife, Jules, seem to have come up with a winning formula, combining food-related articles on their website with competitions and… Read more »

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David Davies

DAVID DAVIES’S IRISH HOME

Date: May 3, 2017 - High Society

THE LAUNCH last month of the glossy coffee table book Abbeyleix – An Irish Home and its Demesne (by Wiliam Laffan) took place in Trinity College and was attended by, among others, Tom Vesey, 7th Viscount De Vesci, who had owned Abbeyleix House in Co Laois, before it was picked up by David Davies back… Read more »

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PUBLIC LOLLY FOR DANIELLE RYAN

Date: May 3, 2017 - High Society

WHILE THE plans of Danielle Ryan to establish a luxury brands group continue to suck up funds from her overflowing coffers, the good news for Tony Ryan’s granddaughter is that the taxpayer is having to cough up a fair few bob for her film venture. The list of Irish Film Board (IFB) offers for the… Read more »

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CIARÁN MURRAY’S MERRION MANSION

Date: May 3, 2017 - High Society

LAST WEEK, The Irish Times reported that a house in the exclusive Ailesbury Wood development in Dublin 4 had been acquired by Ciarán Murray (former head honcho at pharmaceutical giant, Icon) and his wife Denise Ronan. It appears the couple have bought this house (for… Read more »

NOTORIOUS – JACK SLACK (JOHN BLAKE)

Date: May 3, 2017 - BooksReviews

WE CAN’T seem to get enough of Conor McGregor. Books, newspaper articles, TV documentaries, merchandise, and billions in pay-per-view dollars. The Crumlin mixed martial artist has had a rocket-fuelled rise to success,but just who is he? This book is not the place to start. Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor is written by… Read more »

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MAZ & BRICKS – PROJECT ARTS CENTRE

Date: May 3, 2017 - ReviewsTheatre

SET as a home for counter-cultural voices 50 years ago, Project Arts Centre made its mark when tones of dissent and difference were very unwelcome on Dublin stages. And it has recently been trying to reconnect with its roots. Project is still the only venue brave (or foolish) enough to put on an annual festival… Read more »

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A LINE MADE BY WALKING – SARA BAUME (HEINEMANN)

Date: May 3, 2017 - BooksReviews

SINCE HER widely acclaimed 2015 debut, Spill Simmer Falter Wither, expectations have been high for Sara Baume’s second novel. In her follow-up, the Cork-based writer continues to explore the uncertain lives of vulnerable outsiders. As before, she largely discards narrative to concentrate on a powerful examination of human frailty. The story focuses on Frankie, a… Read more »

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