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Michael Semple ‘fights the right’

Date: June 15, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

INTERESTING to see “our man in Kabul” Michael Semple pop up last weekend as a speaker at Labour Youth’s Tom Johnson Summer School. The ex-“political officer” for the British Foreign Office addressed activists during a panel discussion along with former foreign affairs minister Eamon Gilmore on, The International Fight Against the Right. Unfortunately, no recordings… Read more »

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Letters to the Editor

Date: June 15, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

Dear Goldhawk, Prime Time and Claire Byrne Live have never presented climate change as a 50:50 debate as you falsely claimed in your last edition. All of our debates on the subject have started from the premise that climate change is real, is a very serious threat, and is overwhelmingly man-made as stated by the… Read more »

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PADDY DUNNING WAXES LYRICAL

Date: June 15, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

MR TEMPLE BAR, Paddy Dunning, has seen a number of his businesses struggle in recent years, so he must have been delighted with the plug for his National Waxwork Museum Plus in the Sunday Business Post earlier this month. The bad news continues to mount elsewhere, however. The National Wax Museum in Dublin was previously… Read more »

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Scouting Ireland

Scouts’ Honour Impugned

Date: June 15, 2017 - Affairs of the Nation

ALLEGATIONS of poor governance and control of finances have struck yet another voluntary organisation and the dogs of legal war have been let slip within that most innocent of organisations, Scouting Ireland (SI). Two scout masters, Anthony McNamee and Brian Doyle, have taken separate actions in the Dublin Circuit Court demanding an apology and damages… Read more »

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The Hot Air Bridage

Date: June 15, 2017 - The Hot Air Brigade

We really haven’t seen anything like Leo Varadkar in Irish politics, ever. He’s a sensation… a superstar… full of charisma… He’s got the X-Factor. He’s super cool and he’s confident and he’s trendy and he breaks all the stereotypical modes that we’re used to. Fianna Fáil just don’t quite know how to handle him. Ursula… Read more »

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LEO VARADKAR AND THE DUP

Date: June 15, 2017 - Bird's Eye View

RAY BASSET, former joint secretary of the British-Irish secretariat in Belfast, earlier this week welcomed Leo Varadkar’s commitment to “re-engage with the north”, an admission that the government hasn’t engaged in recent years. A classic example of this detachment came last weekend as news emerged of a confidence and supply deal between the Tories and… Read more »

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WHAT IS MICHEÁL MARTIN’S STRATEGY?

Date: June 15, 2017 - Last Refuge

WHAT strategy will Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin adopt in the face of new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s supposedly revitalised Fine Gael? Up until now it has been a slow burning, stealthy approach based on the calculation that sooner or later the polls will reveal deep blue water between the parties with FF forging ahead and… Read more »

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HOWLIN’S UK LABOUR COMRADES

Date: June 15, 2017 - Last Refuge

HOW heartening to see Labour leader Brendan Howlin’s solidarity with his British counterpart Jeremy Corbyn’s election campaign as Brendan joined his comrades on the campaign trail in London shortly before election day. And Howlin shared in the golden afterglow of Corbyn’s success, tweeting: “Congrats to all our friends in UK Labour. Expectations confounded – a… Read more »

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OLYWN ENRIGHT BACK IN FOCUS

Date: June 15, 2017 - Last Refuge

A FINE Gael starlet from the past, former Laois-Offaly TD Olwyn Enright, returned with a vengeance in the FG leadership contest and her prominence on Team Varadkar helps to explain anticipation of the promotional prospects of another TD, Donegal’s Joe McHugh – Olwyn’s hubby. Olwyn’s film star looks may have gulled sexist political opponents into… Read more »

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WILL MICHAEL McDOWELL RETURN TO THE HUSTINGS?

Date: June 15, 2017 - Last Refuge

WHILE THE Irish and Sunday Independent continue to depict Kate O’Connell as a political Boadicea set to scale the political heights, there are movements in Dublin Bay South that Kate should beware of. For some years now Michael McDowell, former PD leader and justice minister and currently a senator has been gagging for a return… Read more »

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INM’S ‘NO’ TO CELTIC MEDIA

Date: June 15, 2017 - Fit to Print?

THE “mutual” decision by INM and Celtic Media Group to go forward “on a separate footing”, thus ending the proposed INM buy-out of Celtic Media, was anything but mutual. It is true as reported that INM baulked at the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) condition that 24 Celtic Media journalists be retained indefinitely. And the… Read more »

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Noel Whelan’s U-turn

Date: June 15, 2017 - Fit to Print?

WHAT a perceptive student of British politics Irish Times columnist Noel Whelan is. Just days before the UK general election Whelan pointed out that British Tories and media supporters, helped by Blairite Labour MPs, had created a false image of Jeremy Corbyn which they hoped would destroy Labour’s election campaign. But Whelan wrote, Corbyn “proved… Read more »

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‘IRISH TIMES’ AFGHAN WARRIOR

Date: June 15, 2017 - Fit to Print?

WHY does the Irish media continue to present military commentators to the public as if they were detached observers in violent conflicts across the globe? Ex-Royal Irish Rangers Captain Patrick Bury was described simply as a “security expert” in an RTÉ interview about the London jihadists’ killing rampage last week. And Bury also explained to… Read more »

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Ailbhe Smyth

Date: June 15, 2017 - Pillars of Society

THE archetypal feminist in today’s Ireland is a Labour or Fine Gael supporting, middle class professional with aggressive secularist leanings. This brand of feminist does not have much time for militant trade unionism or socialism and no time at all for republicanism. Retired academic Ailbhe Smyth does not fall into this category but her current… Read more »

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DUP’S GLOBAL CHILLING

Date: June 15, 2017 - Fowl Emissions

NORTHERN Irish politics doesn’t produce many laughs. One of the better ones involved the Democratic Unionist Party’s Sammy Wilson, when interviewed in Belfast by comedian Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen). “So, is you Irish?”, Wilson was asked. “No, I am British,” he said. “So, is you here on holiday?”, Ali G flashed back. Still not… Read more »

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Niall O’Connor

Date: June 15, 2017 - The Young Bloods

THERE’S a new breed of journalist on the block – young, brash, assertive and ever so opinionated. A breed for whom opinions are sacrosanct (so long as they conform to those of the powers that be) while facts have to be carefully sifted. Ireland’s largest newspaper group, Independent News and Media (INM), is the leading… Read more »

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JOHN CUNNINGHAM BACKS IMMA

Date: June 15, 2017 - High Society

THERE WAS good news for Sarah Glennie et al at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) last month when the director was able to announce that a private fundraising effort over the last year had landed €120,000, with more to come from the Department of Arts. One of those tapped was the London-based Eighty… Read more »

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HOLLY WHITE’S NUTTY HUBBY

Date: June 15, 2017 - High Society

LAST MONTH at Mount Juliet Hotel, TV presenter, stylist, blogger and general ‘It’ girl Holly White celebrated her marriage to Kildare moneybags Andrew Wynne. The wedding was attended by assorted high-flyers, including former Miss Ireland-turned model boss Andrea Roche, who is sister-in-law to Holly having married her brother, Rob White, in a lavish ceremony in… Read more »

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HOUSE OF NAMES – COLM TÓIBÍN (VIKING)

Date: June 15, 2017 - BooksReviews

IN HIS successful 2012 novel, The Testament of Mary, Colm Tóibín imagined the mother of Jesus struggling to accept her son’s divinity. The Enniscorthy author’s latest book centres on another maternal archetype, Clytemnestra, who narrates the first section of the classic story of murder and long-delayed family revenge. Her opening line sets the chilling tone:… Read more »

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MINDING FRANKIE – GAIETY THEATRE

Date: June 15, 2017 - ReviewsTheatre

THEATRE IMPRESARIO Breda Cashe knows, better than most, how to tap into Irish punters’ desire for cheap, feel-good stories. With this saccharine version of a Maeve Binchy novel, she’s done it again. But that doesn’t make it right. After a regional tour last autumn, it came back to two of the biggest houses in the… Read more »

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PAULA – RTÉ ONE

Date: June 15, 2017 - ReviewsTV

ONE OF the better series delivered to RTÉ viewers ended its run last week and many of those who enjoyed the three chilling episodes may have been left with the impression that this was a homegrown production. But, as is often the case with Montrose, it was another one that got away. First off, this… Read more »

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NIAMH BRENNAN’S RETICENCE

Date: June 15, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

AN UPCOMING meeting of the Niamh Brennan-chaired board of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) will need to make a decision on the long-fingered offer of funding from the Department of Arts for the relocation of the college’s National Visual Arts Library (NIVAL). If not, the public funds will be going elsewhere. NIVAL… Read more »

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Quietly Does It

Date: June 15, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

RECORDS ARE thin on the ground on recent developments in the arts world, involving the Abbey Theatre and the Arts Council. In the case of the former, fans of Goldhawk will be familiar with the strange sequence of events that led to Frances Ruane’s appointment as chair of the theatre board (see The Phoenix 5/5/15)…. Read more »

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Tom Higgins’s Art Collection

Date: June 15, 2017 - High Society

WOULD-BE space cadet and former Irish Psychics Live phoneline operator Tom Higgins has reinvented himself in recent years as a art dealer of sorts. This has yet to pay off, while the race to space race remains very much on terra firma. Higgins and his wife, Therese Dunne, have long since quit operating premium-rate phonelines,… Read more »

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THE TAXMAN COMETH TO FILM LUVVIES

Date: June 15, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

THE REVENUE Commissioner has just published this year’s first quarter list of beneficiaries of the Section 481 tax wheeze beneficiaries. Although termed a tax credit scheme, it is, as fans of Goldhawk are aware, merely a list of cheque recipients of unspecified amounts within broad ranges. But it looks like things are getting a little… Read more »

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ELLIOTT’S NEW GAME

Date: June 15, 2017 - Sport of Kings

NOT CONTENT with equalling the record for the number of jumps winners trained in a season, Gordon Elliott has set his sights on the flat trainers’ division. The Meath maestro recently trained his 1,000th winner since starting out just over a decade ago and he has made quite a start with the first batch of… Read more »

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Sheikh Fahad Al Thani

AL THANI’S HYDROGEN PROBLEM

Date: June 15, 2017 - Sport of Kings

WHEN SHEIKH Fahad Al Thani forked out the sale-topping sum of 2.5m guineas for a Galileo yearling half-brother to Epsom Derby winner Authorized at Tattersalls in 2012 he would have been forgiven for dreaming of future derby success and a lucrative stallion career with the handsome colt. Fast-forward five years and the horse, subsequently named… Read more »

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BOLGER’S BARK

Date: June 15, 2017 - Sport of Kings

JIM BOLGER has never been a man to mince his words and he didn’t hold back recently when describing Pat Smullen’s performance in the saddle as a “disgraceful bit of riding”. The world class Smullen was aboard Rehana for the Aga Khan in the Irish 1000 Guineas at the Curragh when, in the race’s early… Read more »

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Irish Judges Dubai

HEAVY GOING AT GODOLPHIN

Date: June 15, 2017 - Sport of Kings

THE GODOLPHIN racing and breeding operation of Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum has been playing second fiddle to John Magnier’s Coolmore and Ballydoyle enterprises for the past decade and it appears Godolphin won’t be challenging for supremacy anytime soon, judging by the disarray it finds itself in. John Ferguson resigned as chief executive last week after… Read more »

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Some clean up at Cairn Homes

Date: June 15, 2017 - Moneybags

CAIRN HOMES has pulled off quite a coup by landing the coveted RTÉ site in Dublin 4. This is good news for Mick and Kevin Stanley and their Scottish mentor, Alan McIntosh, who are already set to share in a €50m payout this year on top of a €23m bonus scooped last year. Moreover, this… Read more »

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Ryan ensures super growth rating for ABF

Date: June 15, 2017 - Moneybags

IT IS hard to overstate the scale of the legacy Arthur Ryan created with the Penneys/Primark retailing phenomenon that started life in Dublin’s Mary Street. While running the successful retail operation inside the giant Associated British Foods (ABF) group, Ryan didn’t need to push himself into the public eye and famously never gave an interview… Read more »

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More medical trouble for Houlihan Cushnahan

More medical trouble for Houlihan Cushnahan

Date: June 15, 2017 - Briefcases

INTERESTING to see Dublin accountancy firm Houlihan Cushnahan facing down the barrel of a “class action-type” lawsuit from over 20 medical consultants. The medics allege the Glasthule firm was professionally negligent when it gave them advice on income tax that led to them being slapped with penalties costing millions of euro, but just who are… Read more »

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Scruffy’s set for the scrap heap?

Date: June 15, 2017 - Briefcases

LIAM Collins had a rather nostalgic article in the Sindo last weekend about once-popular Dublin 2 pub Scruffy Murphy’s, which could be demolished to make way for an “aparthotel”. Happily absent from the piece was any mention of the man behind the proposed development or the tale of woe which led last year to the… Read more »

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Eddie Hobbs’s troubled Treatdrop

Date: June 15, 2017 - Briefcases

SPARE a thought for celebrity economist Eddie Hobbs who is so far having a year to forget with his former property company Brendan Investments making headlines for all the wrong reasons. And things don’t look much better for one of his other ventures, an e-commerce outfit called Treatdrop Ltd, where Hobbs is the largest shareholder…. Read more »

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George Elliott’s troubled waters

Date: June 15, 2017 - Briefcases

BAD news from De Braam Mineral Water Company Ltd, an interesting Co Meath operation that finally got around to filing six years of back-dated accounts with the Companies Office recently. The company’s largest shareholder is south Dublin businessman George Elliott who was sitting on accumulated losses of u2m at the end of 2015 with the… Read more »

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Andy Sweeney’s bank woes

Date: June 15, 2017 - Briefcases

SPARE a thought for Malahide businessman Andy Sweeney who has just had an eye-watering judgment for u3.3m registered against him by AIB in his latest scrap with the bank. Sweeney is listed as a director of two companies – Eldermade Ltd and Eldermade 4 Ltd – both of which AIB has put into receivership in… Read more »

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