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SO FAREWELL then to Relationships Ireland (RI), which has just filed the resolution to wind itself up and appoint the ubiquitous Kieran Wallace as liquidator – 33 years after it was established as a marriage and relationships counselling services aimed at non Catholic couples and also their teenage children. According to the filing, the company,… Read more »

WHEN he finally got around to visiting Blacksod last Monday – a full week after the loss of outsourced helicopter 116 and its four crew members – the Minister for Defence intoned the following soundbite with all the unction for which he is renowned: “What we need now to find out here is what happened…. Read more »

NEXT MONTH, Judge Tom O’Donnell delivers his sentence in the high profile case relating to the collapse of a lift at the Killarney Plaza Hotel in 2011 that seriously injured five members of the same family. The good news for Goldhawk’s old friend, John Joseph Brennan – whose company Ellickson Engineering was found guilty –… Read more »

THE STATE’S timing of its presentation of the French extradition warrant to bring Ian Bailey to Paris on the charge of murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier is most interesting. It has come at a time when Bailey has a raft of his own legal actions pending even though the warrant has been with the justice… Read more »

THE WAKING The Feminists lobby has generated plenty of fallout over the last year (with Garry Hynes of Druid Theatre the latest to come under fire) but there has been little comment on the decision of arts minister Heather Humphreys to appoint a new board of directors at the Irish Film Board (IFB) that has… Read more »

WITH THE 21-day High Court case involving Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) Helen Dixon, Facebook Ireland and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems now concluded, Judge Caroline Costello has reserved her judgment. There is also the small matter of costs and an affidavit filed in the proceedings sheds some light on Schrems’s claim for the taxpayer to… Read more »

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Far Left) THE vicarious grand standing of Irish liberals still engaged in competitive outrage at US president Donald Trump – under the slogan, Irish Stand – produced something of a flop on Paddy’s Day in Manhattan. But Labour senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin did at least acquire some publicity in his long march… Read more »

FORMER JUSTICE minister Alan Shatter turned up at Trinity College Dublin last week to launch a provocative book by two feminist academics – Feminism, Prostitution and the State – which is very critical of recent legislation pushed through by Shatter’s successor, Frances Fitzgerald. No wonder he was happy to do the honours. At the end… Read more »

A THUNDERING statement from Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghail in January threatened that millions of euro worth of business with Egypt would be blocked unless the near four-year detention and so-called trial of Ibrahim Halawa were satisfactorily concluded. This bellicose language came on the eve of a January visit to Egypt by a cross party… Read more »

A RULING from An Bord Pleanála has just granted something called “substitute consent” for a planning development that had previously been deemed by the courts to be unauthorised. This could feature in an upcoming Supreme Court hearing into the matter next week. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 25/3/16) that developer Len Draper found… Read more »