IssueM Articles

Archives: Articles

articles

Oliver-Peyton

OLIVER PEYTON’S HUMBLE PIE

Date: December 14, 2016 - High Society

SURPRISING TO see such silence this side of the Irish Sea on the recent trials and tribulations of London restaurateur, TV personality and high society fixture, Oliver Peyton. Irishman Peyton moved from Mayo to the UK as a young man before making a name for himself in the 1980s with a string of popular trendy… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Des-Bishop-This-Is-Ireland

THIS IS IRELAND – RTÉ2

Date: December 14, 2016 - ReviewsTV

FRONTED BY stand-up comic Des Bishop, This Is Ireland has been much hyped by RTÉ as the country’s answer to The Daily Show, with the implicit suggestion that such a format is what domestic audiences have been crying out for. Despite its lofty reputation, however, the US series can often be a tiresomely predictable affair,… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Karen-McCartney-and-Donal-Gallery

THE HEIRESS – GATE THEATRE

Date: December 14, 2016 - ReviewsTheatre

HISTORICAL PERIOD dramas sport a few familiar storylines. One classic narrative features a moneyed woman in a difficult romantic situation, or a dishonest lover, who turns the tables to her advantage. The Gate is on its second such plot of the year. The first plot of this ilk, W Somerset Maugham’s Constant Wife, unfolded in… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Crime-of-Passion

CRIME OF PASSION – JOHN BOORMAN (LIBERTIES PRESS)

Date: December 14, 2016 - BooksReviews

JOHN BOORMAN’S debut novel at the age of 83 is (unsurprisingly) set in the world of movie-making. The Irish-based director of Deliverance and The General apparently chose the novel form because he lost interest in a non-fiction book he was trying to write about film-making. The story’s central character is Daniel Shaw, another respected director… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

article-default

PUNTING PADraig PEARSE

Date: December 14, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

FANS OF Goldhawk will not have been too surprised by the failure of the state to bid for the Padraig Pearse surrender letter auctioned by Adam’s earlier this month. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix Annual 2016) that when the same surrender letter first came on the market at the top of the boom… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Caroline Downey

DOWNEY STEPS DOWN

Date: December 14, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

GOOD TO see Caroline Downey, wife of promoter extraordinaire Denis Desmond and co-owner of MCD, taking the opportunity to put in a good word for singer Hozier last month. It turns out that she has plenty to sing about herself. Downey – who is well known for her charity fundraisers – was the subject of… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Neil Murray and Graham McLaren

IN AND OUT AT THE ABBEY

Date: December 14, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

THE NEW directors of the Abbey Theatre, Neil Murray and Graham McLaren, have been waiting in the wings for more than a year since their appointments were revealed in July 2015. The duo finally made their public appearance with the launch of the 2017 programme this month in a production that somewhat overshadowed Fiach MacConghail’s… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Gordon Elliott

GORDON ELLIOTT Vs WILLIE MULLINS

Date: December 14, 2016 - Sport of Kings

WITH HALF the jumps season already completed, ‘trainer title’ chat has begun to heat up with increasing numbers convinced this is Gordon Elliott’s championship to lose. However, the self-made Meath man is doing his best to play down his chances, despite his current €500,000 advantage over perennial champ, Willie Mullins. If there is a new… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

stud farm blues

Date: December 14, 2016 - Sport of Kings

THE YEOMANSTOWN Stud family team of Gay, Annette and their son, David O’Callaghan, have each pleaded guilty to possessing unauthorised animal remedies at their Naas stud, which is home to their cash machine stallion, Dark Angel (see The Phoenix 9/9/16). Action against the trio was taken by the Department of Agriculture after a department representative… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

John Mcstay pic

JOHN MCSTAY’S STUD FEES

Date: December 14, 2016 - Sport of Kings

THERE IS an interesting figure buried in the 2015 accounts that have just been filed by the Irish National Stud (INS). In a note, it is revealed that the INS earned income of €4.5m “from syndicates in which a company connected with the company secretary has interests”. This essentially relates to the income generated by… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

article-default

TOM TAAFFE’S COMEBACK

Date: December 14, 2016 - Sport of Kings

FORTUNES RISE and fall all the time and despite all the despondency coming from trainers’ camps these days, they can be a pretty resilient bunch. Take Tom Taaffe for example who is hitting form but surely needs a good Christmas to see him into the new year in decent shape. It’s not all that long… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Market cools as INM soap opera turns ugly

Date: December 14, 2016 - Moneybags

THERE IS a certain logic to INM diversifying into digital media by acquiring the Newstalk radio station from the Communicorp Group. Both are mid-market news organisations and putting two such businesses together would, on the surface at least, appear to be logical, offering opportunities for synergy, and cross-promotional benefits. But Denis O’Brien’s personal interest in… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Tom O'Mahony

Opaque figures make it hard for Origin investors

Date: December 14, 2016 - Moneybags

LAST YEAR was a challenging one for Tom O’Mahony’s Origin Enterprises group. It wasn’t just that trading profits of €74m fell back to less than these were eight years ago but it was the first full year that the apron strings with its original parent, Owen Killian’s Aryzta group, were finally cut, after the latter’s… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Eamon de Valera

Winding up De Valera’s communications company

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

A CREDITORS meeting took place earlier this week to appoint a liquidator to M&C Communications Ltd, the long-suffering medical communications company owned by Irish Press PLC, where Eamon de Valera remains in situ as CEO. The proposed liquidation will bring an end to the saga of this interesting little company, which will be familiar to… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Judge-David-Keane

George Beggan goes on the counter

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

THERE was an interesting judgment in the High Court last month relating to Meath developer and farmer George Beggan, against whom Danske Bank is seeking judgment for a hefty €4.3m. While the main case rattles on, Beggan took a separate action to the High Court to amend his defence but he had a tough day… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Barry Monaghan

Developer Monaghan falls foul of vulture fund

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

SPARE a thought for developers Barry Monaghan and Michael Doyle whose company Monaco Properties Ltd has just had a receiver appointed to it by US vulture fund Cerberus. Tom O’Brien of Mazars was appointed receiver on foot of a 2007 charge created by Bank of Ireland and secured against a commercial development in Carlow Town… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Brendan Whoriskey’s tax troubles

Brendan Whoriskey’s tax troubles

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

SPARE a thought for Donegal publican Brendan Whoriskey who just can’t catch a break from the taxman. Whoriskey owns and operates the Traveller’s Rest pub in Cashelard near Ballyshannon and he had a judgment for €155,000 registered against him by the Revenue in November. The pub made headlines in 1998 when, in a speech to… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

David Downes

Early Christmas present for tax defaulters

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

GOLDHAWK spotted a couple of interesting professionals on the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters, some of who have had their share of headaches in recent years. Michael Curneen, a solicitor with an address in Cabinteely, was fined a meagre u3,000 for failing to file income tax returns but it’s old ground for the legal… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

iad2017

A Date for Your Diary

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT’S FAIR to say that Goldhawk’s investigations would be a lot more difficult if it wasn’t for the indispensible Institute of Public Administration (IPA) diary. The IPA’s Ireland – A Directory 2017 is out now and it’s crammed with incredibly useful information and details of around 9,000 public and private sector organisations, including local authorities,… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

article-default

Millennium Park saga winds down

Date: December 14, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

AN END is finally in sight for the long-running saga of the Naas Millennium Business Park, after the pair of companies at the centre of the 2006 deal moved to wind themselves up earlier this month. Naas Millennium Park (NMP) Ltd and Osberstown Developments Ltd both appointed Patrick Horkan of KPMG as liquidator after a… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

vol34no23

Vol.34 No.23

Date: December 1, 2016 -

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

shane-ross

SHANE ROSS AND THE JUDICIARY

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

ALTHOUGH Shane Ross may appear an unlikely champion of the new politics, his stand on the judicial council is fully justified in the interests of the promised transparency and accountability in Irish public life. What has hardly been mentioned in the windstorm whipped up by media and politicians against Ross is that his demand for… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

OWEN SWAINE’S ABUSE OF PROCESS

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK’S OLD pal Galway legal eagle Owen Swaine got quite a kicking from Judge Seamus Noonan last month after the solicitor appealed a negative finding from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. A former Irish Army captain, Swaine has been in and out of trouble with the Law Society over a number of different issues in recent… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

stuart-gilhooly

STUART GILHOOLY’S HARD TACKLES

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

DUBLIN SOLICITOR Stuart Gilhooly must be a relieved man that the retrial of former footballer Ched Evans – jailed for rape in 2012 – led to a not guilty verdict. It certainly made it easier for Gilhooly to take over as president of the Law Society of Ireland, where he now has Shane Ross in… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Pádraig Ó Céidigh

PÁDRAIG Ó CÉIDIGH’S HOT SEAT

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

THE VERY busy Pádraig Ó Céidigh finds himself in the hot seat as the water charges issue returns to the fore. He has been appointed chairman of the Oireachtas committee set up to examine the report of the Kevin Duffy chaired Commission on Water Charges. Although an independent senator, he is no stranger to political… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

judge-gerard-hogan

‘UNWITTING VICTIM’ JOHN SPENCER

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

LAST MONTH’S Court of Appeal victory by Nenagh legal eagle John Spencer over Anglo Irish Bank/IBRC in relation to a 2005 investment scheme represents a damning indictment of the bank’s behaviour. Anglo got a serious bloody nose from Judge Gerard Hogan when he overturned Judge Caroline Costello’s previous dismissal of Spencer’s claim. Spencer is one… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

daily-mail

Sorry, Paddy

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

THE carefully honed Irish edition of the Daily Mail avoids the sort of paddy bashing still purveyed by sections of the British media – including its own British edition. Last Friday saw the Irish edition’s comment slot filled with a whimsical column about the joys of kite flying and petty bureaucrats banning the practice in… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

james-reilly

BATTLE CONTINUES FOR SoS VICTIMS

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

THE campaign to adequately compensate women who endured the “barbaric” practice of symphysiotomy have endured an onslaught by a most interesting alliance of The Irish Times, the Catholic think tank, the Iona Institute and professional representatives of the gynaecologists who carried out the practice. This saga began politically with the former health ministser James Reilly… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Pat Hickey

PAT HICKEY HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK’S SPIES in Brazil tell him that the €400,000 bail bond for Pat Hickey has arrived in Rio and is awaiting processing. It looks like the beleaguered temporarily-stepped-aside president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) will be back home well in time for Christmas. If so, he will get to witness first hand the… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Legal eagles’ cost

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

FRAUD SQUAD inquiries into allegations made by Kenmare solicitor Colm Murphy against Law Society members may or may not come to anything. But the mounting costs of his multiple actions against the society – for improper behaviour and other transgressions – will amount to more than a hill of beans for one side or another…. Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

WHO’LL BLINK FIRST AT INM?

Date: December 1, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

FEW TEARS will be shed among senior editorial heads at Independent News & Media (INM) if chief executive Robert Pitt is a victim of the board’s row over the proposed acquisition of Newstalk radio station. Pitt enjoyed the support of INM chairman Leslie Buckley when… Read more »

jillian-godsil

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: December 1, 2016 - The Hot Air Brigade

“I began a new chapter where I posited that a young man with a six-pack and an even longer appendage might distract me from the clamour of unwelcome thoughts through the night. Here I would become fit and loved at the same time – what an idea I craved.” Jillian Godsil attends a “three-day personal… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

martin-mcguinness

FIANNA FÁIL INVADES THE NORTH

Date: December 1, 2016 - Bird's Eye View

LAST WEEK Arlene Foster and Martin McGuinness issued a joint statement listing all the aspects of administration where they were forging ahead. It was greeted with a raspberry by commentators and ignored by the public at large. The statement revealed to all that Martin and Arlene, Marlene to irreverent bloggers in the north, couldn’t agree… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

marcella-corcoran-kennedy

BLUESHIRT BAR LOBBY(ISTS)

Date: December 1, 2016 - Last Refuge

THERE is more than one Fine Gael faction working against the Alcohol Bill being steered through the Oireachtas by junior health minster Marcella Corcoran Kennedy. Forces within and without the House are organising to neuter the bill and Corcoran Kennedy will be hoping senior cabinet members stand up to it. Media reports speak of a… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

Tom Curran IFA

TOM CURRAN STAYS PUT

Date: December 1, 2016 - Last Refuge

TWO recently announced employment decisions of great import – one agricultural, the other political – have caused no little apprehension at Fine Gaels Mount Street HQ. On the one hand, the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) announced the appointment of its new director general, Damian McDonald. The IFA also let it be known that the new… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber

On the button

Date: December 1, 2016 - Last Refuge

OUTRIGHT opposition to the recent Dublin City Council budget from People Before Profit’s three councillors as well as a blood and thunder speech from their leader, John Lyons, did not prevent next year’s budget being passed last month. But despite their trenchant opposition, the PBP revolutionaries unwittingly assisted their opponents – the ‘sell-out’ Sinn Féin… Read more »

To access this content, you must be a Phoenix subscriber.

Get access to The Phoenix online for as low as €1.50 per week. Read all the regular online only Phoenix stories AND receive the packed digital edition every fortnight (25 per year). Great value for so many inside stories!

Subscribe Now! I’m a Subscriber