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Tommy-Tiernan

THE TOMMY TIERNAN SHOW – RTÉ ONE

Date: January 12, 2017 - Reviews

AT THE start of this new six-part series, the sometimes controversial Tommy Tiernan introduced his one-hour chat show by explaining that neither he himself, the studio audience nor the viewers knew who the guests would be until they walked out on stage – “What can possibly go wrong?” Presumably, RTÉ bosses hope that Tommy can… Read more »

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Martina Moloney LHS

CONFLICTS AT THE ARTS COUNCIL

Date: January 12, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

A LITTLE late in the day, arts minister Heather Humphreys managed to make appointments to the Arts Council board just before Christmas where there were six vacancies by the time she got around to acting – some had been unfilled since February last year. Unfortunately, the lack of urgency didn’t prevent something of a cock-up… Read more »

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CHILD’S PLAY AT THE BAI

Date: January 12, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

HOT ON the heels of the move by Dee Forbes (D4 as she’s known in Montrose) to disband the in-house children’s programme unit at RTÉ there was little enough Christmas cheer for the sector in the latest round of Sound & Vision funding for ‘independent’ producers from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). Just two… Read more »

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bryan-cooper

ONE jockey’S LOSS IS ANOTHER’S GAIN

Date: January 12, 2017 - Sport of Kings

SPARE A thought for Bryan Cooper whose rollercoaster season continued when he fractured his pelvis in a fall at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve. But Cooper’s bad luck proved a bonus for his stablemate Jack Kennedy. Michael O’Leary’s retained jockey had a torrid time with injuries in 2016, a year that saw him break his… Read more »

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Pat_Cosgrave

COSGRAVE PAYS UP EVENTUALLY

Date: January 12, 2017 - Sport of Kings

THOUGH JUMPS action is taking centre stage in Ireland and England at the moment, over in Dubai the annual Dubai World Cup Carnival is well under way. It’s a lucrative occasion for plenty of jockeys and trainers and British based Irish jockey Patsy Cosgrave is making his first visit back to the Emirates since getting… Read more »

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paul-hensey

Paul Hensey’s exit

Date: January 12, 2017 - Sport of Kings

PAUL HENSEY has decided to move on from his role at The Curragh, having spent the last 14 years in charge at the home of the Classics. Clearly too many chefs spoil the broth. The hugely experienced Hensey’s decision hasn’t come as a surprise, given that his position at the Curragh was effectively downgraded from… Read more »

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RICCI’S RICH VEIN OF FORM

Date: January 12, 2017 - Sport of Kings

FLAMBOYANT ex-Barclays banker Rich Ricci enjoyed the sort of Christmas results that should keep his trainer, Willie Mullins, in the good books, at least until Cheltenham in March. Mullins ran 15 horses for Ricci and his wife, Susannah, over the four days at Leopardstown and Limerick and those 15 runners yielded a whopping 10 winners… Read more »

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David McCann

Fyffes shareholders betting on a takeover battle

Date: January 12, 2017 - Moneybags

THERE ARE peculiar aspects to the €751m (€2.23 a share) recommended takeover of Fyffes by the giant E12bn capitalised Japanese Sumitomo group. While both companies operate in the tropical fruit business, there is absolutely no overlap between their trades. Sumitomo operates only in the Pacific Far East, mainly shipping bananas from the Philippines to Japan,… Read more »

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Tony Richardson, CEO of Venn Life Sciences

Venn Life Sciences profit prescription

Date: January 12, 2017 - Moneybags

FROM 1996 to 2004, Tony Richardson ran Alltracel, the small Irish pharmaceutical company that specialised in the development and marketing of an innovative first aid blood coagulant. For the last seven years, he has been building, effectively from the ground up, a clinical research organisation called Venn Life Sciences. With a beefed up board and… Read more »

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tom-mcenany

Tom McEnaney’s business partner

Date: January 12, 2017 - Briefcases

GOLDHAWK noticed that former journalist Tom McEnaney has applied to the High Court to strike his media consultancy firm off the companies register. McEnaney was the business editor of the Irish Independent from 2005 to 2008 after which he regularly penned columns for the paper and the Irish Daily Mail before founding his own consultancy… Read more »

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Rudi-Butler-LHS

Rudi Butler Wins Big

Date: January 12, 2017 - Briefcases

Rudi Butler (Far Left) CONGRATULATIONS are in order to 29-year-old wunderkind developer Rudi Butler who just before Christmas was granted planning permission for his €40m office development in the heart of Limerick City. Butler will be familiar to regular readers of these pages as the son of developer Robert Butler who owned a substantial portfolio… Read more »

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Frank-Walsh

Wind farm directors up in the air

Date: January 12, 2017 - Briefcases

THERE was some good news last week when the Revenue announced a 46% surge in investments made through the government’s Employment Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS) last year. But the positive numbers won’t provide any solace for a group of shareholders who invested in an interesting little company called Sunflower Design Ltd through the Business Expansion… Read more »

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Mary-Irvine

Maureen Curran’s bad day in court

Date: January 12, 2017 - Briefcases

Judge Mary Irvine (Above) SPARE a thought for 81-year-old Maureen Curran who had a rough day in the Four Goldmines in December when she was denied an appeal against a €1m High Court judgment. The story was reported in the Irish Times but some interesting detail from the judgment was left out of the report…. Read more »

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leo-sherlock

Leo Sherlock’s legal woes

Date: January 12, 2017 - Briefcases

GOLDHAWK’S old pal Leo Sherlock just can’t catch a break. After months of being pilloried on social media by journalists who claimed that his right-wing news website The Liberal.ie had been plagiarising their work, the Louth native might have a day in court very soon. In August 2016, Goldhawk reported that CCC Nuacht, a court… Read more »

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Paudie Coffey

Senator Paudie’s protests

Date: January 12, 2017 - Briefcases

IT WAS interesting to see Fine Gael senator Paudie Coffey proudly proclaim before Christmas that Fine Gael is not the party of the landlord. The Irish Times reported that during the Seanad debate on the Planning and Residential Tenancies Bill, the Waterford-based senator said his party had been charged with being the landlords’ party but… Read more »

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vol34no24

Vol. 34 No. 24

Date: December 15, 2016 -

December 16 – January 12, 2017

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Shane Ross

DEFENCE POLICY AND NEUTRALITY

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

NO rational explanation was offered as to why Shane Ross’s Independent Alliance caved in to Fine Gael over a free vote on a pro-neutrality motion from Sinn Féin last month. A tenet of the agreement between the Alliance and FG is that free votes are allowed on issues that are not mentioned in the Programme… Read more »

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Pope Francis

PAPAL VISIT: IRISH SCHISM

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

LIKE Julius Caesar’s tripartite division of Gaul, the Ireland that Pope Francis will encounter in August 2018, when he attends the world conference of families in Dublin, will divide into three separate units. To the fore will be the ‘official’ Irish Catholic Church marshalled by the Bishops and those clergy and laity working through diocesan… Read more »

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Robert Pitt

THE MAN WHO STOOD UP TO DENIS O’BRIEN

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

THE SOAP OPERA playing out at Independent News and Media (INM) between the group’s chief executive – former Tesco and Lidl suit, Robert Pitt – and the chairman, Leslie Buckley (Denis O’Brien’s trusted lieutenant), makes for entertaining viewing. With Dinny eager to offload his Newstalk radio station, Pitt threw a spanner in the works and… Read more »

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Padraig-O-Ceidigh

PÁDRAIG Ó CÉIDIGH’S CONTRACTS

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

WITH THE Oireachtas committee on water charges kicking off its deliberations this week, it is set to be a very busy time for airline executive, nursing home operator and home care services provider, Pádraig Ó Céidigh. As committee chairman, he will be the central player during the sensitive and inevitably heated deliberations but where will… Read more »

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Patrick-mcKee

McKEE’S POLITICAL ODYSSEY

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

THE return of Kilkenny defector, Cllr Pat McKee, to a resurgent Fianna Fáil is not guaranteed given his promiscuous party couplings in the last two years. As well, the agenda of TD, John McGuinness and his son, Cllr Andrew McGuinness, means that McKee will hardly receive their endorsement, regardless of the diplomatic noises from that… Read more »

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Patrick Predergast

TCD’S ISRAELI CONNECTIONS

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

IN AN attempt to inject some balance into the Israel-Palestine debate, the fair-minded people at Trinity College’s chaplaincy are organising a “staff peace pilgrimage” to the Holy Land in June 2017. Methodist chaplain Julian ‘Jools’ Hamilton is the contact for the trip, which encourages staff to visit the region “because you know there are two… Read more »

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A RACING UNCERTAINTY

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

A CASE that would have thrown up some rather interesting details about the sort of compensation paid out to top racehorse trainers and owners by a New Ross feed company has been quietly settled. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 3/12/04) that panic broke out in racing circles in 2002 after a batch of… Read more »

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Alan Farrell

A LA CARTE DÁIL PRIVILEGE

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

DENIS O’BRIEN must be horrified at the behaviour of his employees at the Irish and Sunday Independent in their pursuit of Gerry Adams over the IRA’s killing of prison officer, Brian Stack. His journalists have endorsed with almost hysterical fervour the use of Dáil privilege to further the interests of various parties against Sinn Féin,… Read more »

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DAVE BREEN’S SUNSHINE

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

INTERESTING TO see a company called Solar Secure Investments Ltd falling foul of the Revenue earlier this month when it was convicted for failing to lodge Corporation Tax returns and fined €2,000. This looks like rather small beer for a business that once set out to raise a cool €20m from Irish investors for a… Read more »

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29/5/2016 Launch of Composing the Island. Pictured are, from left, Simon Taylor CEO of the National Concert Hall, Moya Doherty Chair of the RTE Board and John Horgan Chairman of Bord na Mona in front of the National Concert Hall at the launch of Composing the Island: A century of music in Ireland 1916-2016 taking place from September 7-25, with over 29 concerts being presented of orchestral, choral, instrumental, song and chamber music by Irish composers written between 1916 and 2016. www.nch.ie Photograph: Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: December 14, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

“The rethinking of what employment might mean in a 21st Century economy dominated by artificial intelligence…” RTÉ chair Moya Doherty with a new take on redundancies, Irish Times “Read More: At least 11 dead and 45 injured in massive hotel fire. So tragic.” Link in an RSVP.ie article about Brian O’Driscoll’s new house “I’ve earned… Read more »

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Arlene Foster

ARLENE SPLASHES THE (C)ASH

Date: December 14, 2016 - Bird's Eye View

THEY call it the ‘cash for ash fiasco’ or as one assembly member put it, ‘a squander made in Stormont’. It’s going to cost the north €1.4 billion over the next twenty years, half a billion of which Stormont is going to have to find. Officially it was the Renewable Heating Incentive scheme or RHI…. Read more »

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Michael McGrath(right)

BERTIE’S COME BACK DEAD IN THE WATER

Date: December 14, 2016 - Bird's Eye View

THE interminable factionalising of Bertie’s Good Old Boys (BeGOBs) in trying to resurrect the glory days were given the kiss of death by his chief lieutenant, Chris Wall last week. Wall told The Irish Times that Micheál Martin was “the worst minister for health we ever had”, adding, “maybe it’s time for him to move… Read more »

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Jim O'Callaghan

O’CALLAGHAN’S LEGAL BRAIN

Date: December 14, 2016 - Last Refuge

FIANNA FÁIL’S increased poll ratings may or may not have something to do with the party’s new, more responsible (rightward) turn on various issues. But Micheál Martin appears to be increasingly reliant on justice spokesperson, barrister Jim O’Callaghan, whose legalistic view of politics has led the party away from the left-wing programme that revived the… Read more »

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Regina Doherty

REGINA’S SOFT SPOT

Date: December 14, 2016 - Last Refuge

IS government chief whip, Regina Doherty, a secret admirer of Fidel Castro? Did the teenage Regina have a Che Guevara poster in her bedroom? Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were united in their opposition to Dáil time being set aside for statements on the late Cuban leader, last month – eventually – but Doherty’s initial… Read more »

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Catherine-Byrne

CATHERINE BYRNE’S MEMBERS REVOLT

Date: December 14, 2016 - Last Refuge

CATHERINE BYRNE is a loyal, supine supporter of Enda Kenny which qualities earned her the position as minister of state for communities and drugs. But neither Fine Gael HQ nor many members of Byrne’s Dublin South-Central (DSC) organisation share Enda’s estimation of the rare auld Dub who will likely lose her seat at the next… Read more »

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RTÉ SPOIL SPORTS

Date: December 14, 2016 - Fit to Print?

RTÉ Board chairwoman, Moya Doherty told Irish Times readers last weekend that the public will get the media it pays for under a headline, “RTÉ’s financial model must be reviewed”. Moya was rowing in behind director general Dee Forbes’ campaign for more public revenue to bail out the station. But one part of the plan… Read more »

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Declan-Kelly

DECLAN KELLY’S ENEMIES

Date: December 14, 2016 - Fit to Print?

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT hack, Maeve Sheehan did quite a hatchet job recently on transatlantic PR supremo, Declan Kelly, brother of Labour TD, Alan Kelly. Sheehan described Kelly’s “naked ambition” (an anonymous source) and someone that has “made powerful friends – and powerful enemies”. But despite the many links and encounters between Kelly and various Irish-American heavy… Read more »

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GAA’S SOUR NOTE

Date: December 14, 2016 - Fit to Print?

GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghaíl did not shoot his mouth off without any PR preparation when advocating that the organisation abandon the Irish flag and national anthem. Ó Fearghaíl ‘s statement – made, significantly, from an All Stars visit to the Gulf – was not made out of the blue. The Irish Independent reacted a… Read more »

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Denis Naughten

Denis Naughten

Date: December 14, 2016 - Pillars of Society

Once regarded as a potential leader of Fine Gael, then expelled from the party five years ago, Denis Naughten has managed to claw his way into cabinet as an Independent. Naughten is heading towards reconciliation with FG but as an Independent he can hardly bid for the leadership in the near future. However, at just… Read more »

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Mary Robinson

TCD GOES WITH THE FLOW

Date: December 14, 2016 - Fowl Emissions

WHEN a student society at Trinity College declared last month it was “standing in solidarity” with Native American protestors blocking an oil pipeline in North Dakota, it may have sounded like the kind of worthy but symbolic action students are great at. In fact, the protest by Fossil Free TCD exposed an €88,000 investment by… Read more »

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