IssueM Articles

Archives: Articles

articles

NO ROOM AT THE INN

Date: October 20, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

PEACE CAMPAIGNERS being blacked in the media as well as barred from hiring premises presumably because of their dangerous and subversive message of peace. Shannonwatch, led by such as retired army commandant and UN peacekeeper Ed Horgan, is a group of peace and human rights activists who hold monthly protest vigils at Shannon Airport and… 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

denis-obrien-1

Denis O’Brien’s safe haven

Date: October 20, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

LISTENERS to Denis O’Brien’s Newstalk were brought up to date on developments in Haiti last week during the breakfast news show fronted by Shane Coleman, who interviewed the chair of Digicel Haiti, Maarten Boute. Presumably, O’Brien and his lieutenant, Leslie Buckley, were delighted with the exposure given to a charity with which they are closely… 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

Mary Mitchell O’Connor

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Air Brigade

“But if I had to work with [Donald Trump], if he is the president of the US, I will absolutely work with him and I will have a working relationship.” Mary Mitchell O’Connor, Sunday Independent, Submitted by reader “This baptism in the fire and flair of Dylan’s songcraft no doubt played a role in my… 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

THERESA MAY

DUP’S EIGHT CRITICAL FOR MAY

Date: October 20, 2016 - Bird's Eye View

THERESA MAY, the British prime minister, is adamant she will deliver Brexit, “the will of the British people”, but she faces immense problems fulfilling that aim. Though most MPs now say they will honour the verdict of the referendum a huge majority in the House of Commons favours the closest possible relations with the EU…. 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

Shane Ross

SHANE ROSS’S ABORTION DEAL

Date: October 20, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

A STRANGE and little noticed U-turn by Taoiseach Enda Kenny a fortnight ago saw him tell the Dáil he was appointing – immediately – new judges to the Court of Appeal. This was followed, within hours, by the Taoiseach’s spokesman denying there were any plans to appoint new judges. Minister Shane Ross had stormed 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

mary-hanafin

FF POISED FOR FIFTY PLUS SEATS

Date: October 20, 2016 - Last Refuge

THE perceived wisdom on Fianna Fáil’s medium term strategy – Fine Gael dissidents’ paranoia notwithstanding – is that Micheál Martin will wait for at last another 18 months before pulling the plug and forcing a general election. This is because he believes the party needs to be on at least 30% in the polls which… 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

simon-coveney

VLAD AND SIMON WOO COUNCILLORS

Date: October 20, 2016 - Last Refuge

WHAT a disappointment Simon Coveney delivered to councillors at a meeting of the local authority members’ association in Bantry this month when he had to backtrack on his promise to get them a €1,000 circa pay rise. But with Fine Gael councillors holding 10% of the vote in the party’s leadership contest, Simon himself was… 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

Enda’s dynasty

Date: October 20, 2016 - Last Refuge

THERE has been a great falling out between Enda Kenny and one of his longest and most loyal party colleagues in Mayo, Castlebar neighbour Senator Paddy Burke. Burke’s reward for political services rendered was his position as Cathaoirleach of the Seanad for five years until 2016. Before that he had been Leas Cathaoirleach during 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

Rose Conway Walsh & Lisa Chambers

FEMINISTS IN FIGHT FOR MAYO

Date: October 20, 2016 - Last Refuge

AN honourable and unusual mention in Miriam Lord’s Irish Times column for Sinn Féin Seanad leader Rose Conway Walsh – “a very impressive addition to her party’s Seanad team” – marks the lady out as something special. And SF sees Walsh (49) as someone who ticks all the boxes in its drive to present Dáil… 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

TEACHERS UNION LIBELS HACK

Date: October 20, 2016 - Fit to Print?

THE alleged campaign by Galway City Tribune journalist Dara Bradley against members of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has led to a libel case and consequent apology and damages. Tribune hack Bradley was libelled by the TUI and its GMIT branch secretary Nigel Morgan, who have had 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

edward-lucas

RTÉ’S COLD WAR EXPERTS

Date: October 20, 2016 - Fit to Print?

IS RTÉ incapable of sourcing geopolitical analysts and commentators who are not seriously conflicted by vested interests in Western war games and in the US and EU arms industry? And if the station, with its resources, cannot find more objective commentators, should they not at least outline the agenda and credentials of these pundits so… 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

fitzgerald-frances

Frances Fitzgerald

Date: October 20, 2016 - Pillars of Society

NOT merely a safe pair of hands, as compared to the irascible Alan Shatter, but a potential successor to Enda Kenny was how Frances Fitzgerald was depicted shortly after her appointment as justice minister in 2014. But now poor Frances is beset by almost identical garda problems that Shatter faced just over two years ago…. 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

denis-naughten

NAUGHTEN’S CHALLENGE

Date: October 20, 2016 - Fowl Emissions

THE IRISH public could be forgiven for concluding that the term climate action has something to do with funding RTÉ. After all, since the establishment of the repackaged Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment earlier this year, the only time you’ll hear the phrase climate action uttered in public is at the end 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

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: October 20, 2016 - Bog Cuttings

‘Don’t you touch  my balls!’ A MAYO farmer was found guilty of assault after trying to bite a garda sergeant’s testicles. Seamus Murphy, of Moygownagh, was found guilty of the assault against Sgt James Murphy but acquitted of a similar charge in relation to another garda. Mr Murphy, a 40-year-old married farming contractor, was accused… 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

carroll-gerry

Gerry Carroll MLA

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Young Bloods

People Before Profit’s MLA Gerry Carroll (29) is something of a political juggernaut. Translating working class frustration with an increasingly stale-looking Sinn Féin into votes, Carroll romped home in May’s Assembly elections to take a seat from SF in their own West Belfast backyard. But how did he do it and can Carroll and Trotskyite… 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

BRONACH ROWELL’S €4M HOUSE

Date: October 20, 2016 - High Society

FOR MANY years, Bronach Rowell has been a go-to name in interior design and was behind the well-known Harriet’s House furniture stores in Dublin. However, she kept a very low profile herself and developed a reputation as something of a mystery business woman. Now she is selling up the impressive D4 pile she bought nearly… 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

CHARLES NOELL’S BLACK HOLE

Date: October 20, 2016 - High Society

THE SQUIRE of Ardbraccan House estate in Co Meath, US moneybags Charles E Noell III, has been spending lots of moolah despite Meath County Council shooting down his plan to install a lift in the expensive house. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 12/7/13) that Charles Noell bought David Maher’s splendid Ardbraccan House 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

bono-and-jordan-hewson

ALI AND BONO’S BUSINESS BLUES

Date: October 20, 2016 - High Society

THE NEWS that Jordan Hewson, daughter of Ali and Paul Hewson (aka Bono) has raised $2m for her fledgling Speakable social issues business suggests she may have a knack for business. This contrasts with mummy and daddy, whose fashion and cosmetic efforts through Nude Brands and Edun, have proved hugely costly, notably for Bernard Arnaud’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

article default

DUBLIN THEATRE FESTIVAL 2016

Date: October 20, 2016 - Theatre

WITH NO overarching theme and no headline sponsor, Willie White delivered a back-to-basics festival in his fifth year as director. Blending art forms is de rigueur; a quarter of White’s shows featured live music as a central element; nearly as many were dance performances. The international offerings dabbled in riskier territory, but the Irish work… 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

selina-cartmell

SELINA CARTMELL’S GATE GIG

Date: October 20, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

MICHAEL COLGAN may have run the Gate for 33 years, but it didn’t take too long to find his replacement. Four months after announcing his departure, the theatre unveiled director Selina Cartmell as Colgan’s successor, starting next January. But will she be rewarded as generously as her predecessor or will theatre director and #wakingthefeminists spokeswoman… 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

bono-and-ali-hewson

BONO AND THE CLINTONs

Date: October 20, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

NEWSPAPER readers can scarcely failed to have noticed the column inches generated by U2’s recent onstage attacks on Donald Trump. First, there was Bono’s “mock-debate” with the Republican presidential candidate at the iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas, follwed by the frontman’s more recent diatribe against Trump at the Dreamforce fundraiser in San Francisco. There has… 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

AND THE AWARD DOESN’T GO TO …

Date: October 20, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

BACK IN 2014, there was such a general uproar about the IFTA “shambles” on RTÉ that the national broadcaster decided enough was enough and the Irish Film Board (IFB) said it was reviewing its involvement as principal sponsor of the annual film and TV luvviethon. Celebrity abhors a vacuum, however, and those doughty dames 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

Ingrid & Markus Jooste

40 SHADES OF GREEN

Date: October 20, 2016 - Sport of Kings

THE IRISH were doing plenty of business with each other in Newmarket this month as Tattersalls held its annual bonanza – Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale, where almost £90m of horseflesh was traded over three days. A significant portion of that money is heading back across the Irish Sea and, when you look… 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

THE CARTYS CASH IN

Date: October 20, 2016 - Sport of Kings

WHILE THERE is no escaping the fact that the top echelons of the sport of thoroughbred horse breeding are dominated by the oil rich or equivalent (ie Coolmore), every now and then a shrewd horseman will get his day in the sun, just as happens at the racetrack. A case in point is Mick and… 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-ferguson

John Ferguson’s cheque book

Date: October 20, 2016 - Sport of Kings

THE COOLMORE clan weren’t the only ones flashing the cash at Newmarket. John Ferguson was spending money at a hectic pace and finished the sale as leading buyer, having dropped £13m over the three days on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum’s Godolphin operation, where Ferguson is chief executive. A collective industry sigh of relief… 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

Kevin Sexton’s problem

Date: October 20, 2016 - Sport of Kings

Following the recent news that Danny Grant is facing time out over a failed drugs test, another jockey, Kevin Sexton, will also be facing an uphill battle to rebuild his career, following news that he tested positive for cocaine during the Galway festival in July. Sexton is a former champion conditional jockey and was 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

Brian Kavanagh

A MIXED WEEK FOR BRIAN KAVANAGH

Date: October 20, 2016 - Sport of Kings

BRIAN KAVANAGH probably didn’t know whether to laugh or cry during Budget week. On one hand, he saw the Government dishing out almost €64m to Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for its 2017 activities – the largest state contribution Irish racing has ever received – while, on the other, he faced the prospect of his chairman… 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

smurfit-tony

Smurfit Kappa shares lag market average

Date: October 20, 2016 - Moneybags

GARY McGANN retired as CEO of the Smurfit Kappa group at the end of August last year after 17 years. Tony Smurfit is now in charge and he has a major job on his hands convincing the market he is the right man to lead the company and start building shareholder value. Meanwhile, the group’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

McCann-Carl

McCann property company has some value

Date: October 20, 2016 - Moneybags

THE PROPERTY arm of Fyffes – Balmoral International Land (BIL) – was launched on the Dublin Stock Exchange under the name Blackrock International Land in May 2006 as a near €400m property play. Along with individual investors and funds which dived into BIL, Fyffes’ shareholders were hit badly as Fyffes ended up with a 40%… 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-Cowman

Tax trouble won’t sink Pat Cowman

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

SPARE a thought for Belmullet businessman Pat Cowman who was named in the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters for filing incorrect VAT returns at his company, Henman Developments Ltd. Pat, who is well known in Mayo because of his links to Shell Oil and the Corrib gas field, reached a settlement with the taxman… 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

fitzpatrick-ivor

Christina O in choppy waters

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

THE high profile Dublin solicitor, Ivor Fitzpatrick, is heading for rough seas with his Sandyway Investments Ltd which is now listed for striking off the register of companies. Through Idyll Investments Ltd, Fitzpatrick owns a controlling stake in Sandyway, the outfit linked to the famous Christina O yacht. It will be recalled that Sandyway had… 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

Nicholas-OConnor

Nick O’Connor’s litany of woe

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT’S BEEN a torrid year for Wexford accountant Nicholas O’Connor who just had another judgment registered against him by the Revenue. The former captain of Rosslare golf club was also before the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Body (CARB) earlier this year after pleading guilty to four counts of theft against a client… 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

mark-little

Rupert Murdoch’s Storyful of losses

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT’s one of the great new media success stories but it looks like the sale of Dublin company Storyful to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2013 couldn’t have come at a better time for the original owners – especially Mark Little. New accounts filed by Storyful this week show that accumulated losses of €10.4m had… 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

Ronan O’Gara’s settlement

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

THERE was good news for Ireland and Munster rugby legend Ronan O’Gara recently when his firm managed to settle an outstanding tax bill. Stand Off Promotions Ltd ponied up close to €30,000 owed to the taxman in early October, which will hopefully put it on a better footing. It will be recalled that ROG was… 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 Rogers’s tax troubles

James Rogers’s tax troubles

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

DUNDALK accountant James Rogers is in trouble with the taxman after having a judgment for €63,000 registered against him at the end of September. It’s not the first time the Co Louth number cruncher has been in the thick of it; he had another judgment registered against him back in 2011, for €28,000. Rogers, 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

article default

David Healy’s Insurance

Date: October 20, 2016 - The Hot Water Brigade

MORE on the Healy family from Cork; it will be recalled that brothers Michael and Pat Healy were disqualified from acting as company directors for six years arising out of their conduct at a pub outfit called Blackwater Taverns Ltd (see The Phoenix 07/10/2016). A… Read more »