IssueM Articles

Archives: Articles

articles

The Hot Air Brigade

Date: March 23, 2017 - The Hot Air Brigade

What [Brendan] O’Connor does is select the right people with the strongest voices, it plays to his strengths and allows him freedom of movement. I’d describe him as like a mafia hitman; I’m always waiting for a stiletto to be planted between my ribs. George Hook on Brendan O’Connor’s interview style, Sunday Independent I still… 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

VARADKAR’S UNIONIST LINE

Date: March 23, 2017 - Bird's Eye View

LEO VARADKAR went to France for St Patrick’s Day and gave interviews in the Irish embassy in Paris to French news media which demonstrated that his views on the north remain soggily mired in traditional Blueshirt theology. Don’t mention a united Ireland because it will annoy and frighten unionists, aid republicans and destabilise politics 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

COVENEY GOOD FOR (CORK) BUSINESS

Date: March 23, 2017 - Last Refuge

THE MESSAGE being purveyed by Simon Coveney’s political and business supporters is that Simon is good for business and has the support of corporate Ireland in his bid for the Fine Gael leadership. But Leo Varadkar’s people have detected what they believe to be a deeper plot involving the Irish and Sunday Independent as well… 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

Vlad’s Numbers

Date: March 23, 2017 - Last Refuge

LEO VARADKAR’S supporters have been spooked by that Irish Times poll showing that Simon Coveney was ahead in the Fine Gael leadership contest among not only party voters (by 5%) but also the public (by just 2%). But Vlad’s number crunchers have come up with their own analysis that might unnerve potential Coveney supporters, especially… 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

TERRY PRONE’S SISTERLY ADVICE

Date: March 23, 2017 - Last Refuge

ENDA KENNY’S emotional hand wringing about the “truly appalling” uncovering of hundreds of babies at the Tuam mother-and-baby home – “he was personally shocked” etc – was in sharp contrast to the deafening silence of the Bons Secours sisters who own the home. Kenny also took the trouble to commend the work of Catherine Corless… 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

O’Callaghan Two Jobs

Date: March 23, 2017 - Last Refuge

FIANNA FÁIL justice spokesperson and effectively leader Micheál Martin’s number two on the front bench, Jim O’Callaghan, has been busy recently with legal matters but not in Leinster House. Jimbo is senior counsel acting for libel litigant Brian Nolan, ex-senior Kildare footballer, who is suing the Sunday Worst for libel and privacy in a rather… 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 Lou McDonald

MARY LOU’S TIME HAS COME

Date: March 23, 2017 - Last Refuge

THAT Sunday Times poll showing Sinn Féin overtaking Fine Gael (23% to 22%) will hardly be realised in a general election, although the party will retain some of its poll gains on the day. But there is one statistic in that poll with huge significance for party President Gerry Adams and vice president Mary Lou… 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

MORE POWER TO TRAVELLERS

Date: March 23, 2017 - Fit to Print?

SUNDAY TIMES hack Brenda Power, champion of settled people persecuted by jackbooted Travellers, offered an ingenious response within days of the government recognising Travellers as an ethnic group last month. Power wrote about the plight of isolated farmers who had been terrorised and attacked by criminal elements. She cited the example of a Roscrea farmer… 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

HARRIS HEDGES BET

Date: March 23, 2017 - Fit to Print?

PUNTERS looking for guidance on the fluctuating Fine Gael leadership tussle should keep a watch on Sunday Independent seer Eoghan Harris who often proclaims his unerring ability to forecast the outcome of such contests. Two years ago Harris had more or less decided Leo Varadkar was not made of the right stuff. He then endorsed… 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

INM Libels

Date: March 23, 2017 - Fit to Print?

WHAT a stirring clarion call to defend freedom of expression was made by Independent News & Media (INM) recently and what a compelling case the group put in its submission to the review of libel laws conducted by the justice department. As the Irish Independent put it, the very viability of “public interest journalism” 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

Tim Collins

Date: March 23, 2017 - Pillars of Society

WHEN in January 2016 Tim Collins became Newstalk’s fifth CEO in 11 years, he was presumably unaware that its owner, Denis O’Brien, was already planning to unload the loss-making station onto INM. Since that potential deal was scotched by INM’s own CEO Robert Pitt (and is now being investigated by the Director of Corporate Enforcement),… 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 ABANDONS CLIMATE ACTION

Date: March 23, 2017 - Fowl Emissions

IS DENIS Naughten now Ireland’s Minister for Not Telling People What To Do? The recently published draft National Mitigation Plan (NMP) is a 91-page masterclass in leadership from the rear. As Naughten explained in a radio interview at the plan’s launch, he is all about bringing people along, not telling them what to do 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

Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: March 23, 2017 - Bog Cuttings

‘I am Brian Boru’ A TIPPERARY man was charged and fined by Ennis District Court after he gave a false name and address to gardaí. Martin Morgan (60), 5 Silver Mews, Nenagh, was charged with public intoxication at Convent Hill, Killaloe last month and with failing to provide his name address. Inspector Kieran Ruan told… 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

Alan Farrell TD

Date: March 23, 2017 - The Young Bloods

FINE Gael’s Alan Farrell (39) likes to shoot his mouth off. The Dublin Fingal TD has been something of a thorn in Enda Kenny’s side since he took his first Dáil seat in 2011, generating plenty of controversy but few friends among the FG leadership. All that could change, however, if Leo Varadkar becomes 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

CHANELLE McCOY’S FASHION SENSE

Date: March 23, 2017 - High Society

A THIRD woman set to join the judges in the new series of RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den and although probably best known today as the wife of a superstar jockey, it turns out that Chanelle McCoy has a thoroughbred business background and some glamorous friends. While Dragons’ Den will make McCoy a household name here, until… 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

PAUL McGUINNESS’S PARTNER

Date: March 23, 2017 - High Society

WITH the hype building nicely for Sky Atlantic’s upcoming big budget Cote d’Azur crime series Riviera – written by Neil Jordan and John Banville – the focus this side of the Irish Sea has, not surprisingly, been on the producer, former U2 manager Paul McGuinness. But it turns out he is only one half 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

The Taking of Christ

Date: March 23, 2017 - High Society

Although it happened at a time Which we now call Easter, Caravaggio’s colours are of Autumn, Walnut, chestnut, damson; Framed in a timeless proscenium A play about love’s treachery Is set by a painter dramatist In a farm near Gethsemane; Stage left a hand splayed in alarm, Stage right a hand lifting a lantern 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

BECKETT FRIEL PINTER FESTIVAL – GATE THEATRE

Date: March 23, 2017 - ReviewsTheatre

AFTER HIS 33 years at the helm of the Gate Theatre, it’s no surprise that Michael Colgan would throw himself a self-congratulatory farewell party. The surprise is that the best-paid ego in Irish theatre settled for a relatively modest send-off. Colgan marks the occasion with six short one-acts – a pair each, all running less… 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

THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES – JOHN BOYNE (DOUBLEDAY)

Date: March 23, 2017 - BooksReviews

THE BESTSELLING author of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas returns to familiar themes of flawed and forbidden relationships in his latest novel. Boyne has often concentrated on emotional trauma, but here he ventures into comic territory. The story (told in seven-year stages) is narrated by a 70-year-old gay man who reviews his life. Somewhat… 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

THE ABBEY’S UNPAID CHAIR

Date: March 23, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

WITH A new chair of the Abbey Theatre to be appointed, following the retirement of former High Court judge Bryan McMahon, the list of applicants will be limited by the demanding workload outlined in the job advert, in return for which not a single cent will be earned. The closing date for submissions of interest… 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

ARTS COUNCIl MONEY MAN

Date: March 23, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

A NEW adviser is in place at 70 Merrion Square, whose job it is to advise Arts Council clients how to tap the coffers of the wealthy. Last summer, the Arts Council advertised for applications to provide “private investment adviser services”. The new adviser is Kieran MacSweeney, whose role is “to develop sector wide private… 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

IFB MEMBERS’ ‘RELATED TRANSACTIONS’

Date: March 23, 2017 - Behind the Scenes

COMPARED TO much larger statutory bodies like RTÉ, Annie Doona’s Irish Film Board (IFB) has always taken its time when it comes to releasing its annual report. Last week’s quiet posting on the IFB’s website of the 2015 report confirms the pattern, despite having been signed off by the board on October 11 last. Doona… 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

CHASING THE IRISH NATIONAL

Date: March 23, 2017 - Sport of Kings

WITH AN increased prize-fund of a cool €1/2m, the Boylesports Irish Grand National is now Ireland’s most valuable jumps race – one that will most likely have a major bearing on who will be crowned Ireland’s champion national hunt trainer this season. It is no surprise then that Gordon Elliott, now setting a relentless pace… 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

THE JAPANESE ARE COMING

Date: March 23, 2017 - Sport of Kings

LEOPARDSTOWN boss Pat Keogh has long made known his desire to see a Japanese-trained horse compete at the track and he has come a step closer to realising that ambition. An agreement has been reached between Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and the Japan Racing Association to allow the winner of the Group 1 Osaka Hai… 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

Jessica Harrington

CHELTENHAM TALES

Date: March 23, 2017 - Sport of Kings

CHELTENHAM delivered the usual array of stories but it is a festival one jockey will rather forget. Barry Geraghty’s injury two weeks before the festival provided a gilt edge opportunity for Mark Walsh to gain an elusive first win at the meeting, having stepped in to ride a number of JP McManus’s horses. Things started… 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

SARAH FORAN’S TAX BILL

Date: March 23, 2017 - Sport of Kings

Sarah Foran (Left) RACEHORSE owner, Sarah Foran may have to scale back her racing interests after she made a €114,000 settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in the last quarter of 2016 for under-declaration of capital acquisition tax following an audit. Foran is married to bloodstock agent Michael Donohoe, who works with the Irish bloodstock agency… 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

AIB flotation plan does not add up

Date: March 23, 2017 - Moneybags

WITH FINANCE minister Michael Noonan preparing to sell-off 25% of AIB and, as a taster, preparing to pay out a dividend of €250m, the question remains: Is this irresponsible given last year’s European Banking Authority (EBA) stress test report, which identified AIB as Europe’s second most vulnerable bank? Investors who pay any heed to 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

Aer Lingus bargain helps IAG shares soar

Date: March 23, 2017 - Moneybags

THERE WAS considerable surprise in the Irish media when Willie Walsh announced IAG group’s results for 2016 and confirmed that Aer Lingus had managed to more than double its operating profits to €233m last year from U109m in 2015, a big achievement in the context of the airline’s expansion of its transatlantic route. But although… 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

Tribunal gets tough with accountants

Tribunal gets tough with accountants

Date: March 23, 2017 - Briefcases

TWO members of Chartered Accountants Ireland had a tough day earlier this month before the institute’s disciplinary tribunal. Frank McDonagh of McDonagh & Co Chartered Accountants in Shangort, Co Galway, was called before the tribunal to answer charges arising out of an inspection of his practice in March 2015. He was found to have carried… 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

Niall Harbison Now

No love-in at Lovin Dublin

Date: March 23, 2017 - Briefcases

INTERESTING times at Lovin Dublin where would-be start-up guru Niall “Harbo” Harbison announced last weekend he was taking a step back from “operational matters” at the lifestyle website. Could this be the first sign that Emmett O’Neill, the company’s largest single shareholder, is exerting his influence over Lovin? Regular readers of these pages will recall… 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

Former film financier Forde falls foul

Date: March 23, 2017 - Briefcases

SURPRISING to see Goldhawk’s old pal Ignatius Forde in trouble for the small amount of €2,054 owed to Carlow County Council. The judgment was registered against him and appeared in a recent issue of Stubbs Gazette but Forde has had his fair share of troubles over the years. It will be recalled that in 2001,… 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

Gough grounded by tax judgment

Gough grounded by tax judgment

Date: March 23, 2017 - Briefcases

ONE of the heftier judgments spotted by Goldhawk in the last couple of weeks was against Co Cork builder William Gough. Gough – a former director of William Gough and Sons Construction Ltd, which was struck off the companies register in 2012, was landed with a E1m plus judgment courtesy of the dreaded taxman at… 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

Richard Quirke

‘Good Time’ Tax Bill

Date: March 23, 2017 - Briefcases

STRANGE to see that Dublin Pool and Jukebox Company Ltd was named on the Revenue’s latest list of tax defaulters given the substantial resources at the outfit, according to it last set of accounts. The company is controlled by slot-machine impresario Richard Quirke and his wife, Ann, and through it they operate Dr Quirkey’s Good… 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

Áine Collins’s bookkeeping troubles

Date: March 23, 2017 - Briefcases

A PROPERTY company in Cork called Ocean View Lodge Ltd has fallen foul of its creditors who held a meeting to appoint a liquidator earlier this month. One familiar name linked to Ocean View is former Fine Gael TD Aine Collins, who is listed as a director of the Blackrock outfit. Former Cork North West… 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

Vol.35 No.06

Date: March 23, 2017 -

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

Vol.35 No.05

Date: March 9, 2017 -

March 10 – March 24, 2017

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