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‘INDO’ SNOWFLAKES

Date: January 12, 2017 - Fit to Print?

THE hysterical reaction from Irish liberals to an Irish Times article explaining the opinions of the alt-right movement was distinctly illiberal as well as entertaining. But the most amusing reaction came from the Irish Independent which is developing a perverse habit of knocking the IT for its politically incorrect outpourings. The IT article by Nick… Read more »

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Jim O'Callaghan

Jim O’Callaghan

Date: January 12, 2017 - Pillars of Society

OVER the past five years, while his position as leader of Fianna Fáil was open to question on all sides, Micheál Martin very shrewdly declined to appoint a deputy leader of the party. But that time is past and FF must be ready for any variety of challenges in 2017. Right now the favourite to… Read more »

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Brendan-Gleeson

PERVERSE EU POLICY

Date: January 12, 2017 - Fowl Emissions

ON CHRISTMAS Day police in Sydney pulled off the largest cocaine bust in Australian history, seizing 500kg of the drug from a boat and arresting 15 men. One of those arrested, Joe Pirrello, an alleged ringleader of the cocaine syndicate, had previously enjoyed time in the limelight in 2012 when his company, Seafish Tasmania, tried… Read more »

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Bog Cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: January 12, 2017 - Bog Cuttings

Accused missed court for Communion A YOUNG Corkman accused of shoplifting was late for a court appearance because he was attending mass. Judge Marie Keane issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Damien Kavanagh (29), Gurranabraher, at Cork District Court following his failure to attend court. Inspector Finbarr O’Sullivan said the accused had entered… Read more »

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Louise O’Reilly

Louise O’Reilly TD

Date: January 12, 2017 - The Young Bloods

CRITICS would privately acknowledge that Sinn Féin now has an impressive array of young talent in its ranks, but perhaps the most significant breakthrough for the party at the last election was the success of trade union official Louise O’Reilly in Dublin Fingal. At 42, O’Reilly hardly qualifies for Ógra SF membership but she is… Read more »

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Judy-woodworth

ADDING UP AT the beit foundation

Date: January 12, 2017 - High Society

THERE WAS good news for the Alfred Beit Foundation (ABF) last month when Heather Humphreys lobbed it a €250,000 grant. However it seems the Russborough House trustees will be looking for a lot more if their own target is to be met, otherwise more paintings are set to be offloaded. According to the foundation’s 2015… Read more »

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Danielle Ryan

DANIELLE RYAN’S BUMPY ROADS

Date: January 12, 2017 - High Society

CHRISTMAS is when the bulk of perfumes is sold so it is perhaps not surprising that Danielle Ryan was making noises in the run-up to last month’s national spending spree when she complained on Twitter that her ROADS “luxury fragrance” bottles were being “ripped off” by a retail chain. However since then the tweet has… Read more »

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Amy-Huberman-Striking-Out

STRIKING OUT – RTE ONE

Date: January 12, 2017 - Reviews

TRADITIONALLY, RTÉ’s excuse for the underwhelming nature of its drama and comedy output was that it suffered in comparison with programmes produced by neighbouring BBC, with its supposedly endless resources. In recent years, this argument has begun to have a lot less traction as countries with similar populations to Ireland such as Denmark and Israel… Read more »

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Days-without-end

DAYS WITHOUT END – SEBASTIAN BARRY (FABER)

Date: January 12, 2017 - Reviews

THE LATEST in Sebastian Barry’s loose series of novels chronicling the McNulty dynasty has just been awarded the Costa Prize, which he also won nine years ago with The Secret Scripture. This time the story is set in America and takes place over a couple of decades during the mid-19th century. When we first meet… Read more »

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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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article-default

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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article-default

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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