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DERMOT WELD

ME TARAZANI, YOU EXPLAIN

Date: August 24, 2016 - Sport of Kings

DERMOT WELD usually ends the Galway festival week of racing as the top trainer, but the honour this year was claimed by Willie Mullins, who had far fewer runners than Weld but ended up just pipping the Curragh trainer with his winners on the last day of the meeting (see The Phoenix 12/8/2016). Weld did… Read more »

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barbara-galavan

BARBARA GALAVAN’S ‘KEY ASKS’

Date: August 24, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

THERE WAS a time when Barbara Galavan’s lobby group Screen Producers Ireland (SPI), claimed over 200 members – film and television outfits that refer to themselves as “independent” companies but, given their dependency on the public coffers, “dependent” might be a better adjective. Not that SPI’s 11 board members, including Naoise Barry (Pinewood), Larry Bass… Read more »

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Anne Clarke’s opera award

Date: August 24, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

CONGRATULATIONS to theatre producer Anne Clarke who goes from success to success. The Arts Council has now greenlighted a huge €½m grant from its opera project fund for a new opera, marking out her company as one of the most successful currently operating in Ireland. Landmark Productions, the operation owned by the widely feted Clarke,… Read more »

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Darryl Downey

DARRYL DOWNEY’S SAD SONG

Date: August 24, 2016 - Behind the Scenes

WITH Electric Picnic set to kick off next month the festival season proper draws to a close. Meanwhile, the fall-out continues from the last-minute cancellation of a music festival in Killarney, Co Kerry, last summer by promoter Darryl Downey – brother of Caroline Downey and brother-in-law of MCD’s Denis Desmond – according to accounts just… Read more »

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OBSERVE THE SONS OF ULSTER ... - ABBEY THEATRE

OBSERVE THE SONS OF ULSTER … – ABBEY THEATRE

Date: August 24, 2016 - Reviews

IN HIS decade-long tenure as director of the National Theatre, Fiach MacConghail has made a point of presenting diverse voices and points of view. Despite its widely noted tendency towards male writers, his Waking the Nation programme – supposedly examining the legacy of the Easter Rising – has proved true to form. So, to close… Read more »

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WILD QUIET - ROISÍN O’DONNELL (NEW ISLAND)

WILD QUIET – ROISÍN O’DONNELL (NEW ISLAND)

Date: August 24, 2016 - Reviews

THIS MUCH PRAISED debut short story collection by Dublin-based Roisín O’Donnell is the latest to tap into the experiences of Ireland’s multi-racial society. While the collection fails to live up to the hype, it does deliver some striking stories. O’Donnell’s family roots are in Derry, the setting for the surreal opening story, Ebenezer’s Memories, one… Read more »

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VIVA – DIRECTED BY PADDY BREATHNACH

Date: August 24, 2016 - Reviews

THE LATEST feature from Irish director Paddy Breathnach is a set in a world of preening exhibitionists. And no, it’s a not a documentary about Leinster House, even if one scene – a punch-up between a group of drag queens – has uncomfortable echoes of the recent leadership ructions in Fine Gael. Rather, Viva focuses… Read more »

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Peter and Kerri Cullen

CULLEN’S CANDY IS DANDY

Date: August 24, 2016 - High Society

THE FRONT page of the Sunday Times property supplement last weekend featured a Killiney pile owned by former candy czar Peter Cullen and his wife, Kerri, who are “downsizing” to a brand new house in Dalkey. There were plenty of plugs for the property in the article but not too much about the moolah made… Read more »

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Christian Stokes

CHRISTIAN STOKES’S HIGH FLYERS

Date: August 24, 2016 - High Society

A NEW private jet hire service has arrived in Ireland and got a nice plug in the Indo earlier this month. However, there was no mention of the man on the ground here who is seeking out moneybags to sign up as members of this rather exclusive club – Christian Stokes, formerly of Residence Private… Read more »

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Theresa Marnane

THERESA’S FRENCH FROLICS

Date: August 24, 2016 - High Society

WHILE THE sport of kings is dominated here by Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore operation, there are rich pickings to be had for wily horse owners overseas, notably in France, where the prize pots are famously substantial. It turns out that the name of an Irishwoman, Theresa Marnane, is currently featuring on the list of… Read more »

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Lynn Ruane

Young Bloods: Lynn Ruane

Date: August 24, 2016 - The Young Bloods

INDEPENDENT senator Lynn Ruane (31) has had a whirlwind 18 months after becoming the Student Union president at Trinity College in 2015 and winning a surprise Seanad seat on the Trinity panel earlier this year. The Tallaght native has made a name for herself as a strident pro-choice activist and advocate for access to education,… Read more »

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bog cuttings

Bog Cuttings

Date: August 24, 2016 - Bog Cuttings

THE BOULD HEALY-RAE A GROUP of young men from Kilgarvan – including Michael Healy-Rae’s son, Jackie Healy-Rae – are being hailed as heroes after they apprehended a youth who was causing criminal damage. The Kerrymen were staying with a friend in Kildare and were inside the house watching telly when they heard glass breaking outside…. Read more »

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Ray Bates

CHILLY ENVIRONMENT AT BAI

Date: August 24, 2016 - Fowl Emissions

THE Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) hasn’t been making too many friends in environmental circles lately. This month it delivered a double-whammy of decisions that have caused reactions varying from bewilderment to disbelief. First, it ruled against a fairly anodyne TV advert promoting wind energy which had asked the not unreasonable question: “Why do we… Read more »

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SHANE ROSS

SHANE ROSS

Date: August 24, 2016 - Pillars of Society

SHANE ROSS has spent much of his political life, spanning four decades, fighting with Fine Gael either as a party member, an Independent senator, an opposition TD and now as a cabinet member. The spin put out in the recent media onslaught against him is that he is unable to make the transition from strident… Read more »

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Stephen Rae

DAMNED STATISTICS AND THE ‘INDO’

Date: August 24, 2016 - Fit to Print?

THE Irish Independent devoted its entire page three last Friday to a boastful commentary on the latest ABC circulation figures, year on year (the period January-June 2016 compared to Jan-June 2015). The Independent News and Media (INM) statement claimed four times that it “dominated” the newspaper market and that its daily Indo was beating the… Read more »

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Indo rules OK

Date: August 24, 2016 - Fit to Print?

THE evisceration of sports minister Shane Ross by the Irish Independent in recent weeks is only the latest of several campaigns and political interventions by that newspaper in the last few months. The Ross onslaught was stimulated by Fine Gael ministers (see profile, p14), but that’s what political parties do. The blatant and persistent role… Read more »

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tony-leen

DE PAPER’S QUEST FOR A NEW EDITOR

Date: August 24, 2016 - Fit to Print?

ONE of the Irish Examiner’s in-house front runners to replace outgoing editor Tim Vaughan is deputy editor/sports editor Tony Leen. But there are complications here created by Leen’s less than creative writing efforts some time ago. That Kerryman Leen should have chosen the occasion of Kerry football legend Páidí Ó Sé’s passing in 2012 to… Read more »

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Willie O'Dea & Lisa Chambers

FF FRONT BENCH SPLIT ON PENSIONS

Date: August 24, 2016 - Last Refuge

WILLIE O’DEA has been chiding Fine Gael ministers for not committing to their own electoral commitment to raise pensions by €30 over the government life time and he roughed up public expenditure minister Paschal Donohoe in his Sunday Independent column at the weekend. But O’Dea is also fighting within his own party front bench over… Read more »

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michael-cahill

FF v Healy-Raes

Date: August 24, 2016 - Last Refuge

HOSTILITIES have been renewed between the Healy-Rae brothers, TDs Michael and Danny, with accusations of bereavement exploitation by the two at local funerals and counter accusations of FF treachery over the chairmanship of the Killarney local electoral area. It was the return to FF of long time councillor Michael Cahill – he had defected along… Read more »

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Sean Hughes

TARGETING ‘THE SURGEON’

Date: August 24, 2016 - Last Refuge

ONE of Sinn Féin’s key organisers, north and south, is South Armagh man Sean Hughes whose alleged exploits as an “IRA commander” in the past are occasionally aired in the media which has nicknamed him “The Surgeon”. Now, one “usually reliable security source” has decided to target Hughes via the enthusiastic political and security correspondents… Read more »

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Leo Varadkar & Paschal Donohue

DONOHOE DOESN’T WANT TO BE LEADER

Date: August 24, 2016 - Last Refuge

WHAT a modest political figure Paschal Donohoe cuts. The public expenditure minister denies that he has any leadership ambitions but at the same time he has given interviews with a variety of national media including The Irish Times, Independent and Examiner over the summer when speculation about Enda Kenny’s future was rife. Paschal also conducted… Read more »

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Clinton & Assad

COULD A RUSSIAN-LED COALITION DEFEAT HILLARY’S WAR PLANS?

Date: August 24, 2016 - Bird's Eye View

by GARY LEUPP THE REPRESENTATION of Russia by the US State Department as an “existential threat” to the US is preposterous fantasy. Just as the depiction of Iran as a nuclear threat is preposterous, and the notion that Bashar al-Assad’s secular government in Syria is the cause of ISIL’s emergence is sheer delusion. Russia with… Read more »

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The Hot Air Brigade

Date: August 24, 2016 - The Hot Air Brigade

“I would support up to 30 charities… Because I love giving. I’m a giver.” Gerald Kean, Sunday Independent “Time and again Israel made concessions on land, giving up parts of the West Bank and in 2005 the whole of Gaza, but every concession made by Israel resulted only in more terrorism from the other side.”… Read more »

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dermot-bannon

‘Starchitect’

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

FANS of Goldhawk will have been well aware of TV architect Dermot Bannon’s legal battle that hit the headlines last week. However, while that case by one Mary Moore is now off the agenda, yet another set of proceedings looks to be active. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 23/10/15) that Moore, who appeared… Read more »

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frances-fitzgerald

JOE RYAN’S SECURITY SERVICE

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE WAS no disguising former soldier Joe Ryan’s pitch for business in a column he penned in the Sindo earlier this month. The article appeared to be aimed at the Minister for Justice and Defence, Frances Fitzgerald, who he claimed should take action immediately to save Irish lives. No doubt, his own security advice consultancy… Read more »

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katherine-zappone

WOLFE AT ZAPPER’S DOOR

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

SENIOR citizen activist and dogged barrack room lawyer John Wolfe has taken a constitutional case against the state over its generous, unvouched mileage allowances for TDs and senators travelling to and from Leinster House. Wolfe lodged a High Court writ in 2014 but his appetite for the legal battle ahead was sharpened recently by minister… Read more »

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erica-fleming

ERICA FLEMING BROUGHT TO HEEL

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

HOW satisfying to see homeless, single parent of two Erica Fleming brought to heel by public spirited elements, in conjunction with the Sunday Independent last weekend. And what a timely intervention this turned out to be by whichever socially aware person was responsible. Fleming had become quite an irritant with her bleating about having no… Read more »

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henry-fitzsimons

HENRY FITZSIMONS’S WUFF JUSTICE

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS have just been filed in the High Court by an interesting chap by the name of Henry Fitzsimons, who is suing RTÉ over radio broadcast last summer about his controversial specialist dog training company, Service Dogs Europe Ltd (SDE), which has ceased to trade. The company sold “service dogs” to customers at nearly… Read more »

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barry-maccarthy

PAT HICKEY’S LEGAL EAGLE

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

MEDIA news desks and their libel lawyers became embroiled in litigious debate last week with solicitor Barry MacCarthy, he who relayed to Pat Hickey that memorable soundbyte about putting Shane Ross “back in his box”. On his own initiative, MacCarthy engaged in several, long telephone conversations with various news outlets about the legal advice offered… Read more »

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Nina Byrnes & Derek Richardson

DEREK RICHARDSON’S MEDICAL PROBLEM

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK was not surprised this week to see publicity-shy millionaire Derek Richardson seeking to have injunction proceedings against him thrown out by the High Court. He has managed to build up his very healthy fortune, most of it while based in sunny Monaco, without attracting too much attention – which is just the way he… Read more »

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fintan-drury-patrick-kennedy

Drury’s redemption

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

AS The Phoenix reported (see edition, 30/6/2016) former consultant, businessman and PR smoothie Fintan Drury underwent an apparent Pauline conversion from businessman to refugee advocate. Just some of the corporate feathers in Drury’s cap were his board membership of Anglo Irish Bank, chair of Paddy Power and chair of the RTÉ Authority. And Fintan’s close… Read more »

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Pat Hickey

WHO PUT PAT BACK IN HIS BOX?

Date: August 24, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

IS there not something very questionable behind the extraordinary arrest, imprisonment and personal humiliation of the president of the European Olympic Council and board member of the small (12) International Olympic Committee at the height of the Olympic Games in Rio last week? Pat Hickey may, or may not, have been implicated in a relatively… Read more »

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Vol. 34 No. 16

Date: August 11, 2016 -

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IAN BAILEY

IAN BAILEY’S DOUBLE JEOPARDY

Date: August 10, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

IAN BAILEY’S request that the Director of Public Prosecution reconsider its decision not to prosecute him for the alleged murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 20 years ago must be a first in legal history. But then, the Irish authorities’ obeisance in handing the French its entire case file on the murder and the (non)… Read more »

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Ibrahim Halawa

Sindo on Halawa

Date: August 10, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

FOLLOWING Eoghan Harris’s recent attack on Ibrahim Halawa – jailed for three years and facing a possible death penalty in Egypt – Sindo writer Rachel Lavin gave Egyptian Ambassador Soha Gendi a platform recently to answer claims from Amnesty International and Ibrahim’s sister, Somaia. Gendi, Lavin explained, refutes the claim that Ibrahim was protesting against… Read more »

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Diarmuid Martin

Isolated?

Date: August 10, 2016 - Affairs of the Nation

DIARMUID MARTIN has been isolated from his 25 episcopal colleagues in alleging the existence of a gay culture in Maynooth. But he has the backing of the most powerful leader in Christendom — none other than the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis. In very publicly withdrawing his three students at St Patrick’s College and sending… Read more »

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