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VOL. 41 NO. 17

Date: August 24, 2023 -

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EDITING THE JOURNALISM AWARDS

Date: August 24, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

THE 2023 Irish Journalism Awards are being organised by an amalgamation of NewsBrands Ireland and its new partners in this endeavour, Google News Initiative and the Press Council of Ireland. But the impression of an expanding organisation is a reverse of the reality, which is… Read more »

CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS

Date: August 24, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

EFFORTS TO create a Houses for Heroes memorial to WWI soldiers in the Dublin suburb of Killester, led by local resident Aaron Crampton, have been stalled by Dublin City Council (DCC), which has demanded a more inclusive memorial that reflects the community and history of the area. The Killester WW1 Memorial Campaign website explains that… Read more »

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HORSING AROUND IN THE FOUR GOLDMINES

Date: August 24, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

GOLDHAWK HAS spotted an interesting looking High Court action that has been lodged by an outfit called Studbook Development Ireland Ltd (SDI), which operates a studbook for the Irish warmblood breed of sport horses. On the receiving end is the body that manages horse shows around the country and three of its senior officers. The… Read more »

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IRISH FREEDOM PARTY ‘FAKE NEWS’

Date: August 24, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

PRESS OMBUDSMAN Susan McKay recently ruled on a complaint from Hermann Kelly, leader of the Irish Freedom Party. It was Kelly’s fifth complaint in the last few years. It related to two articles published by Extra.ie that included the claim that “far right demonstrators and members of the Irish Freedom Party (IFP) marched to the… Read more »

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McGURK’S BAR COVER-UP

Date: August 24, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

WHILE THE British government is holding a judicial inquiry into the Real IRA’s bombing of Omagh – death toll 29 – the McGurk’s bar bomb of 1971, which claimed 15 lives, is being studiously ignored, despite an ongoing campaign by surviving relatives. The official line… Read more »

O’DUFFY LIVES!

Date: August 24, 2023 - Hush Hush

For years one of the most controversial far-right summer schools has been the American Renaissance (AR) conference, organised by the New Century Foundation (NCF). This year one of the eight speakers at the conference was Keith Woods (pseudonym of Keith O’Brien) from Roscommon, a prominent far-right personality online. The NCF, founded in 1990 by Jared… Read more »

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THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: August 24, 2023 - The Hot Air Brigade

I seem to have developed a brand online where people think I am a rock of sense. Perhaps it was the straight-talking, factual information I provided during lockdowns about what was or wasn’t allowed. Stefanie Preissner, Life Magazine Hozier is niche and Hozier is utterly mainstream. Hozier is specific and Hozier is broad. Hozier is,… Read more »

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MEDIA TURNS ON BIG AGRI

Date: August 24, 2023 - Fowl Emissions

After years of coverage ranging from uncritical to downright fawning, there are clear hints that the Irish media’s love affair with agriculture may finally be cooling. In the Business Post, for instance, Daniel Murray ripped into the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), accusing it of “misrepresentation of science” around methane and criticising its attacks on the… Read more »

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Climate Disinformation Coillte Climate Action EU Livestock NDC Claude Etchelamendy Ed Brophy Richard Boyd-Barrett Kish Dale Crammond Frank Mitloehner Shell Greenwashing Meta Data Centres Ireland

LIVELY LIVESTOCK

Date: August 24, 2023 - Fowl Emissions

New research has found that livestock farmers in the EU receive around 1,200 times more public funding than plant-based or cultivated meat groups. “Powerful vested interests exerted their political influence to maintain the system unchanged and to obstruct competition created by technological innovations,” the researchers… Read more »

NOLAN AT THE BBC’S NORTH FACE

Date: August 24, 2023 - Northwind

The north’s only shock-jock is in trouble. Stephen Nolan, the BBC’s fifth-highest-paid star at around £400,000, has faced a series of accusations in recent weeks including allegations of bullying, circulating sexually explicit pictures to BBC NI staff and using ‘plants’ in his studio audiences. There are also questions about his production company, Third Street, and… Read more »

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BLUESHIRT LAW LIBRARY REVOLT

Date: August 24, 2023 - Last Refuge

JUNIOR ENTERPRISE minister Neale Richmond will not have been pleased at being described by Fine Gael spin doctors as the person responsible for the cancellation of last October’s Business Breakfast fundraiser (€100 a pop for a full Irish in the Mansion House). Richmond will be… Read more »

Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

SIMON HARRIS’S TACTICS

Date: August 24, 2023 - Last Refuge

IF RESENTFUL Fine Gael colleagues really believe that Simon Harris leaks like a sieve, they should have a word with Mediahuis political hack Philip Ryan. Philip recently got a scoop about the vision of the coming force in Fine Gael, minister Harris. Ryan told Sindo readers in advance – under the headline “Harris stakes claim… Read more »

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SEE NO EVIL, PRINT NO EVIL

Date: August 24, 2023 - Fit to Print?

THE COMPLICITY of the media in largely failing to highlight clerical child abuse unless it is perpetrated by Catholic clergy has recently been exposed yet again (see below). This sectarian phenomenon goes back 25 years or so to when clerical abuse was first being publicly exposed. In December 2000 Mary Kenny profiled Castlepollard rector Glenn… Read more »

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BOG CUTTINGS

Date: August 24, 2023 - Bog Cuttings

OH BROTHER A 34-year-old man pleaded guilty, though in absentia due to being sentenced to five months behind bars the week previous, to charges of engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour. Tralee District Court heard that Richard McCarthy, of 12 McCowan’s Lane, Tralee, turned up at Tralee Garda Station on June 12 last, in… Read more »

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DUKE’S HEAVY GOING

Date: August 24, 2023 - Sport of Kings

CURRAGH TRAINER Brendan Duke has an ugly battle on his hands to remain in situ in his rented training yard (see p5). The High Court recently granted him a temporary injunction against Peter Keatley and Teresa Kearney, owners of the trainer’s rented premises, Fenway House,… Read more »

Ed Dunlop David Dunsdon Sarah Lynam Rebecca May Wayne Hassett Eoin O'Brien Michael Burke Aine O’Connor Ashroe Diamond Thomand O’Mara Peter Keatley Timmy Hyde Coolmore All About Sunday Colin Keane Ronan Whelan JP McManus Jessica Harrington Dundalk Racecourse Paul Hensey Irish National Hunt Horse-racing Doping Paddy Walsh Tom Kelly Suspension

COOLMORE’S FAMOUS FIVE

Date: August 24, 2023 - Sport of Kings

FOUR YEARS ago, Swiss billionaire Georg von Opel made some seven-figure purchases of prime horseflesh at Irish sales under his thoroughbred investment vehicle, Westerberg. Most of the deals were made in conjunction with Coolmore and von Opel was duly welcomed into the fold by John Magnier. He has significantly strengthened his ties. This was clear… Read more »

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SHARON KEEGAN’S SUPPORTERS

Date: August 24, 2023 - High Society

LAST MONTH Goldhawk’s favourite athleisure wear seller, Sharon Keegan of Peachylean, gave her tuppenceworth on succeeding in business in an online discussion with “global retail expert” Nicole Higgins, aka The Buyer and Retail Coach. Keegan has also secured some more moolah, courtesy of the taxpayer. Not surprisingly, the podcast featured plenty of inspirational titbits from… Read more »

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THE COSTELLOS’ LABOUR LEGACY

Date: August 24, 2023 - Last Refuge

A GLOWING political obituary of former Labour minister Joe Costello was delivered from the appropriate pulpit of the Irish Times last week. The lengthy article covering Costello’s political career of over 50 years managed to avoid any unseemly mention of Labour’s self-destructive role in a… Read more »

SUMMER SELECTION

Date: August 24, 2023 - Last Refuge

ONE SUMMER school the Irish Times won’t be covering is the 33rd Desmond Greaves Summer Weekend School at the Irish Institute, 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2, from September 1-3. The organisers include indefatigable anti-EU campaigner Anthony Coughlan, and ex-Green Party radical and MEP Patricia McKenna, while the speakers include unrepentant Sinn Féiner and former Dublin… Read more »

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The Lion in Winter Racing Royalty Le Brocquy City of Troy Fitzwilliam Square AIRO Dermot Smurfit Ballinacarrig Park Club Cosgrave Fitzpatrick Keith Jameson National Gallery Collection Marissa Carter VG Tom Higgins Neil Jordan Laura Bonner Paul Ward Variety Jones Dtat Eathos Sharon Keegan Angela Scanlon Desmond Canouan Bellair Estate Bobby Flay John O’Conor Portrait of Omai Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile Wedding NGI Board Rachel Flynn JP McMahon Ash Quinn Pamela Laird Abdullah Al Naboodah Boundless Ocean

TOM HIGGINS’S COUNTDOWN

Date: August 24, 2023 - High Society

NO DOUBT, after the high-profile launch of Virgin Galactic’s (VG) first ever batch of private space tourists earlier this month, Irish space cadet Tom ‘Psychics Live’ Higgins must be getting excited about his own planned trip, over 18 years after he stumped up the equivalent of $¼m to Richard Branson’s company. But could he run… Read more »

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PETER WHITE’S PROPERTIES

Date: August 24, 2023 - High Society

A VERY lengthy renovation project on leafy Wellington Road in D4 has finally concluded. The impressive pile was most closely associated with businessman and one-time restaurateur Peter White, although it was understood to have been the subject of an off-market sale a couple of years… Read more »

HOSTELWORLD JOURNEYING TOWARDS REAL PROFITABILITY

Date: August 24, 2023 - Moneybags

THE LATEST results from Hostelworld demonstrate that CEO Gary Morrison has been doing an impressive job getting this online travel booking engine back into action. The latest figures, covering the half year to June 2023, show bookings (despite the ongoing impact of the war in Ukraine) up 57% to €340m and net income up 57%… Read more »

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C&C LEAVES A BAD TASTE IN MARKET’S MOUTH

Date: August 24, 2023 - Moneybags

THE C&C group is unique in that it is the only Irish-quoted company whose financial year ends on February 28. In the ordinary way this would not be significant but it means that the company’s last trading year before the pandemic lockdown in March 2020 covered a full year and its first year out of… Read more »

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ANNE HERATY’S SAD STOREY

Date: August 24, 2023 - The Hot Water Brigade

SOME BAD news for Anne Heraty and hubby Paul Carroll, who got a red light from Dublin City Council (DCC) planning officials when seeking an extra floor on their building at the corner of Haddington Road and Baggot Street in D2. Heraty/Carroll made the planning application through the Tullington Ltd vehicle, which was working on… Read more »

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RUNNING OUT OF ENERGY

Date: August 24, 2023 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT IS not looking like a great year for energy safety expert Denis Higgins, who is a director of two separate regulatory bodies that lost out on state contracts courtesy of environment and climate minister Eamon Ryan’s Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU). This latter… Read more »

SUSAN KIRBY’S HEADACHE

Date: August 24, 2023 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT TOOK a while – and pickets on the studios in Hollywood by the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, supported by the likes of Meryl Streep and Matt Damon – but the two-year-long pedestrian plot featuring the stand-off here between Gerry O’Brien’s Irish Equity union and Susan Kirby’s Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) is finally picking up pace…. Read more »

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FINAN O’DONOGHUE’S HOLIDAY WOES

Date: August 24, 2023 - The Hot Water Brigade

IT MAY come as a surprise to fans of camping in Europe that a business set up a few years ago to sell increasingly popular outdoor holidays is collapsing into liquidation. Ecommodation Lab Ltd was founded by Finan O’Donoghue and is behind the website campsited.com,… Read more »

‘HUMANITARIAN’ IRISH WAR EFFORT

Date: August 10, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

LAST OCTOBER the then foreign minister and defence minister, Simon Coveney, spoke in humanitarian terms when announcing the plan for Irish Defence Forces’ participation in the EU’s Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM). Referring to Ireland’s role as training Ukrainian sappers to demine areas of Ukraine, Coveney said: “There are unfortunately many, many… Read more »

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PROFILE – MICHAEL FITZMAURICE

Date: August 10, 2023 - Pillars of Society

IS THERE anybody in Leinster House who wants to be a minister more than Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice? The Roscommon turf-cutting contractor recently made clear his determination to be in the next government and also warned that if his plans for a new political party with the necessary intent and discipline to negotiate a coalition… Read more »

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YOUNG BLOOD: DAVID MCMANUS

Date: August 10, 2023 - The Young Bloods

UNEASY LIES the head that wears the crown and uneasy it seems is Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy as he peers over his shoulder at the increasingly strident challenge from Rathfarnham councillor and party ‘colleague’ David McManus, who has his sights firmly set on Brophy’s seat in Dublin South-West (DSW). The 33-year-old McManus burst on… Read more »

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Michael McGrath Micheál Martin Commission

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CAREER CURVE

Date: August 10, 2023 - Last Refuge

CONSTANT ASSERTIONS by Micheál Martin – repeated at the weekend in a statement to the Sunday Times – that he will lead Fianna Fáil into the next election have long been treated like the obligatory denials of any party leader when asked if they intend to resign in the morning. However, there is now a… Read more »

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HELEN McENTEE PROJECT UNDONE

Date: August 10, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

THE carefully constructed Fine Gael leadership campaign of Helen McEntee was given what appeared to be the kiss of death with her recent walk on the wild side of Dublin’s mean streets. Evidence of this was the very loud silence from ministers and even back… Read more »

MARY AIKEN’S NEIGHBOURS

Date: August 10, 2023 - High Society

INTERESTING TO see that concert promoter extraordinaire Peter Aiken and his wife, Mary, are suing their Howth neighbours, Moya Doherty and John McColgan and Suzy and Ronan O’Brien, in a boundary dispute. (Suzy is the daughter of Gaybo and Kathleen Watkins.) The Aikens bought the… Read more »

AUF WIEDERSEHEN WIRECARD

Date: August 10, 2023 - Affairs of the Nation

SO FAREWELL then Wirecard Payments Solutions Holdings Ltd, the Irish arm of the uber controversial German outfit, Wirecard AG. It will be finally wound up next week, three years after the extraordinary implosion of the parent company, which generated best-selling books and a popular Netflix documentary, Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard. The Netflix show centred on… Read more »

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ANN’S CHINESE PUZZLE

Date: August 10, 2023 - High Society

THE IMPRESSIVE Cambridge House on Cambridge Road in Rathmines has come on the market with a €3.5m price tag. Until recently, this late Victorian detached pile was owned by high-flyers Ann Corcoran and Finn Lyden, who have extensive business interests, as well as connections with China and Malta. The couple’s D6 house was quietly sold… Read more »

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