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VOL 40 NO 14

Date: July 14, 2022 -

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Budget Jack Chambers Nicki Minaj B’Tselem Phil Hogan UCD IRTA DIGI Katy Brown Rory Godson Pallonji Mistry Shark Hanlon Frances Ruane Taste of Dublin Listowel Writers’ Week Paddy Curran Harvey Norman Anton Savage Paul Hourican Enda O’Coineen PfP Red C Poll IFTA Ben Gilroy Luke Comer Sue Spence Fingleton Aubrey McCarthy Matt Cooper Parker Green Danny McConnell Gayle Killilea Maura Derivan Ed Honohan INS Arts Council EDAF Emuse Rosslare Golf Club Mairead Casey Colm O’Rourke Stephen Connolly Peter Aiken John Malone Tom Barry Anthony Halpin Ian Kehoe Kevin Bakhurst Geraldine O’Leary Dennis Horgan RUSI Gareth McAllister Ryevale House Joe Macken RUC Omagh Patrick Connolly Paddy Cosgrave The Ditch Newstalk Fake Tan Fred Logue Ian Paisley Sean O’Riordan Margaret Sweeney Jay Bourke Ellie Kisyombe Francesca McDonagh Ted Cunningham National Space Centre An Irish Goodbye Oscar Robert Quirke Ciara Kelly Executive Women Gathering Doug Taylor Florian Haufe Robbie Henshaw Bill Shipsey Breaking the Silence L’Ecrivain Ronan McNally National Lottery Michael Roche Energy Action Balls.ie Newspapers VAT Abbey Theatre Patricia Madden Irish Banking Culture Board Randox Aoife Gallagher Book Dalai Lama Trinity Trevor White RTÉ Chairperson Shane Houlihan Noel Smyth IKC Bob Geldof Landlord Ireland Neutrality Ukraine

NGI NEW BOARD

Date: July 14, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

THE NATIONAL Gallery of Ireland (NGI) is looking for four new board members. Presumably, by the time they are in situ, we will know who the new NGI Director will be. The NGI board is chaired by the Law Society’s Mary Keane and includes the likes of RHA president Abigail O’Brien (sister of Dinny), Irish… Read more »

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MARTIN SHANAHAN’S SURPRISE EXIT

Date: July 14, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

THERE WAS plenty of praise for outgoing IDA Ireland boss Martin Shanahan, who surprised everyone by calling it a day at the state agency – where the role comes with a healthy €195,000 pa remuneration package. The exit is taking place two years before the end of Shanahan’s current five-year contract, which was only signed… Read more »

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SOPHIE’S COLD CASE REVIEW

Date: July 14, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

WHAT IS the real motivation behind the cold case review and reopening of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 26 years after the event? Ian Bailey, former chief suspect, believes or would like to believe that the fresh inquiry will add additional weight to his claim of innocence and to his… Read more »

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ISRAEL MONITORS THE IRISH

Date: July 14, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

IN MARCH this year, Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, had a pop at Irish parliamentarians – during a UN Human Rights Council periodic review of this country – for perpetuating antisemitic tropes leading to attitudes of anti-semitism prevailing in Ireland. He also criticised incoming ‘hate speech’ legislation as inadequate for… Read more »

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IIEA NEW MANDARIN: DAVID O’SULLIVAN

Date: July 14, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

THE NEW director general of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), David O’Sullivan, has been quick to use the institute’s favourite platform, the Irish Times, to launch an attack on Irish neutrality. The former EU and Irish career diplomat told IT readers recently that Irish military non-alignment had served Ireland well until 2016…. Read more »

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MUTINOUS NOISES

Date: July 14, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

THE MOST interesting thing about that internal, unpublished government Defence Forces report on the state of relations between the Defence Forces and the defence department is not what it says but what it doesn’t say. What neither the report nor its leaks spell out is the virtual unarmed civil war raging between some of the… Read more »

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NINE-YEAR TRIAL

Date: July 14, 2022 - Hush Hush

In December 2013, a fortnight after an armed ambush on a convoy of PSNI vehicles in Ardoyne, Belfast, Colin Duffy, Alex McCrory and Henry Joseph Fitzsimons were charged with IRA membership, preparing and directing terrorism and conspiracy to obtain both firearms and explosives. The latter two were also charged with attempted murder in relation to… Read more »

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THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: July 14, 2022 - The Hot Air Brigade

It’s the best venue in the world as far as I’m concerned. Padraig Harrington on the course at Adare Manor, where he advised on the redesign, Irish Independent Ronan O’Gara, introspective, wise, relentlessly curious, unafraid to chase distant horizons in his pursuit of the remarkable, is among the most riveting and thought-provoking Irishmen of his… Read more »

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POST BORIS: NO CHANGE

Date: July 14, 2022 - Northwind

There’s a tendency in the Government, particularly in Fianna Fáil circles, to believe that when the current Tory turmoil subsides normal service will be resumed. The new prime minister might be bad, but couldn’t be as bad as Johnson. That’s wishful thinking: there’ll be no return to a pre-2019 Conservative government, a ‘reset’ as some… Read more »

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McCONALOGUE TAKES THE MICA

Date: July 14, 2022 - Last Refuge

JOE McHUGH TD appears to be in the firing line of mica campaigners in his Donegal constituency given that he felt compelled to honour his commitment to campaigners by resigning from Fine Gael. But his Donegal constituency colleague, agriculture minister, Charlie McConalogue, could be the real loser come the general election. Both men have swopped… Read more »

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GEOGHEGAN COMEBACK

Date: July 14, 2022 - Last Refuge

THE NOTION that James Geoghegan, model Fine Gael candidate and a barrister possessed of an unrivalled judicial pedigree, was going to walk off the pitch after Ivana Bacik wiped his eye in the Dublin Bay South by-election last year looks wide of the mark. Geoghegan is determined to prove he is made of the right stuff and has… Read more »

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RUNNERS AND RIDERS IN NAVAN

Date: July 14, 2022 - Last Refuge

PARTY DISCIPLINE has gone out the window in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael when it comes to Our Lady’s hospital in Navan. The only politician that comes up smelling of roses is Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín, and his name is now synonomous with the Navan Hospital controversy, especially as he is chair of the… Read more »

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MARTIN FACES NEW REVOLT

Date: July 14, 2022 - Last Refuge

JUST WHEN the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin thought things had finally quietened down in Fianna Fail another rising has broken out, and the occupation of party premises in Leinster House was alarmingly well supported. However, with some party elders urging caution, and demands being made to call off the uprising in recent months, there was some… Read more »

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ABUSE OF SDLP MEMBERS

Date: July 14, 2022 - Fit to Print?

SDLP MLA, Cara Hunter, received much sympathetic media coverage, north and south, after she was targeted with online porn smears. This falsely depicted her as engaged in a sex act in a widely circulated video during the recent elections to the northern assembly. Hunter and another female MLA, the DUP’s Diane Forsythe, were both targeted… 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

ECO ROVER

Date: July 14, 2022 - Fowl Emissions

The Irish Times recently reported on the painful dressing down delivered to Land Rover for its advertorial featuring gardener Diarmuid Gavin in his hulking “sustainable” two-and-a-half-ton diesel SUV. However, the news report modestly neglected to mention that the Gavin advertorial was featured in the print and online editions of the IT, as part of a series of “stars” bragging… Read more »

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BOG CUTTINGS

Date: July 14, 2022 - Bog Cuttings

ROUND OF SHOTS Eric Nicholson (25) of 6 Oak Drive, Ballacollig, Mountmellick, pleaded guilty in Portlaoise District Court to public intoxication and being abusive toward gardaí. Sergeant Mark Daly told the court that gardaí spotted the defendant, who was unsteady on his feet, on Limetree Avenue, Portlaoise, on April 30 last. When they approached, Sergeant… Read more »

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EOIN COLFER’S PARTNER

Date: July 14, 2022 - Behind the Scenes

INTERESTING TO see that super successful novelist Eoin Colfer has set up a company with theatre producer Breda Cashe. Not surprisingly, the venture isn’t linked to any new movie adaptation of Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series of young adult books, given the scribbler’s bruising experience a couple of years ago. Colfer’s interaction with Hollywood was a… Read more »

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Tailored Films Screen Ireland Perspectives DCCI Crescine Tarka Russell Lara Hickey Reality Check Sarah McInerney Irish Movies Paul Murray Arts Council Dublin Theatre Festival TWU Macdara Kelleher Richard Boyd Barrett DADC Cillian Murphy Terry McMahon Media Commission Ireland Kerlin Gallery Creative Ireland Section 481 Christine O’Donovan RTÉ Storyland NMI Board Vacancies IASCA Ossie Kilkenny RTÉ Original Programmes

NEW BLOOD AT NMI

Date: July 14, 2022 - Behind the Scenes

WITH the closing date having passed for applicants to the board of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), it will be interesting to see how long Catherine Martin waits to appoint the new face to the Catherine Heaney-chaired board. As a result of a recent vacancy arising, there are currently four seats to be filled… Read more »

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BIG SNAKE LITTLE SNAKE – DBC PIERRE

Date: July 14, 2022 - BooksBooks|ReviewsReviews

SINCE WINNING the 2003 Booker Prize for his debut novel, Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre has continued to, occasionally, write hit-and-miss satirical fiction that is inventive, unconventional and frustratingly over-the-top. The Australian-born writer (intermittently resident in Leitrim over recent years) has a history of challenging readers to make sense of his work. His latest non-fiction… Read more »

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O’BRIEN’S AMERICAN DREAM

Date: July 14, 2022 - Sport of Kings

HAVING PLUNDERED some major international Group 1 prizes in Australia and America last year, Joseph O’Brien‘s horses are on the up. Now the trainer is looking to go a step further this year by basing a select number of horses in America this summer. O’Brien has rented stalls at the racetrack in Saratoga in upstate… Read more »

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MICK BAILEY BACK ON TRACK

Date: July 14, 2022 - Sport of Kings

AN INTERESTING recent returnee to racehorse ownership in Ireland is one Mick Bailey of Bovale Developments. A prominent owner during the Celtic Tiger days when he had horses with Arthur Moore and in England with the late Michael Jarvis, Bailey had to severely curtail his racing interests after the economy crashed and his considerable loan… Read more »

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RONAN MCNALLY’S FORM

Date: July 14, 2022 - Sport of Kings

THE TRAINER Ronan McNally has had his fair share of setbacks when he trains a winner. Some wins have coincided with either a major gamble being landed or a stewards’ enquiry – and sometimes even both. That was the case at Roscommon last week, when McNally’s Petrol Head was backed from as high as 14/1… Read more »

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A HEADACHE FOR TIM HUSBANDS

Date: July 14, 2022 - Sport of Kings

IT APPEARS that for the third year in a row the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown – arguably Ireland’s premier flat race – will be run without a sponsor. Consistently ranked among the top five flat races in the world, based on the ratings of the horses that take part, the €1m event has not… Read more »

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FALCON OIL SHARES GET READY TO FLY

Date: July 14, 2022 - Moneybags

SOMETIMES, IN business, things can change very quickly. The global target for carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to reduce air pollution has seen governments seek to ban oil and gas exploration, which has in turn discouraged the big energy companies from drilling for new oil and gas resources. This has created a worldwide shortage,… Read more »

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KINGSPAN’S SHARE PRICE ROLLERCOASTER CONTINUES

Date: July 14, 2022 - Moneybags

THE FACT that Kingspan, the second most valuable Irish quoted company at the beginning of this year, when worth €20bn, has almost halved in value in six months is gobsmacking. Kingspan’s share price has plummeted from nearly €107 at the end of 2021 to €56 last week – a drop of over 47%, representing a… Read more »

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ALAN CURRAN’S ‘SCOUTING TRIPS’

Date: July 14, 2022 - Briefcases

MUCH FANFARE was expended last week by the Jimmy Menton-chaired board of Providence Resources in announcing the appointment of Alan Curran as interim chief executive. Just the man Providence needs, the frustrated investors will certainly have thought, reading the press release’s information about Curran’s “40 years in the oil and gas industry … wide range… Read more »

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GREENCOAT RENEWABLES’ JAMMY CONTRACT

Date: July 14, 2022 - Briefcases

GOLDHAWK WAS interested to see that the Rónán Murphy-chaired board of the listed wind energy conglomerate Greencoat Renewables has been busy renewing the lucrative contract held by the company’s ‘investment manager’, Greencoat Capital. There has, however, been a ‘reduction’ in the chunky fees on offer to the principals here. The main driver behind the formation… Read more »

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GERRY GANNON’S WINDFALL

Date: July 14, 2022 - Briefcases

IT LOOKS like yet another bumper payday is heading the way of developer and landowner extraordinaire Gerry Gannon, who has put the former Quickpark 6,100-space car park on 42 acres at Dublin Airport on the market, with a guide price of a high-flying €70m. The sale of the Dublin Airport car-park follows on from a… Read more »

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CULLINANE’S COWS

Date: July 14, 2022 - Fowl Emissions

WHAT A topical if misleading article the Irish Times published this week from Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president, Tim Cullinane, on the burning issue of methane. For decades, the focus of global efforts to tackle spiralling greenhouse gas emissions has been on carbon dioxide (CO2), a heat-trapping gas released mainly by the burning of fossil… Read more »

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MARY AIKEN’S PALS

Date: June 30, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

WITHOUT DOUBT, the most interesting of the women conferred with the freedom of Dublin City last month is Mary Aiken (whose latest gig is Professor of Cyberpsychology at Capitol Technical University in Maryland). Given the rarity with which the honour is handed out by Dublin City council, Aiken finds herself in rarefied company that includes… Read more »

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MALIGN MISSION

Date: June 30, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

THE IRISH Times reported last week that the government is reconsidering its military mission in Mali, due mainly to security issues; human rights violations by Malian forces; and the increasing influence of the Russian military body, the Wagner Group. Phoenix readers would not have been that surprised at these reports and neither would the smooth… Read more »

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PROFILE: HELEN MCENTEE

Date: June 30, 2022 - Pillars of Society

WAS THERE ever a politician that is so much a product and beneficiary of their own family as minister for justice, Helen McEntee; whose every significant political move has been linked to family members? The minister’s second pregnancy, announced recently, has raised questions about the absence of formal procedures for female politicians to take leave… Read more »

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YOUNG BLOOD: DANNY O’REILLY

Date: June 30, 2022 - The Young Bloods

As he gears himself up for co-hosting RTÉ One’s new Friday night music show, The Main Stage, hirsute rocker Danny O’Reilly must be thanking the gods of fortune for beaming down on him once again. Despite his complete lack of TV hosting experience, the lead singer with The Coronas has been given yet another prime… Read more »

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NOEL SMYTH’S WUFF RIDE

Date: June 30, 2022 - Affairs of the Nation

THIS WEEK will see the next chapter in the ongoing saga of a potential sale by the Irish Kennel Club (IKC) of its valuable National Show Centre near Dublin Airport to solicitor-cum-developer Noel Smyth for €6m. It looks like trouble is brewing. Fans of Goldhawk will be aware (see The Phoenix 20/5/22) that Smyth’s arrival… Read more »

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CIAN’S FOUR STARS

Date: June 30, 2022 - High Society

Showjumping royalty Cian O’Connor has pulled out all the stops with his upgraded ‘state of the art’ equestrian centre in Co Meath. It certainly got a five-star review from Nicola Anderson in the Indo, possibly prompted by O’Connor’s own description of his operation as “like a Four Seasons for horses”. What is clear is the… Read more »

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