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THE TOP four favourites to succeed Ms Justice Mary Irvine as president of the High Court each have distinguished credentials in the areas that they oversee, ie, in the court lists they run. High Court judge Denis McDonald runs the Commercial Court list and his reputation is perhaps the highest of the contenders in the… Read more »

THERE WEREN’T too much questions asked by nosey hacks when Pascal Donohoe was roped into the PR exercise heralding a €300m Greystones film studio ‘campus’ backed by Michael Hackman’s Hackman Capital Partners (HCP) and Craig Solomon’s Square Mile Capital real estate finance vehicle. This is despite the investment by the taxpayer. Last year, LA-based moneybags… Read more »

ONE CHARACTERISATION of conflicts such as sexual offences in the Defence Forces is that of the defence department’s alleged control freakery and micromanagement. But another description is that of the department wrestling with the Army’s resistance to modernisation. Outgoing chief of staff Vice-Admiral Mark Mellett is still licking his wounds after six years as overall… Read more »

A COMPANY called Festuca Ltd probably doesn’t ring too many bells for Goldhawk fans but it turns out to be one of the firms incorporated by journo and professional controversialist turned podcaster Eamon Dunphy. He has just wound it up and the good news is that there was a nice little surplus of €400,000. These… Read more »

MARK HENRY, author of In Fact: An Optimist’s Guide to Ireland at 100, has been getting rave reviews from the ‘right’ people’ (very ‘right’ people), in particular those who are especially anxious to spread the word about Ireland’s “extraordinary success”. The same people have a special interest in claiming that ‘you’ve never had it so… Read more »

WITH FOREIGN embassies and their information gathering under scrutiny (well, one of them), it is interesting to note that the mainstream media ignored the stream of information supplied by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks which detailed the US embassy’s views of former taoiseach Jack Lynch and his nemesis Charles J Haughey. Shortly after the 1970 Arms Trial… Read more »

A SMALL piece of Dáil history was made recently, with the first joint meeting of the oireachtas committees on agriculture and environment and climate. What might have proven a valuable forum for an exchange of expert views on the contentious issue of agricultural emissions reductions instead quickly descended into farce. Instead of expert input, the… Read more »

YET ANOTHER less than auspicious cinema opening for an Irish film took place last month with Brendan Muldowney’s haunted-house drama, The Cellar, where the suits at John Calvert’s BCP Asset Management are looking to clear more profit on the film than either its producers or exhibitors. The reviews to date have been mixed to put… Read more »

He also said Ms Burke had criticised another partner, Kevin Lynch, when he stopped by to congratulate her for completing a deal. The witness said Ms Burke told Mr Lynch “she wouldn’t have had to work so late on that transaction if his team had been doing their work”. Ultan Shannon, partner, Arthur Cox Solc,… Read more »

RTÉ HAS for years relied on ‘experts’ from the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House (CH) to provide Irish listeners with their views on international affairs, most recently, the conflict in Ukraine. The most high-profile CH star to feature on RTÉ recently is Sir Andrew Wood, ex-British ambassador to Moscow. He worked hand… Read more »