Affairs, 15 January 2021

MICHEAL MARTIN’S belief that the Commission of Investigation has “produced the definitive account” is not one shared by an increasingly irate collection of observers. The swift apology this week was intended to bring a managed catharsis. Calls that the Government’s response be delayed until the report could be digested properly were ignored as the state… Read more »

Affairs, 15 January 2021

OVERCOMING THE state’s chronic housing shortage is only one of the daunting tasks facing Darragh O’Brien The most unenviable job in government comes with an interesting set of Fianna Fáil themed challenges for the Minister. The issue of housing is myriad with soaring prices, rents and homelessness. Infrastructure lags limit medium term options, decades of… Read more »

Affairs, 15 January 2021

WHAT AN impressive piece of revisionism adorned the Irish Times front page this week. With the Mother and Baby Homes Report providing something of a national event, competition between newspapers to produce a statement was intense. The Irish Examiner stole the show, dispensing altogether with editorialising headlines and instead listed the names of children who… Read more »

Affairs, 15 January 2021

THE SINDO permitting Frances Black to pen a response to Eoghan Harris’s column, “Don’t heed the hypocrites – this push for Irish unity will end in tears,” is certainly an interesting development. After six months in the job, could editor Alan English be growing weary of the Republican apostate beating the same tired old drum,… Read more »

Affairs, 15 January 2021

THE DRAMATIC scenes in Washington last week have naturally turned attention to the security of Ireland’s democracy. The Irish Independent reports that Leinster House authorities are to review procedures with a view to strengthening measures, if necessary. Certainty, it would be cause for concern if an invading mob were ever to disrupt the work of… Read more »

Affairs, 14 January 2021

VIRGIN MEDIA has unveiled its spring schedule with promises of exciting new programmes, but said little about its flagship breakfast show, Ireland AM/Weekend AM. It would do well to focus some attention on the long-running morning show, which needs a fairly substantial overhaul. Presenter likeability is a huge factor in the making – or breaking… Read more »

Affairs, 14 January 2021

GRÁINNE SEOIGE’S decision to return to our shores is somewhat baffling. After all, a couple of years ago she informed us that it was “such a relief” to move to South Africa where she isn’t recognised by the public. The glittering Galwegian also carped to VIP Magazine in 2017 about the media writing about her… Read more »

Affairs, 13 January 2021

THOSE RESPONSIBLE for leaking details of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission were no doubt trembling as Micheál Martin dubbed the affair “regrettable”. Mercifully, there will have been some comfort when An Taoiseach was seen to hide behind semantics on Tuesday, reminding assembled reporters that it was merely elements of the findings rather than the… Read more »

Affairs, 13 January 2021

WITH SHAMEFUL episodes of Ireland’s past on display this week, Joan Burton emerged to make a rare public appearance since losing her seat last year. The former Labour Party leader penned a column for the Irish Independent on Monday recounting her own experience of adoption and contributed to a similar item on RTE Prime Time…. Read more »

Affairs, 13 January 2021

ALL’S WELL that end’s well for bitchin’ Blueshirt Barry Walsh. The controversial Fine Gael activist capped off his rehabilitation at the weekend with a byline in the Sunday Times. The former President of Young Fine Gael had previously drawn criticism from party figures like Kate O’Connell and Regina Doherty being accused of directing online invective… Read more »

Affairs, 13 January 2021

WE WILL be holding Marian Keyes directly responsible for inflicting a plague of journo-turned-writers on us in 2022, thanks to the free masterclasses she is currently giving online. It has become de rigeur for authors, magazine editors and journalists to publicly worship at Keyes’ altar, love-bombing her, quoting her and gushingly referring to her as… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2021

PUBLICATION of the Mother and Baby Home Report must feel eerily familiar for several of those involved. Not least those most impacted. The 2009 report on the Dublin Archdiocese, also chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy and assisted by Ita Mangan, was similarly completed under a Fianna Fail/Green Party government and, as it happens, similarly leaked… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2021

THE INTREPID work of Donie O’Sullivan in Washington has brought home the dangers of misinformation. The CNN reporter made several appearances in Ireland’s media since Trump supporters stormed the United States Congress on Wednesday but gun-toting God-fearing America is not the only echo chamber of concern. Having extensively catalogued the spread of online propaganda, O’Sullivan… Read more »

Affairs, 12 January 2021

WHILE SHE was unveiled as the Swan in the ITV singing competition, The Masked Singer, last week, Martine McCutcheon caused a rather more local stir on Irish social media this week. Acolytes of Vicki Notaro, MD of VIP Publishing, took umbrage on her behalf when she tweeted ”Sorry, what the actual fuck!!?” upon discovering that McCutcheon… Read more »

Affairs, 8 January 2021

PERHAPS the only sliver of good fortune falling in the Government’s lap since March has been the disorganised and disunited state of its Opposition. Administrations headed by Leo Varadkar and then Micheál Martin have been characterised by (usually shambolic) reaction rather than planning but the absence of any presentable alternatives has allowed each Government to… Read more »

Affairs, 8 January 2021

GIVEN ITS dependence on public funds and capacity for bleeding the state dry, the irony of RTÉ commissioning high-profile names to pen or read short stories about “independence” is not lost on anyone. Last summer, the national broadcaster told the Government that it was forecasting a deficit of €36m for 2020. This clearly didn’t prevent… Read more »

Affairs, 8 January 2021

WHILE FILLING TV show guest slots during a global pandemic understandably has its challenges, The Late Late Show team have clearly become deranged from the stress of it all. How else could you explain their baffling decision to vaccinate six people against Covid-19 live in studio on tonight’s show? We could almost excuse the swab… Read more »

Affairs, 8 January 2021

THE RICTUS grins the Happy Pear twins are sporting these days are particularly unnerving, even by their standards, but hopefully they’re attributable to their food empire finally producing a healthy balance sheet. Stephen and David Flynn are peddling a message of relentless positivity as they flog their latest cookbook, The Happy Health Plan. It cannily… Read more »

Affairs, 7 January 2021

A FESTIVE hangover is bad enough without collective amnesia about what occurred the night before. For some industry groups and their media supporters, it seems that 2020 is being left firmly in past. In a year when commerce was largely shuttered, the views of business owners and their representatives were never louder, more persistent and… Read more »

Affairs, 7 January 2021

THE SENSE of foreboding in Government Buildings this week is untold. Public patience is in short supply, and, as voters face into what will be yet the longest, most deadly period of the pandemic, it seems that the best Leo Varadkar can hope for is a fool’s pardon. Back in November, the Tánaiste stood in… Read more »

Affairs, 6 January 2021

INM STAFF were surprised to see Peter Vandermeersch’s photography piece appearing in the Sindo’s Life magazine last Sunday, as the paper’s other supplement, People & Culture, is known as the Mediahuis publisher’s favourite child. The day after the Living supplement was rebranded to People & Culture at the end of November, Vandermeersch wrote to all… Read more »

Affairs, 5 January 2021

MARISSA CARTER’s two-year-old cosmetics company has been dealt a blow by the loss of her right-hand woman, Claudia Gocoul. Gocoul kicked off the new year by announcing that she has left her position as managing director of Carter Beauty Cosmetics. She is now taking a bite at the role of head of retail at Spotlight… Read more »

Affairs, 5 January 2021

THE MOOD music has changed for concert promoter Robert Quirke who may have gotten in a little over his head in response to Covid-19. After months of glowing media coverage, emerging details have taken the shine off some of ROQU Media’s big promises. Last month the Irish Examiner reported that the HSE paid Quirke’s company… Read more »

Affairs, 5 January 2021

AFTER NEARLY four years wandering the dessert, is Kevin Myers about to reach the Promise Land? The columnist continues to trade on the notion that he has been banished from the media while making increasingly frequent appearances in the same. As his book was being widely reviewed in September it did not prevent Myers telling… Read more »

Affairs, 5 January 2021

CREDIT IS due to the many unnamed Irish public servants who secured a historic Brexit trade agreement without Phil Hogan. Anyone heeding the overblown warnings last August would have been under the impression that such a diplomatic achievement would have been unattainable in the former Commissioner’s absence. In the Irish Independent over Christmas, Hogan was… Read more »

Affairs, 1 January 2021

YOU CAN hardly turn on the TV these days without encountering Lynn Ruane in her pyjamas (Lodging with Lucy), or hanging from a bar six metres above a lake (Ireland’s Fittest Family: Celebrity Special). During the latter, the nakedly-ambitious independent senator hung on for one minute and 12 seconds before plunging into the icy water… Read more »

Affairs, 29 December 2020

NPHET’S ENTREATIES to rein in plans meant that Christmas was a more subdued affair this year, but the bells were still ringing out at Casa Bella, the home of influencer Suzanne Jackson. While hospitality venues were ordered to close mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve to curb the spread of Covid-19, pesky restrictions weren’t going to prevent… Read more »

Affairs, 21 December 2020

WEDDINGS and pregnancies are usually joyful occasions, but, in the case of Laura Whitmore, these milestones offered her the opportunity to give her barely-concealed contempt of the media yet another outing. Responding to reports in The Sun and Irish Sun that she had married her Scottish boyfriend Iain Stirling at City Hall in Dublin on… Read more »

Affairs, 18 December 2020

SPARE A thought for Ireland’s economists who have been among the hardest hit by Covid-19. The nation was stunned this year when this dour collection of mostly male monetary modellers, spreadsheet warriors, think tank thought leaders and lobbyists were overlooked as the Government compiled its list of essential workers. Was there to be no nightly… Read more »

Affairs, 18 December 2020

BEAUTY INFLUENCER Suzanne ­Jackson and her husband Dylan O’Connor look set to zoom into 2021, given that they registered a brand new company, Doc Motors Limited, earlier this year. The company’s principal activity is listed as the sale of cars and light motor vehicles, and O’Connor is director and sole shareholder of the business, while… Read more »

Affairs, 15 December 2020

THE CHAOS coalition could hardly have done a better job in teeing up the controversial Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between Europe and Canada. The Green Party’s remaining supporters have been alarmed by the manner in which the Government is conducting its business. Coalition party leaders have decided to postpone a Dáil vote on CETA… Read more »