Affairs, 28 October 2020

THERE HAS been yet further indignity heaped upon the loyal foot soldiers of Fianna Fáil. Members reacted with disbelief this week when Ciarán Bolger, one of the party’s back room team in Brussels, shared on the official Fianna Fáil members Facebook group a video produced by Fine Gael. The two minute clip focusing on Sinn… Read more »

Affairs, 27 October 2020

FINTECH UPSTART Revolut has been busy lobbying TDs. The trendy payments firm opened a Dublin office in 2017, and, as a result of Brexit, announced plans to anchor its European operations in Ireland earlier this year. The company saw apparently impressive growth in that period, from 40,000 Irish users in 2017 to what it says… Read more »

Affairs, 23 October 2020

LABOUR POLITICIAN turned business lobbyist, Lorraine Higgins, surely felt a chill as her fellow diner Brian Hayes was grilled on Radio One’s Drivetime this week. While some keen golfers continue to absent themselves from important meetings, for others the show must go on in the name of industry special pleading. Sarah McInerney’s nose for a… Read more »

Affairs, 22 October 2020

THE IRISH TIMES did the British press some service at the weekend in treading where  few have ventured.  A pithy review of the first novel by London media darling Dolly Alderton caused a stir after a photo of the text from Saturday’s edition was posted on social media. The piece by Barry Pierce was subsequently… Read more »

Affairs, 21 October 2020

As the Founder of The Countess Didn’t Fight for This, I would like to draw your readers’ attention to a few facts regarding the article The Countess Returns (see The Phoenix 9/10/20). Our members live in Ireland with some 10% living abroad. The Gender Extremist who traced our geographical positions, traced our VPNs not our… Read more »

Affairs, 19 October 2020

THE LATEST digital technologies are to play a major role in the fight against Covid-19, or at least this is what Robert Quirke, who has been busy promoting his Health Passport Ireland app,  hopes. Similar to those already floated in Asia since the pandemic began, the app is claimed to provide a user’s up to… Read more »

Affairs, 15 October 2020

AS QUESTIONS are being raised about the absence of additional childcare investment in the budget, the Department of Children is instead using this most hectic week to wrap up some sensitive business of its own.   Minister Roderic O’Gorman intends to proceed with the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records… Read more »

Affairs, 15 October 2020

READERS OF the online version of the Irish Times this week would have missed out on the chance to get the lowdown on the placing in the paper of a controversial full-page advert. This omission may have confused the online subscribers given the level of online chatter the ad generated. The advert in question was… Read more »

Affairs, 14 October 2020

WHILE ATTENTION has focused almost exclusively on rural family run hospitality services and their attempts to keep the doors open, it is not surprising to see Press Up Entertainment among the most forceful of those sabre rattling against the Government’s health advice. In the High Court this week, lawyers for directors Paddy McKillen Jnr and… Read more »

Affairs, 14 October 2020

THERE WAS some slightly better news for Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon this year with an increased allocation of €19.1 million, up from 16.9 in the previous budget. The Commissioner’s office had expressed “disappointment” last year when the government gave less than a third of the additional funding requested in its pre-budget submission (see The… Read more »

Affairs, 13 October 2020

RTE’s MERCILESS promotion of Amy Huberman continues with the second series of underwhelming sitcom Finding Joy, in which Huberman plays a vlogger desperate to attract viewers to her YouTube channel. Having also starred in two seasons of legal ‘thriller’ Striking Out, Huberman appears to be viewed by the national broadcaster as a mercurial artistic talent,… Read more »

Affairs, 13 October 2020

HAVING LONG considered themselves the custodians of higher standards in comparison to those slightly constitutional wide boys in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael’s increasingly à la carte attitude to legal norms continues to baffle even some of their own supporters. This week, Neale Richmond launched an online tirade against Sinn Féin MP John Finucane over a… Read more »

Affairs, 12 October 2020

ÉAMON RYAN’S precarious leadership was on display this weekend, when after two meetings of the Green Party’s new Executive, the committee failed to appoint a chair.  With an enlarged parliamentary party now in Leinster House, efforts are underway to wrest power back to the hands of TDs after a period when the Executive’s influence proved… Read more »

Affairs, 12 October 2020

“IRELAND’S SUSTAINABILITY credentials, verified through Origin Green, are a key point of differentiation from our competitors in the marketplace”, thus said Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in response to three separate parliamentary questions in recent weeks.  This is a good example of how Bord Bia’s marketing has provided cover for successive governments, just as it… Read more »

Affairs, 9 October 2020

THE LATEST ATTEMPTS to press Ireland into the service of England’s panic have failed to rouse support among the natives. Transgender issues and the lives involved have been driven to toxic, polarising extremes in Britain thanks to figures like JK Rowling, Graham Linehan and a noisy section of media commentators in newspapers like The Times…. Read more »

Affairs, 9 October 2020

GRADUATES FACING an uncertain career future can take some comfort in the ubiquity of Diarmaid Ferriter. In the last two weeks the historian has delivered four opinion pieces, a book review and an obituary for the Irish Times.  He appeared on that newspaper’s politics podcast, on RTÉ’s Today with Clare Byrne and sat down for… Read more »

Affairs, 9 October 2020

GREEN PARTY leader Éamon Ryan was unusually eager to emphasise his social justice credo on Thursday when he joined Clare Byrne for an interview on RTÉ Radio.  Outlining his plans for the Climate Bill published this week, much of Ryan’s contribution sounded like a pitch aimed at shoring up internal morale. The legislation, which above… Read more »

Affairs, 2 October 2020

WHAT fortuitous timing as Leo Varadkar made a splash this week with plans to heavily punish price gouging ticket touts. With the sporting and entertainment industries all but closed to the public, many were left bemused by the Government’s priorities, but former TD Noel Rock is surely hoping for an encore. The new legislation is… Read more »

Affairs, 2 October 2020

BUS ÉIREANN’S pre-budget manoeuvring certainly generated headlines this week, but there was little encouragement from the Department of Transport. The dramatic announcement that several key intercity routes are to be axed mimics identical kite flying by RTÉ this time last year, when the national broadcaster threatened to shutter LyricFM, sell its Cork City studios and… Read more »

Affairs, 1 October 2020

IMAGE CONSCIOUS Blueshirt’s were most upset this week during the latest spat between Fine Gael and the Irish Times.  Following defensive screeds from Richard Bruton and Leo Varadkar in recent months, it was Regina Doherty’s turn to scold the paper in its own letters page. The former TD for Meath East took great umbrage with… Read more »

Affairs, 1 October 2020

IT’S BEEN a busy week for Goldhawk’s favourite polemicist, John McGuirk. A few days ago, he decided he’d had enough of all this politically correct gender fluidity and decided to tackle head on media reporting of a story that was doing the rounds about a teenager charged with threats to kill. McGuirk spent a great… Read more »

Affairs, 29 September 2020

WITH A CAREER that spans the national broadcaster, the Catholic Church and politics on both sides of the border, Mary McAleese’s first memoir was bound to generate as much upset as interest. Joe Mulholland, the former RTÉ auditor and director, does not emerge well. Beyond detailing the atmosphere that existed in Montrose during the conflict… Read more »

Affairs, 29 September 2020

ELEMENTS OF respectable society were most perturbed last week when Jack Lynch received a trashing on Liveline. On the 50th anniversary of the Arms Trial, contributions on radio came from Colm Hefferon, son of the late Col Michael Hefferon; Suzanne Kelly, daughter of Captain James Kelly; Éamon Blaney son of the late TD Neil Blaney… Read more »

Affairs, 24 September 2020

IT IS TESTAMENT to the resilience of some ideas that shovelling more money to the middle classes is being touted as the next move in the fight against Covid-19. With tax breaks —  that catch-all panacea — off the table, the Government are instead flirting with the idea of paying social media influencers to promote… Read more »

Affairs, 23 September 2020

THERE WERE more awkward headlines this week with the New York Times returning to Dublin’s rental market. Image conscious policymakers and those sensitive to foreign direct investment will hardly be pleased to see the influential broadsheet carrying this and related articles under a dedicated section titled “Ireland’s Housing Crunch”. The article, headlined “Tourism Slump in… Read more »

Affairs, 23 September 2020

RTÉ DIRECTOR of Current Affairs, Jon Williams, conceded last week that there will “always be a constituency that doesn’t want to listen. There is no point trying to convert people who say black is white.” The message sadly hadn’t reached 2FM, where Jennifer Zamparelli embarrassed the broadcaster in the days immediately before Montrose launched its… Read more »

Affairs, 22 September 2020

THE UNEXPLAINED delay in publication of the Winter Health Plan will not inspire confidence. This strategy, mooted to be €600m, was due to be released to the public and staff last week. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said that “this winter poses the biggest challenge to healthcare in living memory”, but will it be more… Read more »

Affairs, 18 September 2020

IT WAS another launch and another week of Covid confusion as the Government struggled to get their message in order. Working for the present Irish coalition has surely left Declan Kelly longing for the order, decorum and certainty of Trump’s America. At Dublin Castle, an Taoiseach, an Tánaiste and the Health Minister delivered a 51… Read more »

Affairs, 17 September 2020

THE NATIONAL broadcaster’s decision to screen the Unquiet Graves documentary on Wednesday night drew mixed reaction.  Seán Murray’s award winning film on British state collusion with loyalist paramilitaries premiered in Belfast last year.  Ahead of the first showing on national television, Unquiet Graves was marked as one to watch in the Irish News, Irish Times,… Read more »

Affairs, 16 September 2020

FIONNUALA MCREDMOND’s bid to establish herself as the Irish Times resident young fogey moved up another level on Wednesday. Casting her eye over Jennifer Zamparelli’s self-inflicted controversy, the “Westminster based” columnist repeated a trope gaining currency in stuffier corners of the media world. In the latest scolding from her townhouse, McRedmond’s argument hinged on the… Read more »

Affairs, 16 September 2020

WITH A RETURN to cabinet off the table, Michael McDowell has settled into a gig acting as national conscience in the Irish Times opinion pages.  The country must be in dire straits if the former Tánaiste is worried about the public health service.  This week, McDowell discovered that “the HSE repeatedly warned about the need… Read more »

Affairs, 15 September 2020

PERHAPS NO other figure has suffered for their beliefs as Kevin Myers has done. Banished from respectable society, Myers has been condemned to a lonely existence on the margins. Christlike, the “silenced” writer, with “no career”, nevertheless appeared on front of the Sunday Independent and on Newstalk radio to promote his new book in recent… Read more »

Affairs, 15 September 2020

IT HAS been “an emotional 24 hours” for Jennifer Zamparelli after an embarrassing u-turn on RTÉ Radio.  Media consumption has soared amid the pandemic but as the Government bungles its own communications, the war between Covid fact and fiction is growing increasingly tense.  Prompted by scenes of demonstrations in Dublin at the weekend, Zamparelli unwisely… Read more »

Affairs, 11 September 2020

THE NATION was left flabbergasted on Wednesday when it emerged that the insurance industry has been less than upfront about its business practices. The Central Bank’s shocking findings present an awkward political dilemma for Ministers Paschal Donohoe and Michael McGrath. The initial report is indeed worrisome. Derville Rowland, Director General of Financial Conduct, found that… Read more »

Affairs, 11 September 2020

AFTER MUCH wailing and discontent, Dáil proceeding will mostly be returning to the august confines of Leinster House from next week.  Politicians and journalists alike have been unimpressed with their time at the National Convention Centre. They bemoaned the lack of atmosphere, the difficulty in hearing speakers, the distance to  Doheny and Nesbitt and so… Read more »