Affairs, 10 September 2020

THE TIMING of the Government’s capitulation to open so called “wet pubs” is hardly surprising.  The vintners do not require trendy behavioural science modelling to know that dinner acts as a disincentive to students whose budgets are already better spent down the off licence.   Gasping scholars return to Dublin, Galway, Carlow and Maynooth for orientation… Read more »

Affairs, 9 September 2020

WITH THE PUBLIC desire to get on with life increasingly clashing with efforts to contain the virus, the NEPHET doctors are hardly getting better encouragement from the Government. The great experiment in face coverings got off to a glacial start with mixed messages, woolly advice and the very belated force of law behind masks in… Read more »

Affairs, 8 September 2020

PROOF THAT banks can benefit from any misfortune was underlined this week as Mairéad McGuinness was elevated to the position of European Commissioner overseeing Financial Services, Financial Stability and the Capital Markets Union. The appointment will soften the blow for those who feared Ireland would lose a valuable voice in Phil Hogan’s departure from Trade,… Read more »

Affairs, 8 September 2020

BLUESHIRT INTELLECTUAL Eoin Drea received a firm dressing down in the Irish Times last week for a comical article he wrote for the same paper days earlier. The Brussels boffin has regularly featured in the Irish media with either a byline or contributing quotes, though his background was not always clarified for the audience. There… Read more »

Affairs, 8 September 2020

SPARE A THOUGHT for Goldhawk’s old pal Ben Gilroy who may have yet another day court. The ‘New Land League’ activist, who is the subject of a High Court order preventing him from taking certain legal actions and from providing advice to others, has filed a defamation claim against the Dublin Inquirer newspaper.  The action… Read more »

Affairs, 3 September 2020

AS AMERICA’S FUTURE teeters on the edge, Donald Trump can least count on some support in Belfast. On Wednesday, MP for East Antrim, Sammy Wilson joined Ian Paisley Jr and Paul Girvan outside the British Houses of Parliament with a banner reading: “Trump 2020, keep America great”. The DUP flag waving is more than personal…. Read more »

Affairs, 3 September 2020

THE MERCURIAL Extinction Rebellion movement returned to the streets of London this week for a series of planned protests at Parliament Square. The Met Police confirmed as of 18:00pm Tuesday a total of 90 people had been arrested on suspicion of public order offences. Commander Jane Connors repeated the standard line that “the reason we… Read more »

Affairs, 2 September 2020

THE NEW Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine may have had to step over the bodies of several fallen colleagues on his way to cabinet this week but Goldhawk has kept an eye on young Charlie McConalogue.   Read The Phoenix  Young Bloods profile here.

Affairs, 2 September 2020

NEALE RICHMOND has enjoyed something of a blessed existence in Fine Gael.  As a favourite of party strategists and influential figures in the leadership, the new deputy for Dublin Rathdown will hardly be too disappointed to see Simon Coveney packing his bags for Brussels. Will a long streak of good fortune now carry the first… Read more »

Affairs, 31 August 2020

GALWAY WEST TD Noel Grealish has been most contrite since details of ‘golfgate’ emerged. News of the event was greeted with dismay locally. Both City Mayor Mike Cubbard and Galway County Cathaoirleach James Charity have called for the TD to resign.  A high profile controversy last year following remarks about the lodging of asylum seekers… Read more »

Affairs, 28 August 2020

THE IDEA that Phil Hogan’s continued presence on the European stage was vital to the interests of farmers was one of the more fanciful of several such notions floated in recent days. Some elements have been quick to paint his demise as a set back for rural Ireland in particular. This is a smoke screen,… Read more »

Affairs, 28 August 2020

SYMPATHETICALLY INCLINED obituaries for Phil Hogan will surely attempt to flag the introduction of gender quotas as at least one example of the Kilkenny bruiser’s more enlightened instincts. In what has now come to define Hogan’s legacy, ambition remains unfulfilled. Gender quotas legislation was a product of the need for opposition parties in 2011 to… Read more »

Affairs, 27 August 2020

THE CLOCK was ticking on Phil Hogan’s career the moment an EU spokesperson stepped on the podium to brief the media on Friday afternoon. Once the former Commissioner’s EU bosses realised that they were burning their own credibility in publicly repeating partial accounts of his movements, it was only a matter of time before patience… Read more »

Affairs, 27 August 2020

IT HAS been a punishing month for the government’s raft of special advisers, several of whom arrived mid-July from the ranks of media and PR, amidst controversy over the hefty salaries for such appointments. Media coverage of health minister Stephen Donnelly’s car-crash press conference last week focused a spotlight on advisers – in this case… Read more »

Affairs, 25 August 2020

IT WAS torrid week for Health Minister Stephen Donnelly who surely imagined his ministerial career would be very different. First, there was widespread confusion and anger following the announcement of new guidelines on Tuesday. Efforts to address these concerns resulted in an interview with Zara King on Virgin Media Television that did little to endear… Read more »

Affairs, 25 August 2020

CRIES THAT Sinn Fein are not a “normal party” have been given further credence as it avoided being implicated in the ‘golfgate’ drama. Just days earlier, Pat Leahy in the Irish Times took the narrative to new and absurd levels of ahistoricity in claiming that somehow uniquely in Irish politics, “part of the culture of… Read more »

Affairs, 25 August 2020

WITH THE public appetite for news at an all time high, the pandemic has thrown up a whole set of voices jostling to make sense of it all. Among the new attention seekers armed with graphs, statistics and their own take on events, Goldhawk was surprised to see one name pop up on RTE Radio… Read more »

Affairs, 21 August 2020

HSE BOSS Paul Reid was resolute in Thursday’s warning that a recent surge in cases has put “immediate strain on testing and tracing.” Of acute concern was the issue that “some people have well over 40 close contacts, some even up to 50.” Meanwhile, up to 81 past and present lawmakers had gathered for a… Read more »

Affairs, 20 August 2020

POLITICAL aficionados have focussed their attention on dissent within the Green Party, but how long can Micheál Martin tolerate the public machinations of Jim O’Callaghan? The backbencher has made no secret of his ambitions for the leadership, but the Taoiseach must be pining for the days when all he had to deal with was the… Read more »

Affairs, 19 August 2020

AT FIRST glance, Ruth Dudley Edwards is an unlikely champion of the recently ennobled Clare Fox. This peerage has been a source of outcry in Britain due to Fox’s record of support for the Provisional IRA. Former Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox is not only now a ‘Lady’, she is also a founder member of… Read more »

Affairs, 19 August 2020

FANS OF Goldhawk will not be surprised to see Claire Byrne announced as presenter of the Today Show on Radio One. While stand-in Sarah McInerney won plaudits for her handling of the popular morning slot, there was little doubt that the show would be hosted by more a embedded creature of RTÉ RTÉ MUSICAL CHAIRS… Read more »

Affairs, 18 August 2020

FRIDAY’S BIG PR push provided some insight into the dynamics in government as Fianna Fáil struggle to keep up with Fine Gael. The Blueshirt’s intensely public-focused strategy has their old foe looking more than a little rusty. Social Protection Minister Heather Humphries was up early that morning with the announcement of an Enterprise Support Grant… Read more »

Affairs, 17 August 2020

THE HITS keep coming for Goldhawk’s old pal, Jay Bourke. The one-time restaurant impresario is back on the defensive as weekend antics at one of his Dublin venues became the stuff of national outrage. The publican was disqualified from acting as a company director in 2017 and has been involved in a string of legal… Read more »

Affairs, 14 August 2020

IT WAS ironic that it took the death of John Hume to ensure that the Sindo opinion pages were eagerly awaited throughout the nation for the first time in many years. Among the well-crafted, but highly revisionist, special section last weekend (see The Phoenix 13/8/20), Liam Collins shared one tale of personal reconciliation similar to… Read more »

Affairs, 14 August 2020

ONE OF the sacred cows in Irish politics is the European Union and Ireland’s unequivocal unambiguous commitment to stay part of Team EU, no matter what the issue, no matter what might objectively be in Ireland’s different interest. To raise a critical voice is, as Ray Bassett claims in this self-published book, “a career damaging… Read more »

Affairs, 13 August 2020

MOST IRISH TIMES readers and certainly those who work in the IT editor’s office would dismiss the notion of Papal infallibility but they do expect Fintan O’Toole to always get it right. There was much confusion then when former climate action minister Richard Bruton tore shreds off Fintan for getting it fundamentally wrong in his… Read more »

Affairs, 12 August 2020

WHILE SOME might sit to have their portrait painted, Mícheál Martin seems to prefer sitting for interviews. With three of the daily broadsheets accorded such opportunities last week, perhaps Martin takes more interest in the fluffy side of politics than he likes to let on. The suit jacket was off as the journalists were welcomed… Read more »

Affairs, 7 August 2020

EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES may have belatedly landed Dara Calleary in cabinet but it already looks like the same old story from the new agriculture minister. As three counties head back into lockdown, Calleary, like Michael Creed before, has been silent as COVID-19 continues to rampage in meat factories. This time last year lobby group Meat Industry… Read more »

Affairs, 5 August 2020

FROM MAWKISH home videos to cringemaking cover versions, the pandemic has seen plenty of celebs miss the mood as they battle for attention and relevance. While charity fundraising, lockdown selfies and social media activism is the standard fare, recruiting for the British Army is, er, less so. Irish television presenter Laura Whitmore finally hit the… Read more »

Affairs, 5 August 2020

CONGRATULATIONS are in order for Richard Moore who is to head up MI6 from the Autumn. Born in Libya, Moore has spent a career in the diplomatic services, serving as ambassador to Turkey before climbing to the post Director General at the Foreign Office. One does not reach the top of British spookdom without significant… Read more »

Affairs, 5 August 2020

THE New Statesman and others were appalled at Boris Johnson’s elevation of various Brexit supporters to the House of Lords last week. But among the imperial list of new peers former Labour MP and hard line Unionist supporter, Kate Hoey stands out. The then Tánaiste, Simon Coveney condemned Hoey in 2018 for saying the Good… Read more »

Affairs, 30 July 2020

PUBLICITY FOLLOWING the removal of four statues from Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel will do no harm for business as even the upper crust of Irish hospitality battles to salvage its Summer season. The dependably creative tourism machine in Georgian Westport is probably sorry it didn’t come up with the attention grabbing stunt first. Headlines have already… Read more »