Affairs, 2 April 2020

ROCKED BY TRAVEL BANS and deserted cities, Airbnb, the self-styled disruptor, is currently facing disruption of its own Tourism remains potentially the longest term casualty of Covid. While the more IT focused luminaries of Silicon Valley are seeing a boom due to social distancing, Airbnb’s trade in bricks, mortar and travel has collapsed. The company… Read more »

Affairs, 2 April 2020

SELF-DESCRIBED “jumped up ticket tout” Paddy Cosgrave has been more voluble than usual in his criticism of the Irish government but this has almost been matched by the Web Summit founder’s praise for a far off country. His relentless, highly critical (and often inaccurate) tweets about the Irish Covid-19 experience have had the effect of… Read more »

Affairs, 1 April 2020

IT IS ALMOST a year since Leo Varadkar visited the Hague for bilateral talks with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte. As Britain leaves the EU, the Netherlands aspire to fill the gap as a third major power between Germany and France. To do this it will need to establish a support base as the leader… Read more »

Affairs, 30 March 2020

THERE HAS BEEN A MIXED reaction in Glasgow to the appointment of David Graham as head of communications at Rangers Football Club. The former DUP special advisor was elected to Belfast City Council in May and will now vacate that role for a move to Ibrox. Graham worked as a history teacher before leaving an… Read more »

Affairs, 30 March 2020

THIN SKINNED BLUESHIRTS have perhaps become a little too adverse to criticism as the Government negotiates its way through the Covid crisis. Buoyed by a sure footed performance from the party’s leading lights, supporters have been basking in the unfamiliar glow of national unity and its consequent effect of dampening scrutiny.   That all changed… Read more »

Affairs, 27 March 2020

THE AWARDING by a jury of €300,000 in defamation damages to Chris Gordon is not the end of this particular race. An appeal looks certain given that the defendants, the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (ITRA), would be severely handicapped by the financial impact. Presumably, also looking for a better finish is Liz Doyle – racehorse… Read more »

Affairs, 27 March 2020

RTÉ’S INTENTION TO SCREEN an Operation Transformation spin-off centred on the coronavirus is off to an inauspicious start. Producers plan to install cameras in the homes of five families to “capture how they are coping behind closed doors since Covid-19 arrived in Ireland”. Reaction on social media has been decidedly mixed, with the loudest voices… Read more »

Affairs, 26 March 2020

THE IRISH BANKING SECTOR finds itself in the most uncomfortable position of being called upon to play its part in the national effort. The Covid crisis touches every aspect of life; Government is scrambling to contain the disease and the public are making enormous sacrifices, but even after a costly €64bn bailout the banks remain… Read more »

Affairs, 25 March 2020

WHILE DAILY UPDATES from Italy have become a fixture of Irish news bulletins, an increasingly tense labour stand off has not received the same prominence. Headlines have focused on ski resorts, balcony singing and deserted tourist attractions, but northern Italy is also the country’s industrial heartland. Despite rapidly ramping up isolation and social distancing measures,… Read more »

Affairs, 24 March 2020

THE “CORONAVIRUS is no time for rookie ministers” according to Susie O’Connor in Tuesday’s Irish Times. The management consultant argues that considering the “very steep learning curve”, “vast amounts of data” and general rigmarole facing a new “cast of characters”, it would be best if Leo Varadkar and co remain in their jobs. While these… Read more »

Affairs, 23 March 2020

AS ONE FUNDAMENTAL conviction after another vanishes in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, surely Eoghan Murphy has further reason to feel foolish. Despite widespread scepticism last year, the housing minister was prepared to act as a salesman for Richard Barrett’s plans to develop a number of so-called “co-living” units in Dublin city. This week… Read more »

Affairs, 23 March 2020

THE RETURN of John Concannon to the centre of government will raise eyebrows and certainly be a cause for some alarm among opposition parties. Concannon, who previously headed up Varadkar’s ill-fated ‘Strategic Communications Unit’ (SCU), is back to manage the state’s public information campaign during the coronavirus outbreak. Rather than shaping the news, however, the… Read more »

Affairs, 20 March 2020

NEWTON EMERSON is rather selective in his assessment of the reaction to the UK’s handling of the coronavirus. Writing in Thursday’s Irish Times, the columnist plays down both Boris’ bungling and the DUP’s misplaced conviction that Number 10 had the right strategy. It is not entirely correct to suggest that divisions this week at Stormont… Read more »

Affairs, 19 March 2020

THE SPEED WITH which government figures have adopted the language of solidarity is a sight to behold. Gone is the cult of individualism, the veneration of job creators, risk takers, the so called squeezed middle and “people who get up early in the morning to pay for everything”. For now, at least, “we are all… Read more »

Affairs, 19 March 2020

THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT was forced into an embarrassing u-turn as the full scale of its calamitous coronavirus policy finally began to penetrate minds in Number 10. Boris Johnson has been subject to enormous criticism over his handling of the outbreak with a growing number of health professionals and scientists questioning his refusal to implement social… Read more »

Affairs, 18 March 2020

THESE ARE UNCERTAIN times for Dublin’s Gay Theatre Festival (DGTF) who say that any decision to suspend funding would be a “crippling blow.” Concerns were raised this week as Dublin City Council (DCC) announced its intention to review spending and grant allocations in light of the coronavirus outbreak. DGTF receives around €18,000 annually in state… Read more »

Affairs, 13 March 2020

“MANY LOVED ONES WILL DIE” according to the front page of the Daily Mail which quotes Boris Johnson’s speech to the nation on Thursday. By some contrast, the Irish edition leads with Leo Varadkar’s remarks that “Together we can save many lives”. The British editorial praises the prime minister for “striking the right tone”, while… Read more »

Affairs, 12 March 2020

IRISH EYES ARE smiling with the appointment of John ‘Mick’ Mulvaney as US envoy to Northern Ireland. The post had been left vacant since Trump took office as President in 2017, but with the announcement coming just days before An Taoiseach visited Washington, the White House looks to be gearing up to entice the Irish… Read more »

Affairs, 12 March 2020

AN INTERESTING CONTEST in the Seanad elections will see Gerard Craughwell and Sarah Walshe both compete for a seat on the labour panel. Craughwell has established himself as a most vocal public advocate for members of the Defence Forces since his election to the Seanad in 2014. The army veteran has served as a direct… Read more »

Affairs, 10 March 2020

BILLIONAIRE DERMOT DESMOND emerged as an unlikely people’s champion at the weekend with a lengthy analysis of the housing crisis published in the Irish Times. The Kaiser’s background in finance lent him significant credibility as he cut through much of the obfuscation currently clouding official debate on the issue. He presented a comprehensive diagnosis of… Read more »

Affairs, 9 March 2020

MUCH HAS BEEN made recently of younger voters and their supposed ignorance of the Troubles. Post-election commentary has settled with some unease on the fact that contemporary issues like rent or the cost of living have taken precedence over events from thirty or forty years ago. The most vocal making such claims are of course… Read more »

Affairs, 9 March 2020

DURING a 2013 broadcast of Tonight with Vincent Browne, former TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan suggested that leaking the details of Clare Daly arrest was a, “vindictive action by, I believe, a corrupt police force”. For this admission Flanagan was savaged over the next week in the media and by political opponents with few if anyone… Read more »

Affairs, 5 March 2020

IT HAS BEEN a bitter few weeks for the Newman clan with Kate O’Connell losing her seat in Dublin Bay South and her sister Mary Newman coming well short of expectations in Tipperary. Following O’Connell’s election in 2016, there was a presumption, even a sense of entitlement, that Newman would follow one way or another…. Read more »

Affairs, 3 March 2020

HUGO MACNEILL’S BID for a seat in the Seanad got off to a flying start with a profile in the Sunday Business Post, his own column in the Belfast Telegraph and an interview with Sam Smyth in The Currency. Clearly, his spouse is not the only one with a knack for public relations (see The… Read more »

Affairs, 3 March 2020

THIS WEEK’S APPOINTMENT of Tory minister Michael Gove as chair of the committee that will oversee the EU Withdrawal Agreement will be a cause for disquiet on this side of the Irish sea. Gove is already infamous for describing the Belfast Agreement as a “humiliation” and a “moral stain” on Britain. One of the landmark… Read more »

Affairs, 3 March 2020

GOLDHAWK FANS will not be surprised to learn that Saoirse McHugh is one of the three names put forward by the Green Party for Seanad Éireann. With a plethora of councillors at local authority level, green candidates are all but assured a seats but see The Phoenix 22/02/20 for more details about how the party… Read more »

Affairs, 28 February 2020

IRISH POETRY MAY be on the cusp of a reckoning similar to that which rocked the Abbey Theatre in 2016. For some time now disquiet has been bubbling about the representation and opportunities afforded to women and minorities in literary circles. This has grown into wider questions about the allocation of resources from bodies like… Read more »