Affairs, 9 March 2022

EFFORTS TO talk Helen McEntee into leadership contention have picked up a steady pace though Goldhawk has admittedly struggled to locate the substance beneath some of more extravagant claims made by admirers in recent weeks. The Meath TD’s career has endured only one major political test to date, when she dutifully took the flack for… Read more »

Affairs, 9 March 2022

IT IS with great irony that author John Boyne returns to mine his most successful work for a second time. The novelist has spent recent years in the cultural wars, generating oodles of publicity for himself following tangles with the online mob. Boyne’s headline-grabbing crusades have however seen him caught in a number of contradictions…. Read more »

Affairs, 7 March 2022

LET IT never be said that Irish politicians do not appreciate life’s cultural pursuits. Seanad Éireann has doubled as an art gallery this past year, displaying a scene from the Easter Rising. The painting by artist Sinead Guckian depicts the moment when Pearse surrendered in 1916 and crucially, prominence is given to Elizabeth O’Farrell, who… Read more »

Affairs, 7 March 2022

LIBERAL COMMENTORS as well as financial markets have been beside themselves in recent days following Olaf Scholz’s move to increase German militarisation. Berlin correspondent Derek Scally described the chancellor’s Bundestag speech last Sunday as a “tour de force”, and, in typical Irish Times fashion the announcement of a new €100 billion defence fund is welcomed… Read more »

Affairs, 4 March 2022

BOTH THE Irish Times and RTÉ have managed to strike discordant notes with Irish musicians this week. The Paper of Record annoyed the musos by headlining an article about Catherine Martin’s basic income scheme for artists with the question, “Money for nothing?” Then the national broadcaster was accused of not abiding by its own rules… Read more »

Affairs, 4 March 2022

HAVING MARCHED his own political party to disaster in consecutive elections, Leo Varadkar is surely the last politician Ireland would follow onto the battlefield. Napoleon Bonaparte was famously inclined toward lucky generals more so than competent ones yet having been rescued only by the outbreak of a pandemic, it is debatable whether the current Fine… Read more »

Affairs, 3 March 2022

FOR MAUREEN Gaffney, the Seanad by-election will test just how much mileage remains for a breed of politics that flourished during the last decade. The celebrity shrink, entrepreneur and business consultant has not been so ubiquitous in recent years, but an ideology she championed has been absorbed seamlessly into how media, industry and policy makers… Read more »

Affairs, 2 March 2022

CLARE DALY and Mick Wallace have been rounded on this week for failing to support a European Parliament resolution condemning Russian aggression. Or rather, this is only as far as the majority of domestic and even some European commentary ventured on the subject. It is more accurate to report that the MEPs for Dublin and… Read more »

Affairs, 1 March 2022

FEARFUL Ukrainians might be forgiven presently for not living up to the high standards expected on RTÉ. Viewers were miffed on Monday night after Claire Byrne apologised following a live contribution from one Lesia Vasylenko in Kiev. The opposition MP’s monologue featuring Russian “vermin” and tales of dead bodies piled on the road proved a… Read more »

Affairs, 1 March 2022

THERE WAS a time when University College Dublin would have been in the vanguard of opposing Russian aggression, but today the college is increasingly straining to define and balance its aspirations as “Ireland’s Global University”. UCD President, Andrew Deeks, has already spent recent months battling some of his own staff, who are concerned about the… Read more »

Affairs, 1 March 2022

TWELVE MONTHS since a new regime took over at Marconi House, Newstalk now finds itself in bed with the Irish Times. Relations between the newspaper and broadcaster had previously been strained, with Irish Times journalists “banned” from appearing on Communicorp stations following a sexism row. Over the course of nearly four years, there had been,… Read more »

Affairs, 28 February 2022

THE NEW €12m Brown Thomas store at Dundrum Town Centre has been launched with predictable hyperbole, but the inclusion of an IV station has certainly needled the medical community. Outraged Irish GPs and nutritionists were acting as if fashion-buying director Shelly Corkery was personally hooking the store’s well-heeled customers to intravenous vitamin drips while they… Read more »

Affairs, 26 February 2022

LEGAL EAGLE Paul Tweed is usually not shy about giving his opinion on the latest developments in the world of libel and defamation but, after commenting on an assorted range of issues this month, he did not find time to give his expected tuppenceworth on a most significant court ruling, one with which he must… Read more »

Affairs, 25 February 2022

“VIRULENTLY SEXIST” was probably not the sort the reviews RTÉ were seeking in the current climate. 2FM’s effort to promote the arrival of The 2 Johnnies went down about as well as the station’s ratings just days after the Tipperary duo took over the drive time slot. A video montage of puerile gags published on… Read more »

Affairs, 24 February 2022

DÁIL SCENES have truly reached a nadir when even the press gallery turns its back on political pantomime. Polcorrs reacted with dismay on Wednesday as Micheál Martin and Mary Lou McDonald traded insults across the chamber. “Leader’s Questions would make you despair for this island”, tweeted Examiner hack Aoife Moore, who continued, “I want decent… Read more »

Affairs, 23 February 2022

NOT EVEN the humble chicken fillet roll is safe from the clutches of fossil fuel greenwashing. With petrol consumption entering its twilight years, Irish forecourt retailer Applegreen hopes to tempt customers back with an alternative take on a deli counter favourite. A promotional video from Donegal brand Plant-It Foods sees fashion model Thalia Heffernan filling… Read more »

Affairs, 18 February 2022

WHILE THE excitable Claire Byrne Live often appears as if it’s broadcasting from another planet, it would be more correct to say that, politically, it is just another Irish show struggling to come to terms with the country as it is today. This week’s effort dedicated an entire evening to a single political party, asking… Read more »

Affairs, 18 February 2022

HAVING NO truck with vested interests, fearless Joe Duffy is not afraid to take on even the Irish language mafia. This is, at least, the image that the Liveline host would wish to present, but Aodhán Ó Deá, Director of Development at Conradh na Gaeilge (CnaG), had a rather different experience. “I was invited on… Read more »

Affairs, 17 February 2022

SHARON KEEGAN is certainly adept at talking up her athleisure brand Peachylean, which she claims “will be the No1 female empowerment brand across the globe in the next five years.” The founder and CEO secured £100,000 (€115,000) investment from investors Touker Suleyman, Sarah Davies and Tej Lalvani on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den in September 2020…. Read more »

Affairs, 17 February 2022

TOO CONSERVATIVE for the Left, too liberal for conservatives, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has scarcely pleased anyone since its foundation in 1973. The new political climate in recent years has seen further complaints about failing to reflect diversity, for embracing the notorious unpaid Jobbridge internship scheme or for taking a position on… Read more »

Affairs, 17 February 2022

WITH AN unlimited supply of retired generals and spooky security experts to propagandize about the mind of Vladimir Putin, its was rare to see actual residents of Ukraine get a look in over the weekend. As embassies advise foreign citizens to leave the country, the media went in search of ordinary individuals who plan on… Read more »

Affairs, 16 February 2022

AS FANS of Goldhawk are well aware, Kerry-based restaurateur Paul Treyvaud – son of the legendary Gresham Hotel head chef Michel – isn’t shy about voicing his opinions. And his political leanings have become pretty clear. Treyvaud has been a vocal critic of the lockdown measures and their effect on restaurants since the start of… Read more »

Affairs, 11 February 2022

THE GOVERNMENT concedes that its plan to have one million electric vehicles on Ireland’s roads by 2030 will be “difficult” to achieve. Don’t take Goldhawk’s word for it: way back in 2019 Micheál Martin warned Leo Varadkar that such a figure “requires that basically all new cars sold from today onwards be electric”. In all,… Read more »

Affairs, 11 February 2022

IT SEEMS no matter how hard Éamon Ryan works to keep Hazel Chu out of the Oireachtas, circumstances present another opportunity. Chu was blocked from running alongside her party leader in Dublin Bay South despite an extraordinary result in the 2019 local elections. She was then passed over for the 2020 Seanad elections, the Taoiseach’s… Read more »

Affairs, 11 February 2022

IS THE Labour Party still in complete denial about its own time in government? With the so-called cost of living becoming politically sensitive in the extreme, party leader Alan Kelly points the finger at “too much low pay in Irish society”. “An epidemic of low pay”, he told listeners during an interview on RTÉ Drivetime…. Read more »

Affairs, 9 February 2022

THE SO-CALLED disruption by tech-visionaries in the restaurant industry is stretching the limits of newsworthiness. The RTÉ website this week informs readers that Deliveroo plans to expand into three further counties in the south east. Ordinarily this breed of news filler would be accompanied by headlines of new jobs or remarks from beaming local representatives,… Read more »

Affairs, 3 February 2022

CAMPUS POLITICS is a competitive field as parties try to recruit the best and brightest students. Aside from free stationary and social opportunities, figures like Collins, De Valera, Connolly, Robinson or Sands are routinely pressed into service in the battle of idealism. This appeal to heritage presents a dilemma for the Social Democrats, whose lineage… Read more »

Affairs, 3 February 2022

HOSTILITIES HAVE resumed the political war zone of Dublin Bay South with Eamon Ryan stealing a march on irate Blueshirts. Following the weekly parliamentary party meeting several Fine Gael TDs briefed the media, expressing outrage at the manoeuvres of the Green Party leader on social media. Ryan emerged from Government Buildings last week and proceeded… Read more »