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HARRIS/FITZMAURICE AGREE ON AGRI

Date: October 31, 2024 -

With the general election just weeks away, competition is hotting up as to which politician can most cravenly capitulate to special-interest lobbying from the agri-industrial sector. Though relatively new in the job and a denizen of suburbia, Simon Harris has established himself as the most eager Taoiseach in years when it comes to agri boot-licking…. Read more »

DOIREANN BREATHNACH’S ADVICE

Date: October 31, 2024 -

Congratulations to climate warrior Doireann Breathnach for making quite a splash in her role with consultancy firm Accenture. She recently stood down as Irish Refugee Council chair and has also been a UN advisor. In a recent media interview she hectored environmentalists for being “too shouty at business” and failing to “meet business where business… Read more »

‘GIVAN’ THE OPPORTUNITY

Date: October 31, 2024 -

On October 16 Norma Foley was with the north’s education minister, Paul Givan (DUP), visiting schools in his constituency as they launched the Raise programme. It’s a mini version of the Deis (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) scheme in the south. The Government is allocating €24m under the Shared Island project to fund Raise,… Read more »

FINE GAEL IGNORES PALESTINE EU BODY

Date: October 31, 2024 -

FINE GAEL MEPs have brought a new meaning to the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign by Palestinian supporters with their own shunning of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Palestine. Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan is chair of the delegation and her welcome message to members sets out its agenda for promoting peace in… Read more »

SHATTER: TD AGAIN OR MERE DISRUPTER?

Date: October 31, 2024 -

FINE GAEL activists in Dublin Rathdown are becoming a little edgy about former justice minister and Israel champion Alan Shatter’s general election campaign, which they fear could sabotage their chances of a seat gain in this most property-rich constituency. The long-time FG Dáil deputy was cruelly downed in 2014 by a sequence of circumstances that… Read more »

DALY TO HIT SOC DEMS AND GREENS?

Date: October 31, 2024 -

FORMER MEP Clare Daly lost her EU seat last June due to a combination of factors, with one being a media witch hunt against her because of her anti-western politics and the other a classic, far-left split created by People Before Profit running its candidate, TD Bríd Smith, against her. This greatly angered many on… Read more »

Ó FEARGHAÍL’S PA: ISRAEL SHOCK JOCK

Date: October 31, 2024 -

KILKENNY COMMUNITY RADIO listeners are privileged to regularly receive the views of intense supporter of Israel, presenter and producer Eugene Doyle, although his opinions may not be typical among the ‘cats’ of Kilkenny City or county. Doyle’s outlook on the Middle East would probably not accord either with those of his sometime boss, ceann comhairle… Read more »

SHANE ROSS’S RETURN

Date: October 31, 2024 -

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT editor Alan English will be relieved to welcome back former minister and long-time Sindo columnist Shane Ross after an absence since the summer. The ex-politician’s first, predictable column on returning was under the headline: “Can we believe a word Mary Lou says?” Meanwhile, there is still no sign of Ross’s threatened blockbuster, RTÉ:… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ BRICS IT

Date: October 31, 2024 -

A SORROWFUL tone pervaded an Irish Times editorial last week regarding the Brics summit in Russia, with the first half of the tract concentrating on “eclipse of the empire” (no need to ask which empire the IT means). This was manifest, it argued, by the earth-shattering decision of Indian PM Narendra Modi and South African… Read more »

FIDGET FEET’S SHORTAGES

Date: October 31, 2024 -

LAST MONTH saw the launch at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick of Micheál Ó Súilleabháin: A Life in Music. The venue was certainly apt given that Ó Súilleabháin had founded the academy 30 years ago. Goldhawk was, however, more interested in a new publication from the dance company in residence… Read more »

MARY MCCARTHY’S ADDITIONS

Date: October 31, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO Mary McCarthy et al at the Crawford Gallery in Cork, who have just landed some acquisitions to bolster the national collection. Catherine Martin’s arts department has provided €69,000 to the recently shuttered gallery towards to purchase of Seán Keating’s Elijah with the Ravens, Version II and a self-portrait by the same artist; Camille… Read more »

KATY BROWN’S ALL-CLEAR

Date: October 31, 2024 -

THE BOWLER Hats of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) were kept busy last month. Along with backtracking on the high-profile Shark Hanlon horse carcass case, they concluded the investigation into their unsatisfying handling of an “adverse analytical finding” in relation to the Katy Brown-trained Petrol Head. As the outcome has resulted in the release… Read more »

ERIC McNAMARA’S GOOD BUY

Date: October 31, 2024 -

HAVING SADDLED five winners at September’s Listowel Harvest Festival, Rathkeale trainer Eric McNamara continued his recent hot streak when saddling Real Steel to a front-running success in Limerick’s BoyleSports JT McNamara Munster National. The now 11-year-old was a dual Grade 2 winner in 2020 for Willie Mullins before joining the Somerset yard of Paul Nicholls,… Read more »

SLOWLY DOES IT AT ABBBEYLEIX HOUSE

Date: October 31, 2024 -

IT WAS reported recently that John and Patrick Collison purchased a nice pile on Ailesbury Road, D4, which is now being given as the address of the boys’ parents, Denis and Lily Collison. That property has been registered in the name of a Delaware-registered entity called Fair City LLC. The two billionaire brothers tend to… Read more »

ALIAS TOM’S FASHION STATEMENT

Date: October 31, 2024 -

THE PROPOSED High Court winding up of Alias Tom Ltd – the company behind the eponymous high-end men’s fashion retailer off Dublin’s Grafton Street – does not have the support of founder Tom Kennedy but, given that he holds just 10% of the shares, this is not a factor. The 90% controlling stake here is… Read more »

PTSB STILL FAILING TO CHALLENGE PILLAR BANKS

Date: October 31, 2024 -

THE RECENT half-year figures for Permanent TSB (PTSB) reveal that annualised earnings for 2024 are around 15c, which leaves these shares on a prospective price/earnings multiple of 11. Although this is nothing to write home about, it is hard to see how CEO Eamonn Crowley can drive the bank forward given his clearly conservative streak,… Read more »

FD TECHNOLOGIES NOW A PALE SHADOW OF FORMER SELF

Date: October 31, 2024 -

THIS MONTH’S £230m sell-off of the original core derivatives activity of FD Technologies group – founded by the impressive Brian Conlon, who died in 2019 – really does mark the end of an era. What is unclear at this stage is how the slimmed-down entity will perform and whether it can generate sufficient growth in… Read more »

DEIRDRE VELDON’S SMOOTH RIDE

Date: October 31, 2024 -

READERS OF The Currency online business publication were treated to yet another gushing interview with a publishing figurehead at an acquisitive media group last week, this time in the form of Deirdre Veldon, group managing director of the Irish Times. The interview by Alice Chambers was predictably effusive in its treatment of Veldon, who comes… Read more »

KEITH MCDONNELL’S BIKE CRASH

Date: October 31, 2024 -

IT WAS something of a surprise to see a creditors’ meeting called for next week for an outfit called The Lazy Bike Tour Company Ltd. Currently in the saddle here is tourism entrepreneur Keith McDonnell, who these days is most closely associated with the successful Irish Whiskey Museum opposite Trinity College. The Lazy Bike Tour… Read more »

DUNNES STORES STATS

Date: October 31, 2024 -

THERE WAS much interest in the Sindo’s exclusive last weekend on the contents of the will of Frank Dunne, brother of Margaret Heffernan and the late Ben Dunne, who died in 2022 and left an estate valued at €267m. He was the biggest single shareholder in the sprawling Dunne Stores retail group, where the controlling… Read more »

BAD ATTITUDE

Date: October 31, 2024 -

THE DREADED taxman has tracked down a company that was set up in Cork to develop and distribute pet GPS systems. Back in 2015 Rochestown-based Chinese national Songtao Dai founded Attitude Technologies, primarily to offer “high-quality innovative and moderately-priced intelligent smart collars” for customers’ dogs and cats in order to give them “a deep understanding… Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S WOES

Date: October 17, 2024 -

Mary Lou McDonald is fire-fighting on several fronts: north and south, in the media, the Dáil and the Stormont assembly. But the real battle is in the south. In the north, the fall out from the Michael McMonagle affair still continues. The committee that scrutinises the Executive Office is demanding answers from first minister Michelle… Read more »

PROFILE: PHIL HOGAN

Date: October 17, 2024 -

HE’S BACK. The most driven politician in Ireland – former EU commissioner Phil Hogan – has returned from Brussels to a crucial, albeit backstage role in Irish politics. This, after taking and losing a top-level EU commissioner’s post, which started in 2014 and ended in 2020 as a casualty of Golfgate and Ursula von der… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: SHANE MOYNIHAN

Date: October 17, 2024 -

WITH FIANNA Fáil still hovering on a disappointing 15% poll rating in Dublin, the party is desperate to find extra seats and is placing big hopes on Palmerstown councillor Shane Moynihan to spearhead an FF revival in the capital and take a seat in Dublin Mid-West. FF’s John Curran once held a seat here but… Read more »

A SPOOK NAMED SUE

Date: October 17, 2024 -

AS GOLDHAWK commented recently, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recently deposed chief of staff (C/S), the spooky Sue Gray, had become a target for a variety of top Whitehall mandarins as well as jealous Labour Party staffers, some ministers and disappointed MPs who had not become ministers (see The Phoenix 23/8/24). On top of all… Read more »

IN PRAISE OF SIR MICK

Date: October 17, 2024 -

MICK SMURFIT must have been delighted with David Whelan’s gushing Succession documentary on him for RTÉ last week. Goldhawk was disappointed that it missed out on Sir Mick KBE’s most impressive achievements. Many viewers may have been scratching their heads as to why RTÉ was devoting an hour of airtime and precious taxpayers’ resources to… Read more »

MULCAHY’S FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

Date: October 17, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with Cork businessman extraordinaire Michael Mulcahy, who has quite the talent for organising awards ceremonies and hanging out with celebs and politicians (see The Phoenix 4/10/24). One politician who turns out to be a great supporter of Mulcahy is cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Jerry Buttimer. Mulcahy has been involved… Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL’S INDEPENDENT GAMBLE

Date: October 17, 2024 -

FINE GAEL handlers are being stingy with the truth when they claim that Kate O’Connell was not asked to run for the party at the upcoming general election in Dublin Bay South (DBS). As Goldhawk reported (see edition 4/10/24), O’Connell was in and out of the party’s Mount Street HQ in recent weeks and it… Read more »

THAMMY NGUYEN’S WORKOUT

Date: October 17, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK SPOTTED last week that a company with the innocuous name of CFBD Ltd has gone into liquidation on foot of its liabilities. This turns out to have been the entity behind the CrossFit gym business in Baldoyle, Co Dublin, operated by Tham ‘Thammy’ Nguyen and her hubby, Mark Gough. The irrepressible Nguyen – who… Read more »

VINCENT CROWLEY’S COMFY PILE

Date: October 17, 2024 -

ONE OF the more impressive properties to come on the market in recent weeks is a 3,700 sq ft redbrick Crampton-built pile on leafy Herbert Park in the heart of Dublin 4. Not surprisingly, the asking price is at the upper end of the range, coming in at a chunky €4.25m. The owner here turns… Read more »

INFALLIBLE ATTORNEY GENERALS

Date: October 17, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK IS not one bit surprised at former foreign minister Simon Coveney’s complaint about a “lack of balanced debate” regarding the Middle East conflict and that it was “driven by emotion”. The mature, statesmanlike Coveney appears to be concerned at the unbalanced reaction of emotional… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 21

Date: October 17, 2024 -

ZUZANA’S ZATISFACTION

Date: October 17, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO Co Waterford developer Shane Houlihan and his American wife, Zuzana Ratajova (previously a senior finance executive at the giant Turner Entertainment group and vice-president at CNN). They have just recorded a satisfaction of the hefty $438,000 judgment that was registered against them in 2022, courtesy of David Purcell and Margaret Halley, then with… Read more »

JIM BROWNE’S HEALTH CHECK

Date: October 17, 2024 -

CHILDREN’S HEALTH Ireland (CHI) – the outfit that runs the paediatric hospitals at Crumlin, Temple Street and Tallaght – is also closely connected to the development of the controversial €2bn new National Children’s Hospital (NCH). As a result, any applicants for the two vacancies that have just arisen on the board should be prepared for… Read more »

DREARY EU RHETORIC

Date: October 17, 2024 -

EOIN DREA wrote in Politico.ie last May that, despite the Ukraine war, “there’s one [EU] member country that won’t be helping to defend Europe any time soon. That country is Ireland.” He concluded his article saying: “Two things are certain: Ukraine will keep fighting; Ireland will keep freeloading.” A fortnight ago, again in Politico.ie, Dreary… Read more »

EAMON MARRAY’S SILK ROAD

Date: October 17, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO commercial barrister Eamon Marray, who got the thumbs-up earlier this month to ‘take silk’, joining the ranks of the handsomely remunerated senior counsel who populate the Law Library. He had made quite the impact back during the pandemic. There were fun and games in the Dublin County Registrar’s court in 2022 when Marray,… Read more »