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NO PHONE UNTAPPED

Date: May 16, 2024 -

Investigative journalist Barry McCaffrey and journalist film maker Trevor Birney got more than they bargained for when their case against the PSNI’s unlawful snooping on them finally came before Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) a fortnight ago in London. The IPT is a superior court with a judge presiding. It considers complaints about covert action… Read more »

MICHAEL McDOWELL LURKS STILL

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE HAS been relative silence from Michael McDowell and his right-wing fellow travellers since he led the alarmingly successful revolt against the liberal establishment and Government’s referendums on ‘family’ and ‘care’ last March. But such restrained behaviour should not be misinterpreted as a retreat from the fray – Field Marshall McDowell and his officers are… Read more »

BERTIE AHERN TRIES TO SAVE FF

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin may not appreciate it but one feels sure that his predecessor as leader, Bertie Ahern, had the best interests of the party in mind, and indeed the current leader, with his recent remarks about a united Ireland. One is equally sure that former taoiseach Bertie’s decision to speak at a… Read more »

SENATOR MURPHY V JUDGE SIMONS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AN INTERESTING spat between Fianna Fáil senator Eugene Murphy and Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) has arisen following remarks by Murphy in the Seanad recently concerning Judge Garrett Simons. The senator said that the judge had adjudicated in a case involving FIE but that he had also acted previously as a legal advisor to… Read more »

DUBLIN EU NEW RIGHT COMPETITORS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE RASH of candidates on the new right in the Dublin EU constituency – seven candidates come under this category – constitutes a surplus that is likely to damage all of them, with radio shock-jock Niall Boylan of Independent Ireland (II) perhaps emerging out of the less than magnificent seven to present a credible vote… Read more »

RTÉ’S PLOT TWIST

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THE 162-page RTÉ report from the “expert advisory committee” on contractor fees, human resources etc is most interesting, not for its focus on Montrose’s current woes but for its potential to push other players in the TV and movie sector in a direction they have long sought to avoid. A significant factor when it comes… Read more »

‘INDEPENDENT’ MEDIA FUNDING

Date: May 16, 2024 -

FOREIGN MINISTER and Tanáiste Micheál Martin continues to publicly and loudly mount a heroic defence against media minister Catherine Martin’s proposals for the state to fund RTÉ. The Tanáiste has described the media minister’s proposal as something that could lead to “unhealthy consequences” for democracy. But there is something of a contradiction between this virtuous… Read more »

STEPHEN REA’S PERFORMANCE

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AN INTERESTING, alternative treatment of the 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombings – one that involves award-winning actor Stephen Rea – is Frank Connolly’s novel, A Conspiracy of Lies, which was recently released as an audiobook. Rea’s smouldering narration signals the leap into the conspiracy of lies that gives the book its title. He brings various characters and… Read more »

NATIONAL LIBRARY’S NEW EDITIONS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

A WEEK after Goldhawk asked why the filling of three vacancies at the National Library of Ireland (NLI) was still overdue, arts and culture minister Catherine Martin has finally acted. Despite the significant (and overdue) multimillion-euro capital development project, which is “essential for the future of the NLI”, Eoin McVey’s board has been three amigos… Read more »

COOLMORE BOYS’ BLUES

Date: May 16, 2024 -

BALLYDOYLE’S WONDER horse, City of Troy, went off odds-on favourite for the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket but failed to justify his starting price. The thrice-raced unbeaten colt – owned by Coolmore boys John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith – appeared wooden-legged before halfway and trailed in third last – the same placing of… Read more »

AINE O’CONNOR’S WHIP HAND

Date: May 16, 2024 -

BOOKMAKERS AND punters might have been excused for diving for cover as the wayward Familiar Dreams carted a whipless Aine O’Connor to victory in the Grade 3 Weatherbys Mares Bumper at Punchestown earlier this month. Having scraped paint around the inside rail for the majority of the race, the All Four Counties Syndicate runner headed… Read more »

KEEPING UP WITH THE CURRANS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE WAS plenty of glowing prose in the Irish Times earlier this month when the property section extolled on the myriad attractions of Torry, a “large and lavish four-bed on two acres for €5m”, where “no expense was spared renovating this New England-style house in Foxrock”. While the IT sales pitch noted “a big renovation”… Read more »

META OSBORNE’S FAMILIAR GOING

Date: May 16, 2024 -

IRISH NATIONAL Stud (INS) boss Cathal Beale has secured approval from agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue and public enterprise and reform minister Paschal Donohoe to continue in situ as chief executive for another three years. This follows the end of his initial seven-year contract. He is now to be joined in Co Kildare by three new… Read more »

AIB’S ‘ODD-LOT OFFER’ LEAVES MUCH TO BE DESIRED

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AIB IS more profitable than ever, recording a €2bn profit last year, but the decision to buy in the holdings of tiny shareholders only serves to highlight the scale of the shafting these got. Meanwhile, at €5 the bank’s shares looked keenly priced given that the price/earnings ratio based on last year’s outturn is just… Read more »

TIME FOR ABF TO SPIN OFF PENNEYS/PRIMARK

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE ARE critics who suggest that Arthur Ryan’s Penneys/Primark legacy will not stand up in the online world. This is a dilemma for retailers but Ryan’s successor, Paul Marchant, has actually doubled down on the group’s bricks-and-mortar retailing model, with 430 stores worldwide. The model is clearly working given the huge profit increase reported last… Read more »

RAYMOND KIRK’S BLOCKBUSTERS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS ARE in order for Raymond Kirk, a Dublin 2-based first assistant director who has clearly been doing rather well for himself, courtesy of assorted Hollywood blockbusters. Kirk has worked for a number of years as a freelance assistant director on assorted productions, including high-profile shows such as the Irish-produced Vikings, for which he was… Read more »

RESTRICTING PAUL NYHAN (II)

Date: May 16, 2024 -

AFTER A whopping 38 outings in the High Court, insolvency expert PJ Lynch has finally witnessed the restriction of Paul Nyhan, one of the directors of Rostella Properties Ltd (RPL). This was the second restriction for the director. RPL was the entity behind three branches of the Nyhan Brothers chain of butchers in south Dublin… Read more »

RORY FITZPATRICK’S ‘SPACE DEBRIS’

Date: May 16, 2024 -

EARLIER THIS week, Rory Fitzpatrick, chief executive of the National Space Centre (NCS) in Cork, popped up as a speaker in Istanbul at something called CubesatVision International Space Defence Workshop. It may be the case that Fitzer’s views are taken more seriously overseas than here at home. The NSC has generally remained off the radar,… Read more »

DAVID STONE’S ROCKY PATCH

Date: May 16, 2024 -

CONTROVERSIAL businessman David Stone found one of his myriad companies on the end of a winding-up petition from a disgruntled creditor last month. It is not the first time the Rathoath, Co Meath entrepreneur has ended up feeling the heat. Stone has fingers in many pies and his various businesses have been experiencing mixed success…. Read more »

PUNCHESTOWN HIGH FLYERS

Date: May 16, 2024 -

THERE WERE a couple of familiar moneybags getting stuck into the action at the Punchestown horse racing festival earlier this month, with mixed results. The Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup saw local resident developer Sean Mulryan’s Fastorslow (owned in conjunction with his wife, Bernadine) pip Galopin Des Champs, which won Cheltenham’s version, aided by the fact… Read more »

COALITION IGNORED RWANDA WARNING

Date: May 2, 2024 -

It’s not as if they didn’t know. On December 7 last year, prominent Labour MP Stella Creasy, chair of the Labour Movement for Europe, wrote to Tánaiste Micheál Martin warning him that the British government’s Rwanda bill would apply to the north because migration policy isn’t devolved. The legislation would contravene the Withdrawal Act and… Read more »

PROFILE: HOLLY CAIRNS

Date: May 2, 2024 -

As opinion polls indicate extreme volatility among the voters, is now the time for the Social Democrats to seize the day under its new leader, 34-year-old Holly Cairns, and become kingmakers after the next general election, or will the party be swept aside in a tide of independent votes? Much will depend on the Dáil… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: LYRA

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH HER general gobbiness, outlandish outfits and penchant for providing headline-grabbing soundbites (eg “I’ll carry my own knickers” – the Sunday Times), Cork singer-songwriter Lyra has developed a strong public profile that seems to dwarf her limited chart success to date. Given her backer, this will not come as a surprise. Saying early on that… Read more »

JUSTIN BARRETT LAYS DOWN THE LAW

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WHEN THE Registrar of Elections’s Art O’Leary announced in Iris Oifigiúil that he was denying separate applications from both Justin Barrett and James Reynolds to amend the registration details of the National Party (NP) it was clear that the dispute between rival factions for control… Read more »

JOHN MAGNIER’S SILAGE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

JOHN MAGNIER, obviously not thwarted by the previous rejection of his acts of generosity towards his “strapped for cash” Co Tipperary neighbours, Richard and Alexandra Thompson-Moore of Barne Estate, has again been dipping into his charity bucket. This time the gifts were not in brown envelopes but rather enclosed in black plastic and were to… Read more »

IAN HYLAND’S UCD BASH

Date: May 2, 2024 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO Business & Finance publisher-turned-grandee Ian Hyland, who didn’t let the small matter of Gaza get in the way of a day out for his self-important Ireland Inc (II) outfit and the assorted fat cats who splash out to attend its annual beanos, this time with UCD dragged into the picture. Last week, former… Read more »

VINNIE DOYLE’S BUM NOTE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THIS WEEK, rock band Cry Before Dawn will be playing a gig at Whelan’s. While a good time is guaranteed for fans, it is to be hoped that the mind of bass guitarist Vinnie Doyle isn’t elsewhere. Cry Before Dawn was formed in Wexford in the early 1980s and their sound resonated with an awful… Read more »

CAROLINE DOWNEY’S RUBY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p16), we profile new pop-dance sensation Lyra (aka Laura McNamara), who has been benefiting from the business muscle of her manager, Caroline Downey, to the extent that her debut album entered the charts last month at No 1, albeit before sliding down eight places the following week. Caroline Downey is… Read more »

FALLON BOYS BACKTRACK

Date: May 2, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK WAS as surprised as Mediahuis staff were to see that the Belgian media giant had been sniffing around online news platform The Journal. Also taken by surprise were the staff at The Journal, who reacted strongly to the news that the owners of the Indo were in talks to buy the company. It all… Read more »

BRÍD KEARNS’S WINDFALL

Date: May 2, 2024 -

A COMPANY with the unlikely name of Rockvig Unlimited has just been quietly wound up. Goldhawk was most impressed to find that the assets to be divvied out here come to a cool €23m. This firm turns out to be a part of the opaque… Read more »

PADDY BRENNAN’S TIMELY DISMOUNT

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE CLUNKILY titled Weatherite Air Conditioning Handicap Chase at Cheltenham will be remembered as the race in which Paddy Brennan brought the curtain down on his 1,500-winner career. Having cruised to a cosy victory aboard the Fergal O’Brien-trained Manothepeople, a jubilant and emotional Brennan announced his immediate retirement. The Irish-trained Stumptown stayed on to be… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 09

Date: May 2, 2024 -

HELEN MCENTEE’S LAND MINES

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WHAT A startling suggestion the Indo’s Ireland editor, Fionnán Sheahan, made this week about the Department of Justice, which he accused of not “watching the justice minister’s back” as she blundered into the latest crisis in her department. Just in case readers were in any doubt about his meaning, Sheahan cited a ministerial advisor who… Read more »

ROME RULE

Date: May 2, 2024 -

THE CATHOLIC Church’s much-publicised downsizing of dioceses in the west of Ireland was announced in a torrent of press releases from its Maynooth PR unit without consultation with either diocesan clergy or the non-ordained faithful. That’s the view of many lay workers, including Brendan Butler, the veteran lay reformer. They also claim that Pope Francis’s… Read more »

FALLING FIANNA FÁIL

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WHILE MEDIA comment has mostly focused on the electoral apocalypse awaiting Fine Gael and the list of its TDs taking flight, an inordinate calm has surrounded Fianna Fáil’s abysmal poll ratings that last weekend descended to 14% in the latest Red C poll. This is not a huge drop from the average rating of around… Read more »

OVERDUE AT THE LIBRARY

Date: May 2, 2024 -

WITH ARTS minister Catherine Martin under pressure to make some appointments to the Arts Council, there are other vacancies that also require her attention. For example, the board of the National Library of Ireland (NLI) remains three members down. You might think the minister would want the NLI board to be in top shape given… Read more »