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YOUNG BLUESHIRTS CHAMPION McMANUS

Date: February 8, 2024 -

HEALTHY RIVALRY is how Fine Gael councillor David McManus would likely describe a leaflet due to be distributed in his local election area of Rathfarnham-Templeogue this weekend. The leaflet has a Valentine’s Day flavour to it but is hardly a love letter to his party colleague on South Dublin County Council, Lynn McCrave. The leaflet… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 03

Date: February 8, 2024 -

IRELAND-US MILITARY ALLIANCE

Date: February 8, 2024 -

NOT FOR decades has a Middle East crisis come so close to provoking war on a global scale of East versus West, with Ireland by now virtually dragooned into being part of it via Nato partnership groups and EU security policies. Just days ago the… Read more »

MATT COOPER V RTÉ

Date: February 8, 2024 -

THE UBIQUITOUS Matt Cooper was taking pops at RTÉ once again last weekend in the Business Post, a pastime neither he nor his editor feels should be qualified by any mention of the degree to which his views as an independent commentator are hopelessly compromised. While the hack found space on a couple of occasions… Read more »

GROW UP, SENATORS!

Date: February 8, 2024 -

MARK FOLEY, the smooth-talking CEO of Eirgrid, got quite a rude response last week from senators Alice Mary Higgins (Independent) and Lynn Boylan (Sinn Féin) at an Oireachtas climate action committee on data centres and the stratospheric rise in their electricity use. Foley, a prominent advocate for data centre growth, had little time for the… Read more »

THE ‘IT’ ON JOHN BRUTON

Date: February 8, 2024 -

In an obit of nearly 2,500 words, the Irish Times devoted just over 200 words to the stewardship of the late John Bruton of the peace process – damning him with faint praise on the issue – while commenting uncritically several times on his reverence for John Redmond and his condemnation of the 1916 Rising…. Read more »

PARKER GREEN TRIMMED

Date: February 8, 2024 -

A COMPANY with the name of GEI Crystal Ltd has just been wound up by its owners, although it is unlikely that many would recognise the name, given that for years it was called Parker Green International (Waterford) Ltd. Under this guise it attracted plenty of media attention as a result of the company’s extensive… Read more »

THE NEW REGIME

Date: February 8, 2024 -

It was the changing of the guard in the north on February 3 in more ways than one. Obviously the most historic and revolutionary change was a republican taking the position of first minister in a polity and in Stormont, a building where that was never supposed to happen. Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill walked down… Read more »

IRISH FAR-RIGHT FEARS

Date: February 8, 2024 -

THE PLIGHT of British far-right activist Sam Melia – who was convicted in January at Leeds Crown Court for inciting racial hatred and intentionally encouraging or assisting racially aggravated criminal damage – has incensed many agitators on the far right of Irish politics. Melia has… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 8, 2024 -

I cannot emphasise enough the speed and turnaround they arranged in getting us up and home in their beautiful PC12. Christian Stokes expresses gratitude to Stellaer private jet business after he had found himself stuck in London, LinkedIn Celebrate the female form as artist Tamara Fiabane takes you step by step through the process of… Read more »

POLLS DISTORT REFUGEE ‘CRISIS’

Date: February 8, 2024 -

ARE THE ‘quality’ broadsheet Sunday newspapers reflecting the crisis and anger about immigration or are they stimulating it with sensationalist coverage? Scrutiny of recent polls would indicate that sometimes the phrasing of the questions is designed to elicit the worst and most alarmist results. And if the results do not fit the catastrophic frame, they… Read more »

BASHFUL BRENDAN O’CONNOR

Date: February 8, 2024 -

RTÉ PRESENTER and Sindo front-page commentator Brendan O’Connor has turned out to be the shy, retiring type, despite giving the impression of being full of in-your-face braggadocio. And how ironic that it should be the Sindo that recently failed to elicit from O’Connor whether he had objected to RTÉ publishing his name and earnings as… Read more »

REGINA V JOSEPHA V BARRY

Date: February 8, 2024 -

THE THREE-CORNERED battle between Fine Gael ex-minister and now senator Regina Doherty, junior education minister Josepha Madigan and senator Barry Ward for the Dublin nomination at the EU election will be settled at a convention later this month. Right now it is reckoned that the two women are neck and neck but Ward cannot be… Read more »

EARLY ELECTION?

Date: February 8, 2024 -

REPETITIVE SPECULATION about an early general election – before the local and EU elections in June – is being argued about among ministers from the three Government parties, according to media reports. But this debate is also a burning question for backbench TDs in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Much of the present debate has… Read more »

IRISH FREELOADING ON ‘BRITISH ISLES’

Date: February 8, 2024 -

A RECENT report by British think-tank Policy Exchange describes our foreign security policy as “persistent Irish security freeloading” just as “Russia once more poses a maritime threat to the Western Approaches to the British Isles”. The belligerent think-tank claims that “the UK also faces a… Read more »

A WAIT AT THE MUSEUM

Date: February 8, 2024 -

A MERE six months after the closing date on the advert seeking new board members for the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), arts minister Catherine Martin has announced the new chair, along with two ordinary directors. The delay is hard to justify. In June last year, the advert was posted in advance of outgoing chair… Read more »

NOT SO SUPERJET

Date: February 8, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK SPIES a creditors’ meeting has been called for Superjet Leasing Private Ltd, a company where the director is Indian moneybags Jayvaradhan ‘Jay’ Goenka. Goenka is the face of the Dynamix Group, which is one of India’s oldest real estate development businesses. He is the third generation of the Goenka family to front the conglomerate,… Read more »

CHARITY BEGINS OFFSHORE

Date: February 8, 2024 -

BILLIONAIRE BUDDIES – and fellow Swiss tax residents – JP McManus and John Magnier have been making headlines for their charitable deeds. It emerged last week that McManus provided Westlife star Shane Filan with a €780,000 loan so that the popstar, who emerged from bankruptcy in 2013, could purchase a house at Rosses Point in… Read more »

HENRY GWYN-JONES’S HOUSE

Date: February 8, 2024 -

THERE HAS been plenty regurgitation of the Irish Examiner’s scoop that UK billionaire James Dyson is set to acquire the impressive Ballynatray House on 850 acres on the banks of the Blackwater river in Co Waterford for over €30m. This looks like quite a result for the current Squire of Ballynatray, property investor Henry Gwyn-Jones…. Read more »

RICKY DOYLE’S POST

Date: February 8, 2024 -

GRAND NATIONAL-winning jockey Ricky Doyle’s X social media profile photo shows him donning the famous green and gold silks of JP McManus. Ricky Doyle was viewed in a different context last month thanks to an ill-advised post on X. This year has not delivered the most auspicious of starts, with Doyle landing a 10-day suspension… Read more »

KEATLEY’S BUSY AGENDA

Date: February 8, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will recall that popular Curragh trainer Brendan Duke secured a temporary ex-parte injunction against the purchasers of Fenway House in Pollardstown, Co Kildare – Peter Keatley and Teresa Kearney – as well as the Dublin debt collection agency that the couple engaged, Seoige O’Faolain & Co (see The Phoenix 25/8/23). This followed… Read more »

JUSTICE DELAYED

Date: February 8, 2024 -

RTÉ BOARD member and barrister Susan Ahern has plenty to keep here busy given events at Montrose. But she still finds time to chair assorted IHRB referrals committee hearings. A ruling has now been published concerning a point to point that took place no less than a year ago. At issue was a finding that… Read more »

I-RES DIRECTORS DESERVE TO BE VOTED OUT

Date: February 8, 2024 -

FANS OF Moneybags will not have been surprised by moves by 5% dissident shareholder in I-Res Reit, Vision Capital Corp (VCC), to requisition an EGM next week and seek effective control of the company by voting off five directors, including outgoing chairman Declan Moylan and outgoing CEO Margaret Sweeney. It is clearly the right move… Read more »

MAURICE HEALY’S LATEST CRASH-LANDING

Date: February 8, 2024 -

MAURICE HEALY floated off software company Glantus on the AIM market in London with an air of optimism in June 2021 at £1 a share to capitalise the company at £37m. Not for the first time, a company run by Healy found itself in trouble and by January 2023 Glantus shares had collapsed to 10p,… Read more »

SHANE KENNY’S BURRITOS

Date: February 8, 2024 -

THIS WEEK sees a creditors’ meeting being held for Poblano Ltd, which turns out to be the company behind Mexican burrito chain Tolteca, which had four restaurants around Dublin, all of which shut their doors at the end of last month. For one of the directors here, it is not his first setback in the… Read more »

WINDING UP DELTA INDEX

Date: February 8, 2024 -

WITH MICHAEL O’Shea busy making an impact thanks to his Pulse Market cloud-based platform, which loftily promises to help companies “do business for good”, he may have missed the recent appointment of a liquidator to his former alma mater, the troubled Delta Index spread-betting operation. It will come as little surprise to followers of the… Read more »

PETER DONNELLY’S POOR DIAGNOSIS

Date: February 8, 2024 -

IT WAS only a few years ago that the Dundalk Argus was highlighting the “life saving device for Africa” designed by Irish outfit Tapa Healthcare. Today, however, the company is in liquidation. Tapa is a business that was spun out of Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) by Co Down-based medical technology consultant Peter Donnelly. He… Read more »

SAM BUNGEY ON IAN BAILEY AND THE MEDIA

Date: January 30, 2024 -

Sam Bungey (along with Jennifer Forde) created the 2018 13-episode ‘West Cork’ podcast on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder, which is Audible’s most listened to podcast ever. The saga of Ian Bailey has taught us this: should you ever find yourself subject to trial-by-media,… Read more »

PURSUED BEYOND THE GRAVE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

IN ONE respect it is salutary to behold the gardaí and their media Greek chorus join forces to posthumously convict Ian Bailey of Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s murder, something they manifestly could not do when he was alive. But posterior covering in both these camps… Read more »

PROFILE: AODHAIN ORIORDAIN

Date: January 25, 2024 -

WHY DOES Labour Party TD and former junior minister Aodhán Ó Ríordáin want to run in the EU elections in Dublin? Does he believe he can kickstart a Labour Party revival by actually winning a seat in the European Parliament? Perhaps he wants to build, or rebuild, his credentials to run again for the party’s… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: CONOR REDDY

Date: January 25, 2024 -

AS PRESIDENT of the Postgraduate Workers’ Organisation of Ireland (PWO), Conor Reddy is no stranger to politics, both on campus and further afield. Although he failed to get elected for People Before Profit in Dublin North-West (DNW) at the last general election, Reddy has not… Read more »

RTÉ ACCUSED OF GAZA BIAS

Date: January 25, 2024 -

HAS THE predicted subservience of a demoralised and virtually bankrupt RTÉ come to pass already, with the station fearful of upsetting the Government in its coverage of the biggest global story since the Ukraine conflict, namely the genocide in Gaza? The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign… Read more »

OLIVER CALLAN’S POOR MOUTH

Date: January 25, 2024 -

TO HARDLY anyone’s surprise, the safe pair of hands that is Oliver Callan landed the gig as Ryan Tubridy’s successor on RTÉ Radio 1. Maybe he will stop banging on about moolah. Callan was eager to highlight his efforts to “reach out” to poor Tubs when the brown stuff hit the fan in 2023, although… Read more »

KNEECAP’S CAPITAL

Date: January 25, 2024 -

CONTROVERSIAL HIP-HOP act Kneecap have attracted plenty of media coverage as a result of the antics of its three members, which have included some pretty provocative murals – the sort that attracts condemnation from the likes of the Daily Mail. Nevertheless, the boys’ eponymous biopic… Read more »

MAURA DERIVAN’S BIG YEAR

Date: January 25, 2024 -

EARLIER THIS month, Carrick-on-Suir accountant Bobby Fitzgerald’s 14-year-long defamation case against solicitor Maura Derivan, who until last November was president of the Law Society, came to a conclusion. Separately, it turns out that last year the society was itself engaging with a complaint about its then president – one involving a recommendation from the Ombudsman… Read more »

DENIS DESMOND’S RESTRUCTURING

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THERE WAS plenty of coverage of the latest results from the MCD-Live Nation concert promotion behemoth last week as the LN-Gaiety Holdings joint venture published its 2022 accounts. Although the profits were, yet again, top of the pops, it looks like Denis ‘MCD’ Desmond is concerned that profit-hungry hoteliers might throw a small spanner in… Read more »