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KEVIN RAFTER’S DISAPPEARING ACT

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE DEADLINE has now passed for applicants looking to replace DCU’s Kevin Rafter as chair of the Arts Council following his premature exit from Merrion Square. Having been appointed at the end of June 2019, Rafter’s five-year term only comes to an official end next summer. Much like Mary Robinson chose to depart Áras an… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 02

Date: January 25, 2024 -

EDDIE AND BRENDAN

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE PUBLIC veneration of the late Eddie O’Connor – with tributes to his visionary, wealth-creating genius and so on – included an unwitting reference to a particular aspect of this talent for making money, namely his friendship and partnership with the late Brendan Halligan. The Sindo’s Liam Collins described how Eddie “generously cut his mentor,… Read more »

REVISING NÍ GHRÁLAIGH’S IDEAS

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE IRISH TIMES’s authority on modern Irish history, Ronan McGreevy, seems confused about the political inspiration behind barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh. The Irish lawyer has been lauded by many for her role as one of South Africa’s barristers laying the charge of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Strangely, McGreevy also posted… Read more »

DANNY MCCONNELL’S RIGHT MOVE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

BUSINESS POST editor Danny McConnell gave Palestinian supporters in the Dáil a good telling off last week for supporting the South African charge of genocide against Israel, describing it as “a historically sensitive term”. As the mass murder toll in Gaza passes the 25,000 mark, it is difficult to appreciate the plea for sensitivity towards… Read more »

KITSON’S DIRTY WAR

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE RECENT demise of General Sir Frank Kitson (see The Phoenix 12/1/24) was a blessing in disguise for the darker elements of the British establishment: Kitson cannot now let slip anything he knows about the roots of the ‘dirty war’ in Ireland. Kitson was the… Read more »

DISSIDENTS SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

WHILE SINN Féin’s project has brought the republican movement close to state power north and south, the factions that split away from SF retreated into political ghettoes and fruitless attempts to revive the ‘armed struggle’. Now, two such dissident political groups are attempting a left-republican renewal with a unification process. The development of a close… Read more »

IRELAND AT NATO MEETINGS

Date: January 25, 2024 -

Last June, when President Michael D Higgins commented on the Government’s Forum on International Security, he talked of a dangerous “drift” away from Ireland’s long-standing policy of neutrality. Tánaiste and foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin was quick to dismiss Higgins’s assertions, claiming: “The Government have made clear that we do not intend to change Ireland’s… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

It involves making intentional decisions about what to keep, donate, or discard. In doing so, we create space for new possibilities and a sense of calmness in our lives. Darren Kennedy on throwing things away, Sunday Independent Life Magazine On Zoom from his home in London, looking far younger than his 60 summers, Norton is… Read more »

RAY BATES’S CAMPAIGN

Date: January 25, 2024 -

Climate denial has lost its most persistent Irish advocate with the recent death of Prof Ray Bates, formerly of Met Éireann and UCD. Since retiring over 20 years ago, Bates led a Quixotic campaign against action on climate change. In 2017, he spearheaded the formation of a club styling itself the Irish Climate Science Forum…. Read more »

‘NEW’ CLIMATE DENIAL

Date: January 25, 2024 -

Climate denial was once a straightforward affair. All you had to do was to grasp what a poor understanding the public and most of the media have of even the basics of science. This meant that climate deniers could dress up crackpot ideas developed by a PR company working for the energy industry, push it… Read more »

LEGACY OF LEGACY ACT

Date: January 25, 2024 -

A grim race has been running in the north’s coroners’ courts for several months. It will come to an abrupt end on May 1 when the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act comes into force. Among several of its noxious provisions it will, incredibly, stop inquests into Troubles-related deaths in their tracks. The race… Read more »

FINE GAEL’S WILD GEESE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

IT’S NOT yet known where the soon-to-be-departed TDs and senators of Fine Gael will next surface, like some buccaneering wild geese marauding through board rooms and the professions or even the PR firms that fight so valiantly for the rights of tobacco companies and other… Read more »

FINIAN McGRATH RIDES AGAIN

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE RETIREMENT of Fine Gael former minister and failed leadership candidate Richard Bruton from the electoral fray has alerted the minds of those surrounding former minister Finian McGrath in Dublin Bay North (DBN). McGrath retired at the last election, intending never more to grace public life with his statesmanlike presence. It was McGrath, rather than… Read more »

SF ‘HARD AND FAST ON MEDIA’

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE GOVERNMENT parties, especially Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, will be pleased that the decade-long delay in doing anything in the face of media pleading for reform of the defamation laws has been shifted to the opposition. The country’s biggest newspaper and internet group, Mediahuis, has accepted – via its flagship Sunday Independent – that… Read more »

FINE GAEL’S LEAN, MEAN MACHINE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

READING A list of the generals that Leo Varadkar has appointed to his GHQ staff for the upcoming local, European and general elections as recently published in the Business Post, one is struck by the calibre and/or experience of nearly all of them. But one name and area of responsibility jumped off the page. The… Read more »

DANA’S COMPLAINT

Date: January 25, 2024 -

ONE OF the last defamation battles that singer, ex-MEP and former presidential candidate Dana has to sort out is, ironically, one that resulted from a libel case against her, instead of one taken on her behalf. Dana’s sister, Susan Stein, and a niece, Susan Gorrell, sued the singer over a 2011 interview with TV3 (now… Read more »

‘CURRENCY’ EXCHANGE?

Date: January 25, 2024 -

AS GOLDHAWK reported last year, the lofty “overarching philosophy” of The Currency is the creation of “journalism that is fearless, focused and always interesting” and free from “any corporate, sectoral or political interest – including our own” (see The Phoenix 25/8/23). The latest edition of the ‘fearless’ financial website reveals a publication that seems to… Read more »

AUDREY WHITTY’S GOOD NEWS

Date: January 25, 2024 -

HAVING JUST handed over €60,000 to the Crawford Art Gallery towards the acquisition at auction of Harry Clarke’s The Colloquy of Monos and Una, there was further evidence of the overflowing coffers in Catherine Martin’s arts department last week when she greenlighted the National Library of Ireland (NLI) to purchase the Bonar Law Collection of… Read more »

REALITY CHECK

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE LONG campaign to drag the Irish taxpayer into subsidising “unscripted” productions (ie reality TV shows) through the Section 481 tax break looks set to deliver. Then finance minister Pascal Donohoe first signalled that his officials were looking into the expansion in 2022 and current finance minister Michael McGrath reiterated his interest in the proposal… Read more »

PATRICK MULLINS’S INSTRUCTIONS

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THE SIGHT of Patrick Mullins wagging his finger at cousin Danny Mullins at the end of the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick last month was a reminder of the pecking order in Willie Mullins’s remarkable Closutton racing operation. Following a ‘near miss’ between the two stablemates at the end of the race, there was plenty… Read more »

FINAL FENCE FOR HBL

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THREE MONTHS after the passing of high-profile Kilkenny bookmaker Triona Harrington, her company, Harrington Bookmakers Ltd (HBL), is being removed from the companies register. The good news is that business continues as usual under the popular Harrington name. Fans of The Phoenix will be familiar with HBL, which managed to attract a few headlines in… Read more »

NIGEL ROGERS PULLS THE TRIGGER

Date: January 25, 2024 -

THERE WAS endless oohing and aahing when a huge 8,600 sq ft mansion in Shankill, Co Dublin, featured on RTÉ’s Selling Ireland’s Dream Homes earlier this month. Maybe that will give the property enough of a shove to ensure a sale is achieved seven months after it was put on the market by its minted… Read more »

COSGRAVE FAMILY FEUDING

Date: January 25, 2024 -

AS FAMILY spats go, the one involving members of the fabulously wealthy Cosgrave building family is set to be one of the biggest. In the week before Christmas, three new affidavits were lobbed in and the next outing in the Four Goldmines in pencilled in for February 12. Meanwhile, it appears to be business as… Read more »

PAUL FITZPATRICK’S MIS-STEP

Date: January 25, 2024 -

GOLDHAWK SPIES a creditors’ meeting called for one of the companies linked to the Fitzpatrick shoe retailing dynasty. Meanwhile, it turns out that the prime property on Grafton Street, previously owned by the family, is now fully owned by an investment vehicle controlled by auctioneer Keith Jameson, now based in Toronto. The Fitzpatrick family has… Read more »

ACTION REQUIRED AT MOLTEN VENTURES

Date: January 25, 2024 -

IT CONTINUES to be very difficult to make sense of what is going on inside Molten Ventures plc. There have been some startling contrasts between the company’s own value of its investments and how the market treats them when they float. The latest interim results boast a net asset value (NAV) per share of £7.35,… Read more »

TIME FOR KEATING TO DELIVER AT FD TECHNOLOGIES

Date: January 25, 2024 -

OVER FOUR years on from the death of FD Technologies founder Brian Conlon, the company continues to struggle to convince the market that all is well. In the recent half-year figures, CEO Seamus Keating talks a good game but investors will be keeping a close eye on the profit performance for the year to the… Read more »

LEO MOHAN’S MISHAPS

Date: January 25, 2024 -

Goldhawk has followed the exploits of Leo Mohan for many years since the Monaghan entrepreneur was involved in a substantial Christmas tree business that came a cropper in the 1990s, leaving scores of unfortunate farmers out of pocket (see The Phoenix 22/5/98). He has just suffered another significant hit after finding himself on the wrong… Read more »

KIERON MCQUAID’S ROUGH RIDE

Date: January 25, 2024 -

IT WAS reported in the Irish Examiner last week that, in the lead-up to last October’s budget, finance minister Michael McGrath had sought to have the VAT rate for both pedal and electric bikes slashed in order to encourage their purchase. The proposal, however, was shot down by mandarins wary that other business groups “may… Read more »

IRISH ARMS TO ISRAEL

Date: January 11, 2024 -

IT WAS hardly surprising that little or no fanfare accompanied Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney’s release of the 2022 Annual Report on activity under the Control of Exports Act 2008. Covetous Coveney has been relatively outspoken – in EU terms – in… Read more »

PROFILE: JOHN HEGARTY

Date: January 11, 2024 -

TO ALL other media, the Irish Times exudes high principles, standards and a commitment to objective journalism. The paper claims to be liberal, a wholly independent voice with no hidden financial or political bias. It is especially censorious of sectarianism and narrow religious dogma. Overseeing… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: SINÉAD SHEPPARD

Date: January 11, 2024 -

With Cork East’s Fine Gael TD David Stanton having announced his intention to bow out at the next general election, has an opportunity opened for ambitious Cobh FG councillor Sinéad Sheppard to make it to the Big House? A mother of three, Sheppard originally won… Read more »

GOLDEN GLOBES GUFF

Date: January 11, 2024 -

WHEN THE heat really came on last year, RTÉ emphasised its news and current affairs output as evidence of its commitment to public service broadcasting. Its Six-One News coverage, however, of Cillian Murphy winning a Golden Globe for his title role performance in Oppenheimer differed little from the gushing accounts splashed across celebrity fan sites… Read more »

FINTAN O’TOOLE ON ISRAEL

Date: January 11, 2024 -

A RATHER Jesuitical argument from Irish Times resident ideologue Fintan O’Toole came in a polemic this week claiming: “It’s striking how brazen incitement against Irish Jews has become.” O’Toole used the rantings of far-right journalists Gemma O’Doherty and John Waters in the freesheet they edit,… Read more »

SIMONE ROCHA’S FRENCH FANCY

Date: January 11, 2024 -

LATER THIS month, superstar fashion designer Simone Rocha will appear at the prestigious Haute Couture Week in Paris, where she will be filling the role of guest couture designer for one Jean Paul Gaultier. She is only the fifth guest couturier to be invited to deliver their take on Gaultier’s aesthetic since he announced his… Read more »

DAVID WHELAN’S DANCE MOVES

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THERE WAS the usual hype in the run-up to last weekend’s launch of the latest season of Dancing With the Stars on RTÉ 1 and Goldhawk was struck by the fact that one of the contestants is David Whelan, front man for the band Wild Youth. But there is no sign of production company Shinawil’s… Read more »