Search the Archives

DEIRDRE VELDON’S LOVE LETTER

Date: January 11, 2024 -

JOURNALISTS AT the Irish Times – once jealously regarded by their peers elsewhere as the pampered literati of the newspaper world – were not exactly swooning with gratitude at the letter sent to them a few days before Christmas from managing director Deirdre Veldon. The hacks were (and are) still smarting at the largesse doled… Read more »

Ó RÍORDÁIN’S EU ELECTION TACTIC

Date: January 11, 2024 -

COMMENTARY ON the EU election bid of Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has noted that it is effectively another defection from the Labour Party as it lies crashed on the dual rocks of its devastating ‘austerity’ coalition with Fine Gael and the emergence of Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and the far left. There is also the… Read more »

RYANAIR SHARES SET TO SOAR, UNLESS…

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE STARS have been aligning for Ryanair, with Mick O’Leary keeping one eye on the share price given the potential astronomical bonus on the line should it hit €21 over the next few years or if after-tax profits hit €2.2bn. A recent reversal of policy to deliver a chunky dividend to shareholders should certainly boost… Read more »

VOL 42 NO 01

Date: January 11, 2024 -

NO DRAMA AT THE IRISH TIMES

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THIS IS the time of year when the Irish Times announces the various luvvies who have been shortlisted for the annual IT Theatre Awards. That familiar script has been binned, however, and there is still no sign of the 2023 awards, nine months after the… Read more »

PRINCESS COLONNA’S NEIGHBOUR

Date: January 11, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk with long memories will recall that the Clonmannon retirement village in Ashford, Co Wicklow was bought out of liquidation in the 1990s by Roddy and Jane McGrath, after which the couple introduced controversial new care contracts that reduced the level of service to the elderly residents. The issue ended up being the… Read more »

MARY LOU BETS THE HOUSE ON IT

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE MOST interesting item in last weekend’s Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll was not the 1% rise in those who prioritised immigration but instead the focus on the housing crisis illustrated by the stat that said 69% supported the proposal – from Sinn Féin – that the average Dublin house price should fall from €430,000… Read more »

DONALDSON RETREATS AGAIN

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE BACKLASH over the Irish Government’s case against the British government’s legacy act began with ex-northern secretary Brandon Lewis making a full-frontal assault against Dublin at the end of December (see p11). But south of the border, Irish Times columnist Newton Emerson last week criticised… Read more »

BLOODY SUNDAY: KITSON AND WILFORD

Date: January 11, 2024 -

COL DEREK WILFORD, the commander of 1 Para in Northern Ireland in 1972, died last November. His former superior, Brigadier (later, General) Sir Frank Kitson, passed away earlier this month. Both men brought secrets about Bloody Sunday with them to the grave. ‘Soldier F’, formerly… Read more »

ORBÁN’S IRISH YOUNG EAGLES

Date: January 11, 2024 -

When Hungary takes over the presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months in July, Viktor Orbán hopes that the media outlets his government is sponsoring in Brussels – the European Conservative and Brussels Signal – will have laid the groundwork for the acceptance of his Eurosceptic and conservative views in the… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 11, 2024 -

I think in the UK, I’m underrated. Not so much here, but in the UK. And I think I know tailoring as good as anybody. I still think I’m a good designer. I don’t have any qualms about that. Paul Costelloe on himself, Sunday Independent, Life Magazine It’s not about being sexy, it’s about delivering…. Read more »

FOSSIL FUEL FINITO?

Date: January 11, 2024 -

In light of the PR trainwreck that was Sultan Al Jaber’s presidency of the Cop28 climate summit – including his extremely high-profile row with Mary Robinson – you’d imagine future host countries will steer clear of fossil fuel industry veterans when choosing their summit presidents…. Read more »

HOT AIR HOLIDAYS

Date: January 11, 2024 -

One of the Irish Times’s last editorials of 2023 called for “a more radical approach” to climate action. Goldhawk looks forward to the day when the new generation at the helm – editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic and MD Deirdre Veldon – feel radical enough to stop running ads exhorting readers to fly more. The paper… Read more »

ORANGE AND GREEN STILL BLOOM

Date: January 11, 2024 -

At least we know there will be one election in the north this year. British prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he’s operating “on the working assumption” that he will call a general election in “the second half of this year”. Of course, that doesn’t rule out a May election to coincide with English council… Read more »

LABOUR AND SOC DEMS: NO DEAL

Date: January 11, 2024 -

FOR YEARS the debate between left and right in the Labour Party was over whether or not to enter coalition government with ‘right-wing’ parties such as Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil. That argument now appears to have been settled by the Social Democrats, albeit in the most negative manner possible, with Labour withering on the… Read more »

EOGHAN HARRIS’S GRIPE

Date: January 11, 2024 -

EOGHAN HARRIS may have lost his platform in the country’s biggest-selling newspaper – the Mediahuis-owned Sunday Independent – but he appears to be welcome in the strongly unionist News Letter, a rival of another Mediahuis title, the Belfast Telegraph. Following the recent release of Irish government state papers 1993-2003, Harris took umbrage with coverage in… Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S ‘SHAMELESS’ NEW POLITICS

Date: January 11, 2024 -

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS appear to be disinterested in the discernible differences between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians, including thousands of children, and also on their differences on Anglo-Irish issues (see The Phoenix Annual 2023 and edition 24/2/23). On the latter issue, it will be interesting to see precisely… Read more »

ARSON ABOUT

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THOSE MOST-favoured words of security correspondents, “security… senior… sources”, can cover a multitude of issues when gardaí want to get a message across without having it ascribed to them individually or as An Garda Síochána. There are, of course, other reasons why the media sometimes uses the phrase when publishing stories about cops ‘n’ robbers… Read more »

‘SUNDAY TIMES’ NEW LINE

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE NEW editorial regime at the Aawrish edition of the Sunday Times – with editor Kieran McDaid and associate editor Michael McNiff – appears to have overturned decades of imperialist views on foreign policy and its disdain for Irish independence, judging by a thundering editorial a week before Christmas. The editorial was a stiff rejection… Read more »

MORGAN’S PLOT TWIST

Date: January 11, 2024 -

FANS OF Goldhawk have been kept up to date with the travails of John Arkins’s Irish Film Workers Association (IFWA) over the years. The organisation took to picketing film and TV productions and raised thorny questions about “quality employment” – a supposed cornerstone of the generously state-backed industry that soaks up over €100m in tax… Read more »

TONY MARTIN’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Date: January 11, 2024 -

WHILE TRAINER Tony Martin must have breathed a sigh of relief after avoiding having his licence suspended before Christmas, he has nevertheless lodged an appeal against the severity of the fine imposed on him. For its part, the IHRB has also lodged an appeal against what it says is the “undue leniency” of the sanctions… Read more »

LADY MARY’S WINDFALL

Date: January 11, 2024 -

WHILE 2023 was a year to forget for many employees of the giant Norbrook veterinary pharmaceutical group, it turns out that it was a humdinger for controlling shareholder Mary Haughey, aka Lady Ballyedmond. Norbrook, of course, was founded by Edward Haughey many moons ago and has operations in Ireland, the UK and around the world…. Read more »

DES O’NEILL’S DES RES

Date: January 11, 2024 -

A BARRISTER who made quite a name (and a lot of money) for himself as the star performer in the Mahon Tribunal, Des O’Neill SC, turns out to be the owner of the impressive Glenbrook House mansion in Delgany, Co Wicklow, which has gone on the market with a price tag of a hefty €3.25m…. Read more »

LISA JORDAN’S WINDING UP

Date: January 11, 2024 -

INTERESTING TO see that blogger/influencer/businesswoman Lisa Jordan has just wound up the company that registered the name “Lisa Jordan”. This follows her move last year into the fashion world with a brand called Edit Row. Jordan is one of the more familiar faces on the Irish influencer scene, having kicked off her blogging career with… Read more »

BOTSWANA DIAMONDS LOOKING ROUGH FOR TEELING

Date: January 11, 2024 -

WHILE JOHN Teeling has been overseeing remarkable success in his whiskey distilling business in Ireland, further afield his Botswana Diamonds mining outfit has struggled, with diamond prices hit badly over the last 18 months. Prices are now on the turn but it is not clear how quickly the company can take advantage. Teeling has previously… Read more »

NOH20 HITS THE BRAKES

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE MUCH-hyped “bespoke on demand in-house app for carwashing”, NOH2O Ltd, has just collapsed into liquidation. Founded by self-described “brand innovator” Emmet O’Brien, the company’s business was based on waterless carwashing. It has been focusing its attention across the Atlantic, with O’Brien now based in Florida, but back home there had been plenty of changes… Read more »

THE NYHANS’ TAX BILL

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE DREADED Revenue has just registered a judgment for €221,000 against a company called Rostella Nyhan Holdings Ltd. This outfit should be familiar to fans of Goldhawk given its ties to the liquidated Rostella Properties Ltd (RPL). The latter was the entity behind three branches of the Nyhan Brothers chain of butchers in south Dublin… Read more »

MARK LENHERR’S CARIBBEAN COLLAPSE

Date: January 11, 2024 -

THE EXOTIC-sounding Caribbean Jewel Investments Ltd is to be liquidated next week but this is far from the first setback for one of the main players here, English property investor and developer Mark Lenherr, whose name should ring a few bells with Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly – aka Ant and Dec. The star TV… Read more »

LINDA MARTIN’S PUPPY LOVE

Date: December 14, 2023 -

CHRISTMAS CAME early for Linda ‘Eurovision’ Martin, whose move into the business end of animal welfare has landed her a juicy gig from Dublin City Council (DCC), although the €45,000 per month contract was never advertised. Martin has had a long career in the music industry (she released her own version of ‘Downtown’ last month)… Read more »

PROFILE: VICKI NOTARO

Date: December 14, 2023 -

HAVING LEFT her position as MD of VIP Publishing earlier this year, Vicki Notaro has impressed Goldhawk with her modus operandi as she forges a new path as a “fiction writer, freelance journalist and brand consultant”. As the keen self-promoter gushed recently: “It’s so fab… It’s like they all satisfy a different part of me.”… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: CHRIS CLIFFORD

Date: December 14, 2023 -

THE current president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), Chris Clifford, came to power in unique circumstances. A two-term president of Munster Technological University (MTU) Kerry Students’ Union, he ran a joke campaign for USI president that unexpectedly led to him overseeing more than 300,000 students nationally. Clifford, who previously criticised the USI… Read more »

JUDGE HUMPHREYS AND JAMIE BRYSON

Date: December 14, 2023 -

WHAT AN intriguing coupling Judge Richard Humphreys and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson make in their collaboration on the recently published Constitutional Balance, the Acts of Union and the Principle of Consent. Jamie is one of the most vocal critics of the Northern Ireland Protocol –… Read more »

GAYLE KILLILEA AND DER KAISER

Date: December 14, 2023 -

FOLLOWERS OF the entertaining X account of Gayle Killilea saw her react in characteristic fashion to a two-page spread in the Indo about her new mansion near Ascot: “As the former Baroness of Ballsbridge, I’d like to thank my beautiful breasts for helping me conquer… Read more »

DAVID NORRIS’S ‘MILLION POUNDS’

Date: December 14, 2023 -

FANS WHO managed to stay up (awake?) for RTÉ’s The Week In Politics programme last weekend were treated to an interesting titbit from David Norris, who was happy to confirm the degree to which he availed of the libel laws here to significantly boost his bank balance. The Trinners senator was the subject of a… Read more »

BONO’S WINDFALL

Date: December 14, 2023 -

THE PEACE message frequently peddled by Bono has invariably been aligned with a western political agenda but a recent move by the singer saw him benefit from a financial deal funded by a bank entwined with those Israeli heroes that occupy and settle on Palestinian… Read more »

COP ON OR COP OUT?

Date: December 14, 2023 -

Won’t anyone think of the oil companies? In a frantic communiqué issued at Cop28, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) warned that the “undue and disproportionate pressure against fossil fuels may reach a tipping point with irreversible consequences”. The tipping point exercising Opec has nothing to do with climate. It is the grave danger… Read more »