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RUNNING OUT OF ENERGY

Date: August 24, 2023 -

IT IS not looking like a great year for energy safety expert Denis Higgins, who is a director of two separate regulatory bodies that lost out on state contracts courtesy of environment and climate minister Eamon Ryan’s Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU). This latter… Read more »

SUSAN KIRBY’S HEADACHE

Date: August 24, 2023 -

IT TOOK a while – and pickets on the studios in Hollywood by the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, supported by the likes of Meryl Streep and Matt Damon – but the two-year-long pedestrian plot featuring the stand-off here between Gerry O’Brien’s Irish Equity union and Susan Kirby’s Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) is finally picking up pace…. Read more »

FINAN O’DONOGHUE’S HOLIDAY WOES

Date: August 24, 2023 -

IT MAY come as a surprise to fans of camping in Europe that a business set up a few years ago to sell increasingly popular outdoor holidays is collapsing into liquidation. Ecommodation Lab Ltd was founded by Finan O’Donoghue and is behind the website campsited.com,… Read more »

‘HUMANITARIAN’ IRISH WAR EFFORT

Date: August 10, 2023 -

LAST OCTOBER the then foreign minister and defence minister, Simon Coveney, spoke in humanitarian terms when announcing the plan for Irish Defence Forces’ participation in the EU’s Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM). Referring to Ireland’s role as training Ukrainian sappers to demine areas of Ukraine, Coveney said: “There are unfortunately many, many… Read more »

PROFILE – MICHAEL FITZMAURICE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

IS THERE anybody in Leinster House who wants to be a minister more than Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice? The Roscommon turf-cutting contractor recently made clear his determination to be in the next government and also warned that if his plans for a new political party with the necessary intent and discipline to negotiate a coalition… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: DAVID MCMANUS

Date: August 10, 2023 -

UNEASY LIES the head that wears the crown and uneasy it seems is Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy as he peers over his shoulder at the increasingly strident challenge from Rathfarnham councillor and party ‘colleague’ David McManus, who has his sights firmly set on Brophy’s seat in Dublin South-West (DSW). The 33-year-old McManus burst on… Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CAREER CURVE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

CONSTANT ASSERTIONS by Micheál Martin – repeated at the weekend in a statement to the Sunday Times – that he will lead Fianna Fáil into the next election have long been treated like the obligatory denials of any party leader when asked if they intend to resign in the morning. However, there is now a… Read more »

HELEN McENTEE PROJECT UNDONE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

THE carefully constructed Fine Gael leadership campaign of Helen McEntee was given what appeared to be the kiss of death with her recent walk on the wild side of Dublin’s mean streets. Evidence of this was the very loud silence from ministers and even back… Read more »

MARY AIKEN’S NEIGHBOURS

Date: August 10, 2023 -

INTERESTING TO see that concert promoter extraordinaire Peter Aiken and his wife, Mary, are suing their Howth neighbours, Moya Doherty and John McColgan and Suzy and Ronan O’Brien, in a boundary dispute. (Suzy is the daughter of Gaybo and Kathleen Watkins.) The Aikens bought the… Read more »

AUF WIEDERSEHEN WIRECARD

Date: August 10, 2023 -

SO FAREWELL then Wirecard Payments Solutions Holdings Ltd, the Irish arm of the uber controversial German outfit, Wirecard AG. It will be finally wound up next week, three years after the extraordinary implosion of the parent company, which generated best-selling books and a popular Netflix documentary, Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard. The Netflix show centred on… Read more »

ANN’S CHINESE PUZZLE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

THE IMPRESSIVE Cambridge House on Cambridge Road in Rathmines has come on the market with a €3.5m price tag. Until recently, this late Victorian detached pile was owned by high-flyers Ann Corcoran and Finn Lyden, who have extensive business interests, as well as connections with China and Malta. The couple’s D6 house was quietly sold… Read more »

GEORGINA’S GOOD NEWS

Date: August 10, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK SPOTTED a rather chunky judgment satisfaction registered in Stubbs Gazette this week. The defendant who has had the debt cleared is one Georgina Appelbe and the amount in question is a cool €3.5m. Georgina is the wife of one Fergus Appelbe, who will be familiar to fans of Goldhawk for his various scraps with… Read more »

KIDS CHARITY SCOOPED!

Date: August 10, 2023 -

SO farewell then to The Scoop Foundation (Supporting Children Out Of Poverty), a charity that has just been wound up on foot of its liabilities, despite everything looking hunky-dory just nine months ago. Scoop was founded in 2009 by brothers Andrew and Calvin Sweeney, with the former installed as the first chief executive for a… Read more »

PETER WILSON’S DOG FIGHT

Date: August 10, 2023 -

SOME BAD news for The Black Dog Communications, run by Peter Wilson, which provides billing services for “dating, psychic or adult chat” lines, amongst others. Black Dog had already been stung by two complaints made by former employees and directors, Lorraine Walsh and Barbara Coyle, in a case that the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) said… Read more »

VOL.41 NO.16

Date: August 10, 2023 -

PETER AIKEN’S SIDE BET

Date: August 10, 2023 -

WHILE IMPRESARIO Peter Aiken is currently engaged in a high-profile boundary dispute (see p18), he will have been keeping an eye on the All Together Now festival in Co Waterford. It turns out Aiken and wife Mary have a financial interest in the gig, which has just been landed with a High Court writ. All… Read more »

JOHN ROBERTS’S MENU

Date: August 10, 2023 -

A COMPANY linked to Crackbrgr restaurant, owned by John Roberts, is being wound up next week, just a couple of months after the operation opened its doors in Temple Bar. It will be recalled (see The Phoenix 2/6/23) that hipster Joe Macken – a former business partner of Roberts – told the Business Post that… Read more »

DEEP STATE AND MOUNTBATTEN

Date: August 10, 2023 -

Andrew Lownie has been monitoring his social media accounts for at least five years. Files surrendered to him included a flyer about a talk he gave at a bookshop, something that indicates the level of scrutiny under which he has been placed. The disclosure has… Read more »

NOT-SO-QUIET MAN

Date: August 10, 2023 -

As signs of the ever-deepening climate emergency become all but impossible to ignore, some of those voices who have peddled climate denial for years have had to adapt. Chief among these is long-time climate sceptic and former Fine Gael environmental advisor Conor Skehan. His latest foray into eco-contrarianism saw Skehan declare in his Sunday Independent… Read more »

CHASING AFTER FOOL’S GOLD

Date: August 10, 2023 -

The surreal nature of the crisis enveloping the National Party (NP) began with the revelation of the €400,000 worth of gold bars stored in vaults in Dublin 4, before competing factions claimed online to control the party. An Garda Síochána was called in by Justin… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

Yet this glass ceiling has become a monkey around the necks of Irish teams, and seemingly with increasing weight. What’s more, it is used as a stick to beat over the heads of the sport in this country by the anti-rugby lobby. Gerry Thornley, Irish Times Where are the Roses who have experienced homelessness, or… Read more »

CLIMATE CAMP POLITICS

Date: August 10, 2023 -

Ireland’s first Climate Camp in 2009 pitched up beside the peat-burning power station at Shannonbridge. The plant has since shut. In 2010 they protested against a planned new road in Tyrone. It was never built. There’s been only one Climate Camp since then – last… Read more »

MUSK’S NEW MOVE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

AS SOON as Elon Musk took over Twitter last October, climate denial began surging on the platform, along with hate speech. Like many on the right, Musk is a “free speech” absolutist but is not so keen on critical speech directed at him. He’s now… Read more »

DONALDSON’S TRIMBLE MOMENT

Date: August 10, 2023 -

Former UUP leader Reg, now Lord, Empey says DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson is “approaching his David Trimble moment”. By that he means Donaldson is going to have to make a decision that will be unpopular with many in his party and may lead to a split in the DUP. The sweet irony here is that… Read more »

O’FLYNN’S HOUSING ‘GUIDELINE’

Date: August 10, 2023 -

THE SPLIT on the Government’s Housing Commission sees one side, led by developer Michael O’Flynn, arguing that a housing referendum should be more of a guideline than a hard imperative. The ‘fear’, apparently, is that making the issue a hard and fast constitutional tenet – doing what it says on the tin, so to speak… Read more »

GENERAL CLANCY’S CALL

Date: August 10, 2023 -

THE DEFENCE Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, made quite a statement at the recent unveiling of a monument to honour the national army dead in the Civil War, even if those who regard themselves as guardians of the national record failed to notice or record it. For 100 years the mantra from… Read more »

LIMERICK’S FIRST CITIZEN

Date: August 10, 2023 -

FEW CANDIDATES of calibre have stepped forward yet to proclaim their candidacy for the Limerick mayor’s job, although ex-finance mandarin John Moran wrapped the campaign victory (to secure Limerick’s mayoralty) around himself when it was announced. Moran has engaged in a personal and public campaign… Read more »

CLIMATE-FRIENDLY BANKS

Date: August 10, 2023 -

LISTENERS TO RTÉ’s Morning Ireland awoke last week to the sound of Bank of Ireland’s new CEO, Myles O’Grady, reading a statement about how the bank’s new strategy, Refresh, had helped to deliver half-year pre-tax profits of more than €1bn. Meanwhile the polished Colin Hunt, chief executive of AIB, announced that his bank’s operating profits… Read more »

‘SLAPPING’ THE MEDIA

Date: August 10, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK WAS greatly impressed by the deliberations of various politicians, lawyers and media executives who gathered at the Oireachtas joint committee on justice last month to discuss amendments to the Defamation Act 2009 that might ease the crippling burden that defamation laws impose on the media and free speech. A particular tactic that some have… Read more »

STEVE AIKEN’S BROADSIDE

Date: August 10, 2023 -

Steve Aiken, former Ulster Unionist Party leader from 2019 to 2021 and before that a commander on Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarines, launched an attack on Irish neutrality recently in the News Letter. Aiken said that what “Ireland really needs to do is have a serious, grown-up conversation about potentially joining something like Nato”, adding it… Read more »

O’DEA V DOOLEY

Date: August 10, 2023 -

Much media ink – and pixels – have been devoted to Fine Gael justice minister Helen McEntee in recent weeks, with quite a few stories referring to her positioning within the party for an eventual leadership bid. But a piece by Willie O’Dea in the Sunday Independent, and an immediate riposte by Timmy Dooley on… Read more »

FILM BOARD’S DIVERSE CAST

Date: August 10, 2023 -

TO THE surprise of absolutely no one, arts minister Catherine Martin has yet to fill two seats on the Screen Ireland (SI) board, which have been empty for three months. As there are only seven seats on the Susan Bergin-chaired board, a total of five members are currently overseeing the multimillion-euro budget. The terms of… Read more »

COVENEY’S NEW CHAIR

Date: August 10, 2023 -

UNLIKE SCREEN Ireland, whose board members receive not a cent in fees, the directors of the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI) are paid €7,000 for their eight meetings a year (every second one of which is virtual), while the chair gets €12,000. This week was the closing date for applications to enterprise minister… Read more »

SHEIKH FAHAD’S BARGAIN

Date: August 10, 2023 -

IT WAS around this time last year that British bloodstock agent Richard Knight began his $20m spending spree at yearling sales in Ireland, England, France and the US on behalf of Kuwaiti owner Saleh Al Homaizi. A few months later the sales companies began to claim that Al Homaizi had not paid his sales invoices… Read more »

CATHAL BYRNES BRISTLES

Date: August 10, 2023 -

WHEN THE referrals committee of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) ruled that jockey Gearoid Brouder had tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine and suspended his licence for four years, it led to an outburst from Cathal Byrnes, the son of trainer Charles Byrnes. Brouder’s failed test stemmed from a routine IHRB testing of… Read more »

NEIL JORDAN’S PLOT

Date: August 10, 2023 -

FILMMAKER TURNED novelist Neil Jordan has been generating plenty of media hype for his latest buke, The Well of Saint Nobody. He might also be paying some attention to the long-listing of Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting for this year’s Booker prize. Jordan may have been well off the boil in recent decades when it… Read more »