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BARONESS BAMFORD’S BLUES

Date: July 13, 2023 -

THE GROUP 1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh is a race that is becoming known for the wrong reasons. Last year, there was the debacle of the Paddy Twomey-trained Rosscarbery being disqualified from third place after a malfunction of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) scales led to her carrying less weight than she… Read more »

THE LYONS’ DEN

Date: July 13, 2023 -

THE CURRAGH hosted British racing broadcaster Nick Luck’s usually entertaining Luck On Sunday show live from the track on Irish Derby morning and it was well worth a watch. There was an informative segment from jockey Seamie Heffernan on his long career in Ballydoyle and the mindset of Aidan O’Brien but the entertainment came from… Read more »

OONAGH’S INCOME SUPPLEMENT

Date: July 13, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK SPOTTED his favourite ‘celebrity pharmacist’, Oonagh O’Hagan, giving very informed tips in the Indo to hapless readers for the best way to deal with irritable bowel syndrome. Two of the tips from the media-friendly boss of the well-known Meagher’s Pharmacy chain referred to taking… Read more »

PAUL WARD’S MOVIE PLOT

Date: July 13, 2023 -

THERE HAS been plenty of activity on Irish Multiplex Cinemas Ltd (IMC) since that legal spat between Paul Ward and his equally minted siblings was settled last month. The wealthy Ward family, which owns Dublin’s Savoy cinema among many others, was engaged in this legal wrangle for almost four years, with the main player being… Read more »

MORE COLLISON MILLIONS IN ABBEYLEIX

Date: July 13, 2023 -

IT WON’T come as too much of a surprise to hear that the 2021 acquisition of Abbeyleix House by John Collison has seen the Stripe founder chuck millions of euros into the operation. Most recently the billionaire checked the loose change down the back of… Read more »

DALATA SHARES NOW LOOK UNDERVALUED

Date: July 13, 2023 -

A RECENT trading update from Dalata Hotels Group suggests that some serious profits are set to be generated this year, leaving the shares looking undervalued. Investors, however, will need to be aware of certain limitations that may slow Dalata’s aggressive expansion. Dermot Crowley replaced Pat McCann as CEO when the latter stood down in November… Read more »

CLONTARF ENERGY’S BOLIVIAN LONG SHOT

Date: July 13, 2023 -

IT IS no easy task for David Horgan to fill the boots of John Teeling, even having worked alongside him for over 20 years. The challenge at Clontarf Energy is particularly tough, however, given that the company almost went wallop last year, having spent a chunky £4m for its 10% participation in the failed Sasanof… Read more »

YVONNE BRADY’S SHORTS

Date: July 13, 2023 -

A FAIR few of the companies that featured on the Irish version of Dragons’ Den have come a cropper over the years and the latest one to bite the dust is Yvonne Brady’s much-hyped EVB Sports Shorts Ltd (EVB), which managed to attract some high-profile backing inside and outside the Dragons’ Den studio. Brady, an… Read more »

MOVIE PRODUCERS’ BIG BUDGETS

Date: July 13, 2023 -

AT AN Oireachtas committee hearing on the Section 481 tax credit earlier this month (see p17), Susan Kirby’s film and television lobby group, Screen Producers Ireland (SPI), found itself in the spotlight. It was noted by People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett that SPI had been “furiously putting out press releases all week on… Read more »

CROWLEY’S EXPENSIVE ROOMS

Date: July 13, 2023 -

ELSEWHERE IN this issue (see p23) the finances of the listed Dalata Hotels Group are analysed. One “case study” included relates to the opening of a new Maldron hotel last summer on the site of the old Tara Towers hotel in Booterstown, south Co Dublin…. Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S STRATEGY

Date: July 13, 2023 -

If Micheál Martin is indeed eyeing up a top EU job, it might explain his discretion on the issue of the US supplying cluster bombs to Ukraine, spurning yet another opportunity to showcase Ireland’s long history of ‘positive neutrality’ and diplomacy. Some 111 states, including most Nato members, have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions… Read more »

MARTIN’S FORUM ON ‘NOT NEUTRALITY’

Date: June 29, 2023 -

IN ITS push back against President Michael D Higgins and other defenders of neutrality, the Irish Times last week blamed an allegedly mistaken Leo Varadkar last March in Brussels for characterising Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s security forum in the context of neutrality. Sure, what would the… Read more »

PROFILE : SUE GRAY

Date: June 29, 2023 -

British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer will likely come to power at the next UK general election. In 2019, the threat of a Jeremy Corbyn premiership became the stuff of nightmares for London’s bankers and big business, not to mention the champions of Britain’s ‘special relationship’ with Washington. Starmer has gone to great lengths to… Read more »

YOUNG BLOODS: VOGUE WILLIAMS

Date: June 29, 2023 -

For someone who started off her TV career on the RTÉ2 reality show Fade Street, which was heavily panned by critics, Vogue Williams has managed to salvage the situation by becoming a hit podcaster with a twice-weekly podcast attracting three million listeners per month. The success of My Therapist Ghosted Me, which she co-presents with… Read more »

LAWYERING UP AT RTÉ

Date: June 29, 2023 -

THE COVERAGE of the Tubridy circus by RTÉ journalists has been extensive and unrestricted by Montrose management but defences have been mounted in more ways than one. Media reports spoke last weekend of how RTÉ declined to comment on what role if any its commercial… Read more »

NOEL KELLY’S COMPETITION

Date: June 29, 2023 -

WITH “SUPERAGENT” Noel Kelly of NKM in the spotlight as a result of star client Ryan Tubridy’s travails in RTÉ, the turmoil might present an opportunity for rival agency Carol & Associates, owned by Gráinne MacAnthony. Certainly, one of her better-known signings, Oliver Callan, was… Read more »

PIZZA YARD SLICED

Date: June 29, 2023 -

THE SUDDEN closure of Pizza Yard in Ranelagh should not really have come as a surprise. A message was uploaded last week to the restaurant’s social media pages stating that the business “is now closed due to unforeseen circumstances”. Given that Pizza Yard had been haemorrhaging money over the last couple of years, the writing… Read more »

LISTOWEL WRITERS’ WEEK SEQUEL

Date: June 29, 2023 -

EARLIER THIS month, the first Listowel Writers’ Week (LWW) under the new regime, following something of a clear-out at the long-running literary gig late last year, was well received by many of those in attendance, although there was no little dissent in the air, with… Read more »

PROFITABLE PRIDE

Date: June 29, 2023 -

WITH THE month-long Pride festivities over for another year, the crew behind the big Dublin Pride parade and various shindigs can start to count the money. As has increasingly been the case, there was a queue of corporate types eager to participate, as were the politicians. Certainly, there were plenty of sources of funding, with… Read more »

SANDS MAKES WAVES

Date: June 29, 2023 -

BROSNAN RACING is a new name in the horseracing game, which announced its arrival on the scene when buying the top lot at the Goffs London Sale last week. One of the principals here is the colourful Neil Sands. Fronted by the father-and-son team of Con and Neil Sands from Piperstown House outside Drogheda, Brosnan… Read more »

BILL SHIPSEY’S DALKEY BALCONY

Date: June 29, 2023 -

A SPRAWLING pile atop a hill in Dalkey has gone on the market with a €4.75m price tag. The owners turn out to be campaigning ex-barrister Bill Shipsey and his American legal eagle wife, Moira. A predictably glowing write-up in the Irish Times, however, suggested one feature that may not be available to any minted… Read more »

VOL 41 NO 13

Date: June 29, 2023 -

HORGAN & HOGAN

Date: June 29, 2023 -

DENNIS HORGAN is a highly regarded aerial photographer who has published assorted well-received books, most recently Ireland’s Guiding Lights, for which he captured aerial images of Irish lighthouses, attracting glowing reviews from the likes of Terry Prone and Joe Duffy. The latter would also be very familiar with Dennis’s missus, one Dee Forbes, currently in… Read more »

MARTIN BUNGLES SECURITY FORUM

Date: June 29, 2023 -

IF MICHEÁL MARTIN believes that his ambition to secure a Brussels sinecure will be enhanced by his forum on international security then his political judgement is a lot more fallible than some pundits claim. He has managed to screw up what he and his Iveagh… Read more »

FORUM FREE SPEECH

Date: June 29, 2023 -

THE SECURITY forum heard much from its chair, Dame Louise Richardson, about her desire to “ensure freedom of speech” and for “maximum participation” of those at the forum. She was doubtless taking her cue from Tánaiste and aspirant EU commissioner Micheál Martin, who had already trumpeted the “inclusive” nature of the proceedings. Unfortunately, the Irish… Read more »

INCITEMENT TO HATE CONSEQUENCES

Date: June 29, 2023 -

The recent conviction of James Allchurch — online pseudonym, Sven Longshanks — from Wales has created quite a stir within Irish far-right circles. Allchurch’s online platform, Radio Albion, hosted a variety of podcasts and he was charged under the Public Order Act as authorities felt that many of the podcasts featured material that was racist,… Read more »

‘INDO’ EXPOSES GREEN TD

Date: June 29, 2023 -

IN A story that should have wiped Ryan Tubridy off the front pages, Irish Independent political editor Philip Ryan has ruthlessly exposed a Green Party politician for doing exactly what he said he would do. Shame-faced Limerick TD Brian Leddin admitted to not flying to a conference in Scotland, having publicly committed to reduce or… Read more »

UKRAINE-RUSSIA IRISH ARMS LINKS

Date: June 29, 2023 -

SPENDING on military hardware and weapons by governments world-wide reached a new high of just over €2 trillion in 2022. Fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ratcheting up of tensions between China and Taiwan, the expansion of the arms industry last year was the biggest in over three decades. In March 2022, news… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: June 29, 2023 -

His lack of concern for the conventions governing the President’s role may well have opened a Pandora’s box. The way is now open for a demagogue, of left or right, to campaign for office with the specific pledge to oppose the policies of the government of the day. Stephen Collins, Irish Times, submitted by reader… Read more »

THE POLLUTION PARADOX

Date: June 29, 2023 -

“What if someone nurtured nature, planted hedgerows to make room for the birds and bees, and quietly helped reduce emissions by stitching clover into grass… working together with the land to produce food in a more sustainable way… what if that someone was already here, and thousands strong?” This purple prose might read like the… Read more »

12TH CULTURAL RITES

Date: June 29, 2023 -

Liberty Hall in Dublin city centre is 59 metres high. Last year the gigantic bonfire at Craigyhill outside Larne commemorating King Billy’s landing at Carrickfergus in 1690 was 61 metres high. It was made mainly of pallets, over 17,000 of them, some ‘donated’ by local hauliers, others stolen and some bought. This year the builders… Read more »

GREEN ATTACK ON SF

Date: June 29, 2023 -

The ongoing pearl-clutching about the prospect of a Sinn Féin government has been joined recently by the Green Party – and where better to do it than in the opinion section of the Irish Times. Influential climate campaigner and former Green councillor Sadhbh O’Neill revealed that her nightmares involve Mary Lou McDonald’s SF forming the… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ SPLIT ON NEUTRALITY?

Date: June 29, 2023 -

AFTER SEVERAL days of semi-hysterical reaction from Irish Times hacks to President Michael D Higgins calling out Micheál Martin’s forum on security for what it is – an attempt to undermine public support for neutrality – cracks began to appear in the paper’s usual militarist… Read more »

ANGLO-US MEDIA

Date: June 29, 2023 -

PREDICTABLE DENUNCIATION of anti-war protesters at Micheál Martin’s security forum came from the Irish edition of the Sunday Times – Whitehall’s favourite Aawrish newspaper. Journalists John Mooney and Claire Scott combined in a piece that described their actions as a combination of “farce… ignorance, misconceptions and misunderstandings”. But the hacks over-reached themselves with some completely… Read more »

VARIETY JONES’S TASTY DISH

Date: June 29, 2023 -

THE TWO boys behind the highly regarded Variety Jones restaurant in D8 must have been delighted to see half of page 3 in the Business Post last weekend devoted to their business. Readers may have been a little more underwhelmed by the extensive puff piece in the ‘news’ section, however. The main player in Michelin-starred… Read more »

FINNEGAN’S WAKE

Date: June 29, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK was surprised at the minimal coverage of an interesting ruling by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) appeals body, chaired by barrister (and RTÉ board member) Susan Ahern. The decision, supported by members Laurence McFerran and Finbar Cahill, was to uphold the refusal of Samantha Finnegan’s application for a training licence. At the centre… Read more »