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BRIAN ORMOND’S MISSTEP

Date: March 8, 2023 -

BARELY A year after benefiting from oodles of free advertising in the Irish media, courtesy of gushing articles about Brian Ormond’s move into the footwear business, one of the companies behind the Movrs franchise is tripping into liquidation. K Club-based Ormond lives an enviable lifestyle, with a nice pile in the K Club and regular… Read more »

PHARMACISTS’ FINANCIAL HEADACHE

Date: March 8, 2023 -

IN RECENT weeks Dermot Twomey’s Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) has been getting its fair share of attention, most notably as a result of the high-profile shortage of many medicines. No doubt IPU president Twomey and the other top brass are hoping that this helps to distract members from the continued haemorrhaging of money at a… Read more »

DUNCAN STEWART’S MANY HATS

Date: March 8, 2023 -

WITH THE critically acclaimed Eco Eye television series jettisoned by RTÉ (see The Phoenix 24/2/23), it may not be too long before presenter and climate activist Duncan Stewart is back on our screens with his latest venture. He has had a fair few different corporate incarnations down the years. While Montrose sought to sugar the… Read more »

CERREJÓN’S IRISH MINING COMPANY CALLS IT A DAY

Date: March 8, 2023 -

THE IRISH-registered company that has been the sole marketer of coal from the controversial giant Cerrejón mine on the Colombia-Venezuela border has just been wound up. Not surprisingly, there was a few bob in the pot. Owned today by major London-listed commodity trader Glencore, CMC-Coal Marketing DAC has been selling coal from Cerrejón for 20… Read more »

BERTIE AHERN’S REAL AGENDA

Date: February 22, 2023 -

WHETHER INSPIRED by some devious and cunning politician or whether they became obsessed with Bertie Ahern’s presumed presidential ambitions, journalists en masse were diverted from the real agenda behind his recent re-entry to Fianna Fáil. As Goldhawk observed last year, Micheál Martin and other Fianna Fáil ministers anticipated a most embarrassing scenario unfolding with the… Read more »

PROFILE: DOUGLAS TAYLOR

Date: February 22, 2023 -

FANS OF Goldhawk will be familiar with horseracing fanatic and scourge of the bookies Douglas Taylor, whose day job is CEO of the super-profitable MCR Group, one of the country’s biggest outsourcing companies. Having started as a construction recruitment specialist, it expanded into areas such as security, waste management and contract cleaning but Doug didn’t… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: ANLUAN DUNNE

Date: February 22, 2023 -

CAN TRALEE’S Anluan Dunne confound the critics in Kerry and lead a Green march forward for the party in this most inhospitable of constituencies? That’s the question party strategists are debating. While the party is getting a battering in the opinion polls, a sharp eye is being kept on future prospects, with potential candidates being… Read more »

COLOUR-BLIND CRITICS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

HUGH LINEHAN has been conspicuously silent about the race row over nominations to the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2022. The IT’s arts and culture editor, who also hosts the weekly Inside Politics podcast, has stayed silent about the nomination of just two white actors in the play The Octoroon – with the other eight… Read more »

DUNCAN’S DOSH

Date: February 22, 2023 -

LAST WEEKEND climate activist and environmental campaigner Duncan Stewart got a run-out on Brendan O’Connor’s Radio 1 show on foot of the unpopular decision by Montrose to cease broadcasting the Eco Eye series, the last episode of which was aired on February 9. One of… Read more »

MICHAEL O’LEARY ON THE BUSES

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IN DECEMBER last, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary made one of his trademark outbursts, this time with a target that, even by his standards, was unexpected; the subject of his ire was that money was being “squandered” by the Government to run the state’s school bus service. According to Michael O’Leary, airline passengers are charged an EU… Read more »

CIARA KELLY’S MORNING MOOLAH

Date: February 22, 2023 -

AS ONE of star agent Noel O’Kelly’s roster of ‘talent’, doctor-turned-broadcaster Ciara Kelly is proving quite the earner. The Newstalk presenter’s profile on NM Management’s website notes that, apart from the morning radio gig, Ciara is also “a regular keynote speaker for health conferences, speaking engagements and corporate events”. On top of these lucrative speaking… Read more »

HUGH CAHILL’S OWN GOALS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IT HAS been an unfortunate start to the year for RTÉ sports broadcaster Hugh Cahill, whose company has just gone into liquidation. On top of this setback, the well-known media personality finds himself on the end of a judgment from his local credit union. The popular Cahill has been a familiar face and voice for… Read more »

NIAMH PARKER’S TWEETS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE STORY of Altada’s travails keeps on giving and last weekend the Business Post featured a large spread detailing multiple criticisms of founder director Allan Beechinor from the recently appointed liquidator, John Healy. The story will not have come as a big surprise to followers of the Twitter account of Beechinor’s wife and Altada co-founder,… Read more »

FINTAN CALLS TIME ON BIDEN

Date: February 22, 2023 -

FINTAN O’TOOLE is probably the most influential opinion former in Ireland and thus far he has laid most blame for the war in Ukraine on President Vladimir Putin rather than President Joe Biden. But this week he effectively urged the West to withdraw its support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion. But it is these… Read more »

AILISH KELLY’S FINE FIGURES

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IT WAS not surprising to see media-savvy Ailish Kelly of the Avoca cosmetic surgery clinic in Co Wicklow pop up in a Sunday Times article last weekend, headlined “Designer vagina surgery soars”. She was quick to point out that around 12% of the procedures carried out at The Avoca Clinic each month are labiaplasties costing… Read more »

VOL 41 NO 04

Date: February 22, 2023 -

SISTERS’ SUMMIT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IT LOOKS like Dublin’s Convention Centre will be the hot ticket in May when Executive Women Gathering (EWG), described as “Ireland’s largest female executive leadership summit”, kicks off. Promoted by ‘media partner’ the Irish Times, the one-day shindig costs a mere €445 with the early bird offer. Speakers on May 5 include candle queen Jo… Read more »

IRISH MEDIA AT WAR

Date: February 22, 2023 -

A REHASHED article that has effectively been published already by the Irish Times, Irish Independent, RTÉ, BBC and now the Sunday Times again last weekend, lionised Paul Niland, Dublin’s answer to Volodymyr Zelenskyy who refuses to leave Ukraine as it is his “home”. The director of suicide prevention hotline Lifeline Ukraine, Niland has received many… Read more »

IDLIB: IRELAND’S IMPACT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE EARTHQUAKES that hit south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria caused widespread destruction of property and tens of thousands of death. The region has been ravaged by war for over a decade and both the local population and the many internally displaced people occupying camps have also in recent years had their dire situation compounded by… Read more »

BAD APPLES

Date: February 22, 2023 -

DAVID BURKE, the specialist author on British intelligence in Ireland, is shortly to release an old-fashioned pamphlet entitled An Orchard of Bad Apples (which will soon be available on the Covert History Ireland website). Burke argues that the UK is paying a reputational price for the decades during which the state turned a blind eye… Read more »

THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

Date: February 22, 2023 -

EARLIER THIS month United Nations general secretary António Guterres rang alarm bells when he told the general assembly (in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine): “I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war. I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open.” Addressing the supply of heavy offensive weapons… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: February 22, 2023 -

I’ve been up and down the country, particularly since 2014. I’ve been to conferences on Brexit in all the border counties, huge meetings in Cavan, Monaghan, in Donegal. Next week I’m with Ibec. I consider this my public service. Bertie Ahern, speaking to reporters, as quoted by RTÉ.ie, submitted by reader Manifestation is a way… Read more »

DUP’S DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IN OCTOBER 2019 Leo Varadkar went for a walk up the garden path in the grounds of Thornton Manor in the Wirral with Boris Johnson. What Varadkar might agree to was a source of concern for Irish officials. The main concession Vlad did agree then has now emerged as the biggest obstacle to a UK-EU… Read more »

FINE GAEL CROSSES THE BORDER

Date: February 22, 2023 -

FINE GAEL’S move to set up its own organizational structures north of the border says as much about Fianna Fáil’s wavering commitment to a united Ireland under Micheál Martin as it does about FG under Leo Varadkar. It hardly caused an eyebrow to arch in establishment circles south of the border – reflecting the Dublin… Read more »

BERTIE’S GOOD OL’ BOYS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

DOWN IN the constituency organisation of Fianna Fáil in Dublin Central (DC), one person who will have gritted her teeth while affecting to welcome Bertie Ahern back into the bosom of the party is senator Mary Fitzpatrick. She would likely have been an FF Dáil deputy from 2007 onwards had Bertie and the Drumcondra Mafia… Read more »

VARADKAR TAILS FAR RIGHT

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE LATEST party political poll – from the Sunday Times/Behaviour and Attitudes (B&A) – shows again the almost secret war raging between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with the latter pulling back a significant lead held by FF – six percentage points in mid-January – to come within one point of the rival party. Varadkar… Read more »

WHO WILL WIN EXTRA DUBLIN DÁIL SEATS?

Date: February 22, 2023 -

WITH ANYTHING from 11 to 21 extra seats likely to emerge from the impending constituency revisions to be brought in by the Electoral Commission, it is not easy yet to determine which party or parties will gain or lose seats. Sinn Féin will obviously profit given everyone’s underestimate (by all, including SF) in advance of… Read more »

GLOBAL MEDIA FUNDING

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE LAST edition of The Phoenix (see issue 10/2/23) drew attention to the media group-think and bias about Nato’s proxy war against Russia via its manipulation of Ukraine followed by its arming of the latter. The virtual unanimity of Irish editorial opinion – Russia is the beast preying on Ukraine, which is now dependent on… Read more »

IAN KEHOE’S RTE CONCERNS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

WHAT A remarkably detailed account of last September’s RTÉ board minutes was made available to the Sindo’s Mark Tighe last Sunday. And how prominent was RTÉ director Ian Kehoe in those minutes, with a raft of worried queries and suggestions on the parlous state of… Read more »

EYE ON THE WORLD

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IRELAND’S LONGEST-running environmental TV programme, Eco Eye, bowed out this month after a 21-year run. With the climate and biodiversity crisis deepening by the month, the timing for RTÉ to drop a show with a long track record of serious environmental journalism is little short of bizarre. RTÉ’s director of content, Jim Jennings, was lavish… Read more »

DAVID HORGAN’S HOT AIR

Date: February 22, 2023 -

They say it’s best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt. Petrel Resources chair David Horgan recently left both NewsTalk presenter Kieran Cuddihy and studio guest Paul Murphy TD shaking their heads in disbelief at his fatuous contribution. Questioned on the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate… Read more »

BOBBY FLAY’S FANS

Date: February 22, 2023 -

THE ARRIVAL of minted US celebrity chef Bobby Flay on the Irish horseracing scene has got tongues wagging as the high-profile TV presenter and restaurateur prepares to make an impact here. At the Arqana bloodstock sale in France in December, Flay lashed out almost €1m for a Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum horse named Final Gesture,… Read more »

THE BRABAZONS’ BONANZA

Date: February 22, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK NOTES a most impressive turnaround at Killruddery demesne outside Bray in Co Wicklow, where Anthony and Fionnuala Brabazon are pulling the strings these days. In the not-too-distant past, Anthony’s father and lord of the manor, Jack Brabazon – the current Earl of Meath – had to put his hand very deep into his pockets… Read more »

SUZANNE EADE’S MONEY TREE

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IRISH HORSE racing bodies are quick to champion the hefty prize money on offer here, particularly when the figures are compared with those on offer in Britain, where the debate over the paltry purses has been ongoing for years. A quick glance at a recent high-profile meeting in Navan, however, suggests there is little enough… Read more »

WILL COOLMORE CASH IN?

Date: February 22, 2023 -

GOFFS BOSS Henry Beeby is shedding no light on the issue of whether the buyer of the sale topper from last year’s Orby Yearling Sale has paid his bill or not. Nevertheless, the smart money must be on John Magnier swooping in. Kuwaiti businessman Saleh Al Homaizi, who was using English bloodstock agent Richard Knight… Read more »

HOMER SCOTT’S SOFT RIDE

Date: February 22, 2023 -

IRISH RACING took another battering in the Sindo earlier this month when Paul Kimmage exposed an upsetting welfare case involving former trainer Homer Scott. The case did little to boost the standing of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), which was happy to merely insist that Scott relinquish his trainer’s licence and left it up… Read more »