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WHIPPING UP A STORM

Date: February 9, 2023 -

FEBRUARY 13 sees the introduction across the Irish Sea of new, more stringent rules regarding the use of the whip. Given Cheltenham is set to take place four weeks after this, the impact of the move by the British Horseracing Authority will be closely watched. Jockeys have already kicked up over the new rules, which… Read more »

REDDINGTON’S RIDE

Date: February 9, 2023 -

LONDON-BASED Irish property developer-turned amateur jockey John Reddington has become well known in recent years for his particular style in the saddle when riding his own horses. The enthusiastic 50-something-year-old taught his younger, professional colleagues something of a lesson when winning a race in enterprising fashion in Newcastle last week. Having utilised his chopper to… Read more »

CATHERINE KEANE’S €7.5M PILE

Date: February 9, 2023 -

ONE OF the most expensive houses to come on the market lately is Lonsdale on leafy Temple Road in Dartry. This is an area of the capital that would have been most familiar to property magnate Matt Keane, who made a mint out of acquiring and developing a substantial number of properties in the Dublin… Read more »

NATIONAL GALLERY’S NEW FACES

Date: February 9, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK HAD been getting curious about whether arts and culture minister Catherine Martin was ever going to get around to appointing the four new directors to the board of the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI). Happily, after he bunged in a query about the status of the appointment process, it was announced that the seats… Read more »

DAVID HARVEY’S FULL SQUAD

Date: February 9, 2023 -

ARTS MINISTER Catherine Martin has a tendency to take her time to fill board vacancies but the good news is that she has finally managed to fill four seats at IMMA. Remarkably, three of these have existed for two years! In late 2020, Martin reappointed chairman David Harvey, Dermod Dwyer and Mary Apied, while Eva… Read more »

UPLIFT LETDOWN

Date: February 9, 2023 -

APPOINTMENTS TO the forthcoming Media Commission, two Dáil committee hearings, and related media policy reports and press releases all jostled for public attention in mid January. Some items fell through the cracks. On January 18, media minister Catherine Martin announced a “new action plan” to implement the Future of Media Commission recommendations, while the joint… Read more »

PENNYS OWNER ABF UNDERRATED BY THE MARKET

Date: February 9, 2023 -

THE WESTON family, George Weston in particular, pulled off quite the coup when they sold off their Selfridges/Brown Thomas/Arnotts department store group for £4bn last year. These operations were acquired not because they are really big earners but rather as trophy assets. The remaining retail business in the Associated British Foods (ABF) group, based around… Read more »

LORETTA DIGNAM’S HEALTHY OUTLOOK

Date: February 9, 2023 -

IT HAS been a mixed few weeks for Loretta Dignam’s Menopause Hub, which announced the opening of its first clinic in Cork at the end of 2022 but then had to make a settlement in the Four Goldmines. Dignam was ahead of the curve when it comes to tackling the attitudes to menopause, particularly in… Read more »

ANNE ROSSI’S LIQUIDATION

Date: February 9, 2023 -

DUBLIN BEAUTICIAN Anne Rossi came a cropper in Dublin District Court this month as a result of an action taken by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA). This was not her only setback, however. Rossi, who runs the Anne Rossi Clinic at Vernon Avenue in Clontarf, north Co Dublin, was prosecuted by the HPRA for… Read more »

CRANE POWER

Date: February 9, 2023 -

STILL NO sign of the €5m being dished out to some lucky grant manager on behalf of a body called the Crane Foundation. The name may not ring too many bells but that is because it was better known as the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) for the 14 years it managed that operation, which… Read more »

GEORGE DUNNE’S BIG HOUSE

Date: February 9, 2023 -

A HOUSE in Bray, Co Wicklow, has just come on the market with the vendor seeking a hefty €3.4m. The Irish Times write-up noted that the owner of the sprawling Mount Herbert is builder George Dunne but unfortunately there wasn’t room in the article to include all his adventures. Mount Herbert, which is located on… Read more »

VOL 41 NO 03

Date: February 9, 2023 -

VOL 41 NO 02

Date: January 26, 2023 -

MEEK MEDIA AND PASCHAL DONOHOE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

THE INITIALLY tardy attitude of most media to allegations that Paschal Donohoe’s breached election expenses rules is hard to explain (see p3). Surely the January 1 deadline for the implementation of the public expenditure minister’s budget gift to Big Media – zero VAT rate on newspapers – was not an inhibiting factor? When the main… Read more »

PROFILE: ROSSA FANNING

Date: January 26, 2023 -

THE LATEST hot-shot lawyer to be appointed Attorney General is Rossa Fanning SC, one of the top commercial barristers in the Four Courts and someone who has earned millions from this trade – as did his predecessor, Paul Gallagher. Also like Gallagher, Fanning is not a member of any political party, although neither man would… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: UNA HEALY

Date: January 26, 2023 -

Reports that Una Healy is in a ‘throuple’ relationship with former heavyweight boxing champion David Haye and model Sian Osborne certainly helped to boost showbiz hacks out of the post-Christmas doldrums. But as it transpires, having the attention of two suitors is not an unusual situation for Healy to find herself in. Although she rose… Read more »

GARDA AND HARD RIGHT

Date: January 26, 2023 -

GARDA COMMISSIONER Drew Harris OBE grabbed the headlines this month when he described some of those involved in the anti-refugee protests as having a “sinister agenda… their motives are not good. Their motives could be described as far right.” It came just after the protests outside the Travelodge Hotel in Ballymun, which is accommodating refugees…. Read more »

HANDICAPPING MICHAEL HALFORD

Date: January 26, 2023 -

GOLDHAWK WAS surprised to spot that a company called Copper Beech Racing Ltd has just collapsed into liquidation. This is the business established by well-known racehorse trainer Michael Halford, who has trained for the likes of the Aga Khan. It represents the latest setback for Halford, who, until November last, was in the saddle as… Read more »

AMNESTY FOR BILL SHIPSEY?

Date: January 26, 2023 -

INTERESTING TO see that Art for Amnesty (AfA), fronted by ex-legal eagle Bill Shipsey, has advised the Companies Office of a name change to Art for Human Rights. This is clearly a reaction to a legal action lodged last year. Shipsey found himself caught in the crosshairs back in September when Amnesty International (AI) commenced… Read more »

ROBBIE HENSHAW’S VITAMINS

Date: January 26, 2023 -

RUGBY INTERNATIONAL Robbie Henshaw, who is set to return from injury, featured heavily at the weekend in the run-up to the start of the Six Nations. Most happy with the coverage was surely pharma giants Uniphar, which recently signed him up as a brand ambassador for one of its supplements. There were two pages, no… Read more »

THE SINGULARITIES – JOHN BANVILLE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

THROUGHOUT HIS career, John Banville has specialised in creating characters who don’t quite fit into their surroundings and whose time is spent struggling to understand themselves, and The Singularities is no exception. While he has never been much interested in conventional plots, his books usually excite extremes of critical appreciation and fans often appear to… Read more »

NO BONE FOR NOEL SMYTH

Date: January 26, 2023 -

REGIME CHANGE came to the Irish Kennel Club (IKC) earlier this month and this could be bad news for Goldhawk’s old pal, Noel Smyth. The board elections saw long-term president Sean Delmar lose out to HSE exec Pat O’Boyle, who recorded a significant majority when becoming the first woman president in the club’s 100-year history…. Read more »

HUSBANDS’S HEADACHE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

LEOPARDSTOWN BOSS Tim Husbands may still be basking in the glow of a successful Christmas festival, when over 60,000 race-goers attended over the four days, but the focus has moved swiftly to the Dublin Racing Festival and it is clear there is much work to… Read more »

DONOHOE: HOLD THE BACK PAGE!

Date: January 26, 2023 -

THE EFFORTS by Paschal Donohoe, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to resist an exposé of his dodgy election returns was initially supplemented by a remarkably nonchalant response from the media, especially the Irish Times but also from the Sunday and Irish Independent (see p12). That the Indo should, six days after it first reported the… Read more »

CANCELLING KEVIN HIGGINS

Date: January 26, 2023 -

THE COMPLIMENTARY obits to the late poet Kevin Higgins last weekend did not quite do justice to the bard’s talent and wit. Nor did they depict the full extent of the British Labour Party’s determination to hunt this dangerous poet down and purge him. Although he lived in Galway, Higgins was an exiled member of… Read more »

SUZANNE LAURIE’S INSTITUTE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

WHILE THE health and wellness sector has been thriving in recent years, a Dublin-registered company, owned by Suzanne Laurie and Laurence Dann, that has been providing courses in this field has had to call in the company doctor to deliver a fatal dose of reality. The grandly titled Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) was incorporated… Read more »

FOOD ‘VISIONARY’ McCONALOGUE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

WITH PRESSURE growing on all sectors to find ways to meet their legally binding emissions reduction targets, recent research conducted by the Irish Farmers Journal offered a rare, easy win for agriculture. The IFJ survey, involving over 800 farmers, found that around half were ready to either cut the size of their suckler cattle herds… Read more »

ALTERNATIVE PATRIOTS

Date: January 26, 2023 -

On JANUARY 12, 11 protests – eight in Dublin – were organised against the provision of accommodation for immigrants in Ireland. The plan was to cause major traffic disruption by blocking important roads. The protestors took to the streets at 5pm but it soon became obvious that the numbers turning out were far less than… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

He’s the pre-eminent politician of our generation, internationally and both domestically. Fine Gael TD Peter Burke gives thanks to FG colleague Paschal Donohoe, Prime Time, RTÉ One Winter trees are not less than but differently beautiful to their summer fullness. Bare branches reveal fractals mirrored in our own organs, the bronchi that branch into bronchioles… Read more »

MARTIN’S LONG BARGE POLE

Date: January 26, 2023 -

DURING ALL the toing and froing in the last couple of weeks as EU-UK talks on the protocol intensify, one aspect was notable: this Irish Government keeps northern nationalist representatives at arm’s length; with Micheál Martin as Tánaiste the arm will grow longer. One illustration is the kerfuffle on January 11, when British foreign secretary… Read more »

PUSSY CAT BARRY COWEN

Date: January 26, 2023 -

MEDIA SURPRISE at the new model Barry Cowen’s merciful attitude to beleaguered Blueshirt minister Paschal Donohoe – normally a legitimate target in Cowen’s eyes – may or may not have been genuine. But if Irish Times court jester Miriam Lord was being deliberately ironic (likely) and the Indo’s Senan Moloney was merely regurgitating what Cowen… Read more »

GENERAL ELECTION TIMING

Date: January 26, 2023 -

LEO VARADKAR’S stated preference for a general election to be held in the autumn of 2024 has not gone down well inside Fianna Fáil, especially in the parliamentary party, where there is fear and dread of any election and especially a Dáil election that would be held after the next locals. The local elections are… Read more »

VARADKAR’S SECOND COMING

Date: January 26, 2023 -

LAST WEEKEND’S Behaviour and Attitudes/Sunday Times (B&A/ST) poll, showing Fianna Fáil six points ahead of Fine Gael (25-19), reflects the difference between B&A/ST poll ratings of FF/FG compared to all the other polling firms’ results on the same parties in the last 12 months. Of nine B&A polls in that time, six showed FF ahead… Read more »

MARIA BAILEY COMEBACK?

Date: January 26, 2023 -

FORMER FINE GAEL TD Maria Bailey paid off a few scores in Simon Carswell’s Irish Times piece at the weekend, with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar the main target, although junior minister Josepha Madigan did not come over as one of Maria’s VBFs either. But what is the agenda behind this heavily researched and carefully laid out… Read more »

SIMON CARSWELL’S SILVER MEDALS

Date: January 26, 2023 -

IRISH EXAMINER political editor Danny McConnell took the job as Business Post editor ahead of Simon Carswell, the public affairs editor and former Washington correspondent of the Irish Times, who many had expected to take the job given his broader experience. However, the Post is primarily business and politically oriented and Danny McConnell is also… Read more »

OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

Date: January 26, 2023 -

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS believe an imposter may have used Eoghan Harris’s identity on social media to launch an attack on the British royal family for collaborating with the republican movement. This, the hypothesis goes, is because a recent tweet from Harris accused Charles III of being in league with Sinn Féin, as evidenced by the king’s… Read more »