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TOO MUCH INFORMATION?

Date: December 15, 2022 -

HEATHER HUMPHREYS has been social protection minister for two-and-a-half years but appears to have been unaware until recently of the convulsions inside the Citizens Information Centres (CICs), in particular the Citizens Information Board (CIB), which come under her remit and were aired on Joe Duffy’s Liveline programme last September. The service, funded by Humphreys’ department… Read more »

KELLY’S HEROES

Date: December 15, 2022 -

HERMANN KELLY, leader of the Irish Freedom Party (IFP), has been reinvigorated in recent weeks. Not only has he led his party activists and associates into protests against refugee accommodation in East Wall, he has also tried to out-manoeuvre other far-right parties and activists. Fresh from his verbal onslaught against Justin Barrett and the National… Read more »

IRISH AMBIGUOUS ARMY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MICHEÁL MARTIN lost his cool with Cork TD Mick Barry of Solidarity in the Dáil recently. Barry was questioning the presence of Nato assessors in Kilworth, Co Cork, looking to judge the Irish Army’s interoperability with other Nato forces. Barry derided the oft-repeated claim by Government ministers that Ireland is not politically neutral but is… Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

I’m a huge fan of Japanese culture and design. Not many people know this, but when I took part in Celebrity Mastermind, my specialist subject was the geisha! What can I say, I’m full of surprises! Darren Kennedy, Irish Independent There’s something about its determinedly idealised portrayal of an Irish childhood which no longer exists,… Read more »

DAMNED LIES AND BORDER POLL

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE IRISH Times seems predictably smugly delighted with the figures in the ARINS poll jointly produced by the Royal Irish Academy and Notre Dame university in the US. As far as the Irish Times is concerned, it’s a slam dunk; no border poll “in the short or medium term”. Stop talking about it and especially… Read more »

VARADKAR AT RISK FROM COVENEY FANS?

Date: December 15, 2022 -

A STATE of fear and paralysis descended on Fine Gael members, especially at senior level, as that video of incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar kissing a young man at a gay nightclub spread like wildfire last week. But this is not the first time that Varadkar’s sexual orientation has become an issue inside the Fine Gael… Read more »

RTÉ DEFIES GOVERNMENT TDS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WHAT BEGAN as a run-of-the-mill targeting of Sinn Féin by Government members of the Oireachtas joint committee on the media developed into an embarrassing own-goal last week. Instead of yet another media taunting of Sinn Féin, the Irish Daily Mail ran a story about RTÉ claiming that the politicians were “trying to interfere in its… Read more »

IS MARTIN NOW SAFE AS LEADER?

Date: December 15, 2022 -

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS appear to be unanimous in their view — a view spun with assiduous intent by the party’s handlers — that Micheál Martin’s leadership of FF is now safe as houses (just like the party’s policy on houses). But some of the shrewder party operators know there are dangerous times ahead for the party… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ AND CHILD ABUSE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ON NOVEMBER 21 last, the Irish Times published a brief report on the passing of 81-year-old Derek Linster (also known as Derek Leinster). It noted that he had “campaigned for the inclusion of Protestant institutions in government inquiries and redress schemes” and that he “wrote two books on his experience”. What the IT did not… Read more »

MEDIAHUIS SUED

Date: December 15, 2022 -

RTÉ AND Sunday Independent journalist Brendan O’Connor has arrived late to the privacy party being reluctantly hosted by Mediahuis, owners of the Indo and other titles in the group formerly controlled by Denis O’Brien. At one stage there was a list of 19 such litigants suing over their data being illegally accessed by the group’s… Read more »

RTÉ’S ‘TOY SHOW’ DIRGE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MEDIA PREVIEWS of Toy Show The Musical were ecstatic, describing the lavish and very expensive production as the “perfect recipe… an instant Christmas classic” (Irish Examiner) and “Pack the tissues! It’s a roller coaster of emotions (Evoke), while RTÉ Radio 1’s Shay Byrne “was blown away”, (would you believe). Well, viewers and fans of The… Read more »

SF’S CLIMATE NO-CHANGE POLICY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THIS YEAR Sinn Féin received some serious political flak for staying schtum on the thorny issue of setting emissions targets for agriculture to mitigate the sector’s significant role in climate change. In July Sinn Féin climate spokesman Darren O’Rourke implausibly tried to argue that their silence was all about not having “enough information” to even… Read more »

GOLDEN DALE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO incoming director of Meat Industry Ireland Dale Crammond, who has spun through the revolving door of being a senior inspector in the Department of Agriculture dealing with greenhouse gas emissions straight into a lucrative gig lobbying against regulations for the livestock sector. While with the department, he worked hard to downplay methane emissions… Read more »

FAIRYTALE WEDDING

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE OIRISH Mail on Sunday was eager to plug the “fairytale wedding” of TV presenter Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile and moneybags Alan Maloney. Readers were told that the shindig was held in the “historic grounds of Mount Falcon Estate”, which provided the “enchanted location” for the happy couple, who have been together for around 13 years…. Read more »

CHRISTINE DAVIES’S ‘VISION’

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THE FORMER Squire of Abbeyleix House, David Davies – president of the Irish Georgian Society – sold his listed Co Laois demesne to the Collison bothers last year and ‘downsized’ to the impressive Killoughter House in Ashford, Co Wicklow. This pile turns out to be just a stone’s throw from Ballybla Farm, a sprawling estate… Read more »

RORY COLLINS’S CATALOGUE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

MEATH BREEDER and owner Rory Collins has cashed in several of his racing jewels in recent weeks with mixed results. The Ennistown Stud owner offered a few high-class two-year-old fillies to the market and was well rewarded when selling the Jim Bolger-trained Gan Teorainn for £1m, while another Bolger-trained horse, Speirling Beag, fetched €280,000. Paddy… Read more »

BONUS BLUES

Date: December 15, 2022 -

FOR MANY, jockey Tom Queally will always be associated with steering the mighty Frankel to all of his successes on the racecourse 10 years ago and it is fair to say his career has never hit anything like those heights since. His brother, Declan, however, is making a name for himself at home in Ireland…. Read more »

O’LEARY’S SPENDING SPREE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

DESPITE THE general economic gloom, cost-of-living crisis, inflation concerns etc, etc, the market for high-end flat bloodstock is reaching boiling point and one moneybags keen to make the most of the buoyancy is Mick O’Leary. The high-flying Ryanair boss bought Plantation Stud in Newmarket a number of years ago with the intention of setting up… Read more »

LEO KICKS TO TOUCH

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THERE HAS been plenty of water under the bridge since Goldhawk highlighted the hugely expensive arbitration process that was left hanging over IDA Ireland and the taxpayer after the surprise exit two years early of Martin Shanahan from his role as the agency’s €195,000 pa chief executive (see The Phoenix 15/7/22). Now Shanahan is being… Read more »

TRESPASSES – LOUISE KENNEDY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

THIS DEBUT novel by Louise Kennedy – the latest winner of An Post’s Book of the Year award – is the much-hyped follow-up to her short fiction collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac. Many of these earlier stories centred around secrets and lies – particularly in failing relationships where women… Read more »

PTSB MISSES SECOND PAYDAY BUT SHARES STILL FLYING

Date: December 15, 2022 -

EAMONN CROWLEY, the chief executive of Permanent TSB (PTSB), is a lucky chap. The bank’s former boss, Jeremy Masding, jumped ship in July 2020 at a time when NatWest was considering dumping Ulster Bank. With the pillar banks out of the picture to a certain extent, PTSB found itself in prime position, with Crowley agreeing… Read more »

ARKLE INVESTORS BETTING ON GLENCORE MOVE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ARKLE RESOURCES, previously known as Connemara Mining, has been engaged in mineral exploration in Ireland for just on 20 years and has worked up an interesting zinc resource in the Limerick area, as well as prospecting for gold in the Wexford-Wicklow region. More recently, the focus has been on lithium, the key battery mineral, with… Read more »

LIKEWHERE’S LOADED PASSENGERS

Date: December 15, 2022 -

A TRAVEL tech outfit called LikeWhere, founded by Simon Dempsey and Luke Middlewick, is set to officially crash-land next week. It turns out the boys were able to convince some heavy hitters to stick their hands in their deep pockets. Dempsey set up the marketing outfit LikeWhere in 2013 to “enable travel brands to engage… Read more »

SIMONE ROCHA’S REWARDING GAZE

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WHILE Laura Whitmore has been attracting headlines across the Irish Sea, another Irish player making an impact there is fashion designer Simone Rocha, who has started making some serious moolah. Although based almost exclusively in London, La Rocha maintains closes ties to this country and recently finished a seven-month run of an art exhibition –… Read more »

BAH HUMBUG AT SUPERVALU

Date: December 15, 2022 -

ESCADIA LTD, the company that was associated with a large SuperValu supermarket in Ardee Co Louth – controlled by Margaret Lanney and her son, David – finds itself facing a High Court winding-up petition from the owners of SuperValu the week before Christmas, having built up huge losses. For many years, the driving force behind… Read more »

CLOCK STARTS ON FILM LEVY

Date: December 15, 2022 -

WITH THE Seanad’s final passing of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022 on December 6, a revamp of the online and broadcast media environment is now awaiting Michael D Higgins’s presidential signature. The good news for producers is that there should be more moolah to go around, eventually. Celine Craig’s Broadcasting Authority of… Read more »

VOL. 40 NO. 23

Date: December 1, 2022 -

BASHING BLACKROCK BOYS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC has handled his first crisis as Irish Times editor by ignoring it and Róisín ‘Bungle’ Ingle’s loud, long sneer at Blackrock College boys – in the week that the widespread abuse of Spiritan clergy was exposed –remains on the IT website in all its reverse snobbery and pseudo-feminist glory. No apology or… Read more »

PROFILE: JOHN COONEY

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE LATEST flood of revelations about the horrific scale of previously unaddressed historic clerical sexual abuses at Blackrock College has spread to other fee-paying schools. This rising tide will force the coalition Government to convene yet another state inquiry next year into Church-controlled educational institutions. It also produced two remarkable articles by Irish Times premier… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: ROSIE CONNOLLY QUINN

Date: December 1, 2022 -

FROM HUMBLE beginnings as a personal shopper at Arnotts, Rosie Connolly-Quinn has transformed her online persona from girl-next-door blogger to wealthy business woman. This has made her appeal soar from ‘relatable’ to ‘aspirational’, with her followers swooning over the plush new pad she purchased last year and family holidays at a five-star resort in Portugal…. Read more »

NEW CHAIRPERSON AT RTÉ

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE APPOINTMENT by Catherine Martin’s of Siún Ní Raghallaigh as chairwoman of RTÉ will not be too big a surprise to those who have watched the career of the canny businesswoman and former two-term chair of TG4 (originally appointed in 2012 by Pat Rabbitte). She is certainly familiar to fans of Goldhawk, who penned a… Read more »

SURRENDER: 40 SONGS, ONE STORY – BONO

Date: December 1, 2022 -

SURRENDER IS a command and the media have complied. No editor appears to have given Surrender to someone qualified enough or brave enough to review its dubious history, politics and economics or to contest the results of Bono’s ‘activism’. Yet in interviews and in the book, the U2 frontman is beset by unnamed enemies, inheritors… Read more »

BALLS.IE SCORES

Date: December 1, 2022 -

WITH THE World Cup in Qatar driving footie fans even to the outer reaches of the internet in search of more and more coverage, the event is clearly good news for sports media organisations, most obviously the likes of RTÉ and Mediahuis. There are, of course, other specialist sports websites making a killing, including “multi-platform… Read more »

EAMON RYAN’S RED FACE

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THERE MAY be a few red faces at Green Party headquarters this week as a result of the Energy Action board deciding to call it a day. The decision was taken the same week that the Greens kicked off their party conference in Athlone, with climate minister Eamon Ryan in a buoyant mood. In Inchicore,… Read more »

ZERO VAT FOR WEALTHY MEDIA

Date: December 1, 2022 -

PAUPERISED NEWSPAPERS and their websites recently reflected the windfall tax relief donated to them by the Government’s budgetary measures after a lengthy campaign that emphasised how close to ruin many of their titles were due to the punitive 9% Vat rate. The Vat rate is to be reduced to zero for newspapers – but not… Read more »

‘IRISH TIMES’ MUSICAL CHAIRS

Date: December 1, 2022 -

THE RECENT reshuffle of top editorial and commercial positions at the Irish Times solved what looked at one stage to be a chaotic situation. When deputy editor and former managing editor Deirdre Veldon lost out to Ruadhán Mac Cormaic in the contest for the editor’s post, colleagues described her as inconsolable and on the verge… Read more »