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SVIATIANA’S CONFERENCE

Date: February 6, 2025 -

Having spent many summers in Roscrea as part of the Chernobyl Children’s Project, Belorussian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has been fêted by the Irish political establishment ever since the imprisonment of her husband Siarhei Tsikhanousky. Taoiseach Micheál Martin in 2022 described Tsikhanouskaya as an “inspiring leader”, while, after meeting her in 2023, then Taoiseach Leo… Read more »

LONESOME COWBOY TD, MATTIE

Date: February 6, 2025 -

FOR SOME years Mattie McGrath was the archetypal rural Independent having left Fianna Fáil in 2010, partly over the EU-IMF bail-out and in recent years was seen as leader of the Rural Independent Group (RIG) formed after the 2020 general election. But the Independents are, if anything, more factional and fratricidal than the soldiers of… Read more »

OFFIDE SUNDAY TIMES

Date: February 6, 2025 -

THROUGH GRITTED teeth English rugby commentators conceded that their team was well beaten by the Aawrish last Saturday. Even MI5’s favourite newspaper, the Sunday Times’, in its main report was headlined “IRELAND SIMPLY HARDER, FASTER AND SMARTER”. Unfortunately, the colonial mindset sometimes rears its head in English rugger-bugger circles and writer, Stephen Jones, very early… Read more »

IRISH TIMES WARRIORS

Date: February 6, 2025 -

THE PILE-ON against neutrality and for a serious increase in military expenditure is a sacred mission for the western jihadists in the Irish Times, and political editor, Pat Leahy, warmed yet again to this theme last weekend. A constant mantra recently is that the big boys in the EU are in a state of “disbelief”… Read more »

SLOWLY DOES IT IN KILKENNY

Date: February 6, 2025 -

IT HAS taken quite a while for Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) in Kilkenny to get around to advertising for its new chief executive, but the relaxed process is finally under way. It was back at the start of June last year that the Residential Tenancies Board announced that Rosemary Steen, then chief executive… Read more »

NICHOLLS NOBBLED AGAIN

Date: February 6, 2025 -

THE RECORD €740,000 purchase from the Alan and Gemma Brown’s dispersal sale at Tattersalls – Caldwell Potter – was a beaten odds-on favourite for the second time in three starts since joining Paul Nicholls from the Gordon Elliott stable. The grey Martaline gelding is the latest in the series of high-priced flops to emerge from… Read more »

WILLIE MULLINS’S CHASER SUPREME

Date: February 6, 2025 -

AT THE Dublin Racing Festival, where the target of 18,500 pre-booked tickets for each of the two days was not reached, the crowds were treated to another Willie Mullins masterclass, even if he was slightly off. The trainer was “a bit confused” that the Paddy Power Gold Cup (won by the Turley family’s Galopin Des… Read more »

ORIGIN DIRECTORS SEND RIGHT SIGNAL TO SCEPTICAL MARKET

Date: February 6, 2025 -

THE STOCK market usually regards directors buying shares in their own company as a positive signal and there has been some noticeable activity on this front at Origin Enterprises. This seems to contradict the underwhelming results in recent times, but certainly sends a positive signal to wary investors. Origin’s non-executive chairman Gary Britton (ex-KPMG) had… Read more »

CAIRN HOMES SHARES TO CLIMB IN SHORT TERM

Date: February 6, 2025 -

IT IS hardly surprising that Darragh O’Brien is no longer housing minister. Despite the huge spend on housing and temporary abolition of levies, the number of units delivered last year fell well short of the 40,000 target. It is rather bizarre that, given this housing output failure, the two Irish quoted house building companies, Cairn… Read more »

SHANE CORRY’S TAX BILL

Date: February 6, 2025 -

INTERESTING TO report a chunky €427,000 tax judgment registered against one Shane Corry, with an address on Foxfield Road in Raheny, D5. It has certainly been a while since Corry appeared on Goldhawk’s radar. It is unclear what the big Revenue hit relates to and it is also unclear what the hapless Corry is up… Read more »

ÁINE MORIARTY’S IFTA PLOT

Date: February 6, 2025 -

ÁINE MORIARTY’S annual publicly-funded IFTA gong show for the nation’s film and TV industry luvvies takes place fittingly on Valentine’s Day. The big question on the night will be whether producer/actor Cillian Murphy and writer Enda Walsh’s adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These – which has several category nominations – will suffer something… Read more »

HIBERGENE’S MEDICAL REPORT

Date: February 6, 2025 -

THE LIQUIDATOR of the controversial HiberGene Diagnostics Ltd (HDL) has filed returns in the Companies Registration Office revealing the scale of the debts owed to unsecured creditors. HDL, which was backed by Enterprise Ireland, collapsed in 2022 leaving assorted investors millions out of pocket. Up to €15m had been raised from backers, mostly in Ireland,… Read more »

FANCY THAT!

Date: February 6, 2025 -

Yet that is not how Elon’s Nazi salute was framed in much of the media. It was variously described as “a hand gesture” which “draws scrutiny”, and which “ignites online speculation”. Elon was “accused of appearing to make” this gesture … It was a textbook illustration of how the right has been winning the propaganda… Read more »

MARTIN BOWS TO TRUMP ON GAZA

Date: January 23, 2025 -

The timing of Micheál Martin and the Government’s adoption of the pro-Israeli definition of antisemitism drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is extraordinary. It was discussed secretly, hidden from the electorate during the general election campaign and subsequent government negotiations, and lacks any mandate – explicit or implicit. It effectively endorses the… Read more »

PROFILE: MICHAEL LOWRY

Date: January 23, 2025 -

DESCRIPTIONS OF Michael Lowry as ‘kingmaker’ in government formation talks have been rejected by Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, who argue that the TD has been elected by voters in Tipperary. The trouble is, leaders of the same Government parties demanded that Lowry resign from the Dáil – regardless of Tipperary voters – back in… Read more »

YOUNG BLOOD: PÁDRAIG MAC BRÁDAIGH

Date: January 23, 2025 -

IN THE spring of 2024, Pádraig Mac Brádaigh was elected as the first ever Irish-language officer of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU). In the last year, he has spearheaded the campaign for the promotion of the Irish language on Trinity’s campus. However, despite being elected by a landslide vote, not everyone has supported his… Read more »

PRESIDENT HIGGINS UNDER ATTACK!

Date: January 23, 2025 -

IT WAS hardly surprising that when President Michael D Higgins had the temerity, at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, to speak out against militarisation and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte’s call for a significant increase in defence budgets, that he came in for flak. How could an elected head of state, one of whose roles… Read more »

BEN SCALLAN’S PLATFORM

Date: January 23, 2025 -

Francis Duffy, the Archbishop of Tuam, may have been surprised to receive criticism on the archdiocese Facebook page after a notice was posted promoting a discussion to be held at the end of this month entitled ‘Faith in a Faithless World.’ The panel includes assorted Catholic players such as Senator Ronan Mullen; MMA fighter Ciarán… Read more »

MOLLY, MY IRISH MOLLY: ZAPPONE IS BACK

Date: January 23, 2025 -

MEDIAHUIS GROUP political editor Philip Ryan restored some semblance of balance in the daily Indo to coverage of Katherine Zappone’s return to Ireland and her intended assumption of a Seanad seat following quite the impressive snow job by Sarah Caden in the Sindo. Caden obligingly provided readers with then foreign minister Simon Coveney’s explanation for… Read more »

NIAMH TALLON’S SPORTING PROWESS

Date: January 23, 2025 -

CONGRATULATIONS TO Niamh Tallon, the founder of something called Her Sport Media Ltd (HSM), which has just landed a €10,000 grant from Coimisiún na Meán (the media commission) to help with the hosting of this weekend’s rather well-sponsored Her Sports Awards 2025 in Belfield. The commission has provided the handouts to a variety of players… Read more »

FERGAL FOLEY FORMENTS REVOLT

Date: January 23, 2025 -

THERE IS mutiny brewing in the Law Library, where venerable junior counsel Fergal Foley is set to lead the disgruntled criminal legal eagles into battle over the failure of the Government to return the fees paid to barristers engaged in legal aid criminal matters to pre-crash levels. The hapless lawyers claim to have taken a… Read more »

VOL 43 NO 02

Date: January 23, 2025 -

MAURICE REGAN’S LATEST MOVE

Date: January 23, 2025 -

GOLDHAWK WAS not overly surprised to see one Maurice Regan riding to the rescue of toe-tapper Michael Flatley this month. It is presumably no coincidence that the Lord of the Dance’s sprawling Castlehyde estate neighbours John Magnier’s Coolmore base. Regan is the Kerry-born, New York-based construction magnate, who made a fortune across the Atlantic in… Read more »

LEGAL EAGLE

Date: January 23, 2025 -

James Paul Foley, formerly known as boring old Paul Foley, has come a cropper with the Law Society, which has initiated disciplinary proceedings against him in relation to his practice, JP Foley & Co, which closed down in Sandymount. The solicitor subsequently transferred to another practice but his clients have been informed that, as a… Read more »

MUSK FARAGE SPLIT

Date: January 23, 2025 -

THE SPLIT between Elon Musk and Nigel Farage is because the latter distanced himself from British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who is currently in jail for violating an injunction. But Tommy has friends in low places in Ireland too and has backed hard-line loyalists as well as British paratrooper Soldier F, who has been charged… Read more »

MR ‘NICE GUY’, JUDGE MCNULTY

Date: January 23, 2025 -

QUALIFIED BARRISTER Bartholomew Anthony O’Neill told Judge James G McNulty in September 2023 that he had never practised as a barrister but he got a taste of the judicial process in Macroom District Court that day. An Irish Times report told last week how O’Neill successfully overturned a conviction for allegedly holding a mobile phone… Read more »

CHINESE WHISKEY SOUR

Date: January 23, 2025 -

THIS WEEK a Chinese national named Yan Ma has been in the High Court seeking a summary judgment against Nephin Whiskey Company Ltd (NWC). The action relates to €½m she says she invested in the distillery project, under the hugely controversial Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP), which was eventually shut down by an exasperated Department of… Read more »

THE NAME IS MITTY, WALTER MITTY

Date: January 23, 2025 -

The Irish News last week published a front-page story about London gangster and convicted killer Paul Cleeland with the headline: “MI5 recruited me to murder five people during the Troubles”. Goldhawk is not impressed. Cleeland, now 82, claims that MI5 tested his mettle by asking him to shoot a drunken tramp in a pig sty in the… Read more »

IRISH RIGHT’S FAR-OFF FRIENDS

Date: January 23, 2025 -

The failure of new Irish right-wing parties to gain an electoral breakthrough has resulted in many of their members seemingly more concerned with developments internationally than with issues at home. Keith Woods of the National Party (NP) has been keen to promote Remigration Summit 25, a gathering of white nationalists in Europe planned for May…. Read more »

THE HOT AIR BRIGADE

Date: January 23, 2025 -

The one I’m most excited about – I’ve had a couple of emails that said, “I watched the tango and afterwards I told my parents that I’m gay”. Dancing With The Stars contestant Gearóid Farrelly on the impact of his dance moves, Irish Independent A billionaire innovator and entrepreneur with time to parse history’s great… Read more »

TRUMP RULES HERE TOO

Date: January 23, 2025 -

IT HAS long been understood that the Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael element of the outgoing coalition Government had to be dragged kicking and screaming in the direction of an even vaguely climate-friendly agenda by their oh-so annoying Green Party junior partners. Simon Harris and especially Micheál Martin were quite capable of talking a good fight on… Read more »

END TO BUSINESS AS USUAL

Date: January 23, 2025 -

A recent landmark High Court judgment has given a huge boost to environmental protection. Justice Richard Humphreys lambasted An Bord Pleanála (ABP) for being more concerned about the visual impacts of wind farms than complying with EU law or addressing the climate emergency. Section 15 of the Climate Act demands that public bodies must act… Read more »

PRESIDENTIAL GERRYMANDER

Date: January 23, 2025 -

On June 6 last year several hundred Poles voted at four venues in the north – Belfast, Ballymena, Omagh and Newry – for candidates in the European parliament elections in Poland. Other EU citizens also voted in consulates and community centres. Across the border thousands of people were voting for Irish MEPs. Irish citizens in… Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S NEW SENATOR

Date: January 23, 2025 -

SINN FÉIN’S decision to transfer its northern economy minister to the Seanad has provoked much curious comment but little of the usual media conspiratorial analysis about two or three men making decisions in a back room in Belfast. That may be because the crushing logic of replacing the disgraced Niall Ó Donnghaile as party leader… Read more »

FLIGHT OF THE WILD GREENS

Date: January 23, 2025 -

THE LAST Green standing, party leader Roderic O’Gorman, recently slid his stiletto with surgical precision into both his party chair, ex-senator Pauline O’Reilly, and ex-junior agriculture minister Pippa Hackett (his vanquished leadership rival), telling the Irish Independent that both of them were stepping away from the party. This was based on personal statements from both… Read more »

REINVENTING VARADKAR

Date: January 23, 2025 -

IS LEO VARADKAR trying to reinvent himself as a retired western statesman turned champion of the oppressed in the manner of late US president Jimmy Carter? Hard core Young Fine Gael reactionaries who grew up with him back in the noughties were mourning the political demise of their former hero quite some time before he… Read more »