Colm Keena

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Colm Keena

Businessman Colm Wu has been warned by a judge that failure to comply with court orders can have “very serious repercussions” including the potential for imprisonment or fines. Mr Wu was present on Wednesday when his case came before Mr Justice Mark Sanfey in the Commercial Court. The businessman’s hospitality and property group is in difficulty and Revenue has appointed receivers to some of his assets.

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | Colm Keena

The State’s efforts to investigate the murder of Denis Donaldson in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006, are “simply not working” and a statutory inquiry is needed, a spokesman for the family has said. The Donaldsons want a cross-Border process that would identify not just “who pulled the trigger” but also “who may have pulled the strings,” said family solicitor Enda McGarrity. Donaldson was a former IRA member who worked in the Sinn Féin Stormont offices.

4 days ago | irishtimes.com | Colm Keena

Sitting in the sunshine in the Wicklow mountains recently while having desultory chats with some friends, the conversation visited, momentarily, the topic of the great opera singer, Maria Callas, the subject of a recent biopic. There was mention of her fame, her being from Greece, her love of Paris, and her relationship with the Greek shipping tycoon, Aristotle Onassis. I for my part chipped in to say some argued it was because she had a far from perfect voice that it was so captivating.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Colm Keena

The €100,000 in damages awarded to lifelong republican leader Gerry Adams is in the “medium range” for awards for defamation. Very moderate defamations, Mr Justice Alexander Owens had told the jury, should get awards of up to €50,000, medium range defamations €50,000 to €125,000, serious defamations €125,000 to €200,000, and “truly exceptional” defamations, €200,000 to €300,000.

1 week ago | irishtimes.com | Colm Keena

The decision of a jury in the Dublin High Court to award defamation damages to the republican leader Gerry Adams “is like spitting on 1,800 graves”, the son of a man murdered by the IRA has said. Austin Stack was speaking in the wake of Mr Adams being awarded €100,000 for damage to his reputation arising from a 2016 BBC programme, where it was alleged he sanctioned the killing by the IRA of republican informer Denis Donaldson in 2006.