Liam Collins

1 August 1962 - Desmond Guinness at the ESB Georgian houses, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin. Photo: Lensmen / Irish Photo Archive

Liam Collins Opinion Bulldozing Georgian Dublin: the battle between the ESB and those who wanted historic houses preserved

A short clip from a Teilifís Éireann news bulletin of April 1965 shows a group of brawny workmen, cigarettes dangling from their lips, battering several hundred years of Dublin’s Georgian architecture into rubble with sledge hammers.

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Shay Healy: All-round entertainer who played a pivotal role in the downfall of Charles Haughey

Shay Healy, who has died at the age of 78, wrote Johnny Logan’s 1980 Eurovision hit What’s Another Year and was one of the most engaging characters in the Irish entertainment scene for decades.

President Mary McAleese, then Patron of Gaisce, pictured in 2006 with the Prince, Patron of the The Duke of Edinburgh Award at the National Concert Hall where President McAleese and Prince Philip presented 91 Gold Awards to young adults. Photo: Colin Keegan.

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Liam Collins Opinion As he might say, he had a good innings and –whisper it – we enjoyed every minute

Irish people may indeed be very proud of our independent Republic, but that doesn’t mean we’re not fascinated and sometimes charmed by the British royal family and particularly by Queen Elizabeth II and her somewhat eccentric husband, the late Prince Philip.

Dublin GAA players Jonny Cooper (left) and Brian Fenton (right) in a secret dawn training session

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It takes more than being good at sport to become a ‘role model’ – you also need to set an example

For ‘hurlers on the ditch’, the reaction to the secret 7am training session involving members of the Dublin senior football team is more sorrow and disappointment than anger. The real fury is coming from people deeply embedded in the GAA itself, because they know that what happened was not only a flagrant breach of the rules but one that confers a competitive advantage on those involved.

Douze points: French singer Séverine, the winner of the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, sings Un Banc, Un Arbre, Une Rue for Monaco, on stage at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre.

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The Eurovision that changed the way we see ourselves

The Eurovision Song Contest held at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin 50 years ago today was the moment our lives switched from black and white to colour as the Swinging Sixties gate-crashed Catholic Ireland.

Young people have become complacent and Nphet warns the lifting of restrictions could lead to a rapid rise of 2,000 cases per day. Photo: Steve Humphreys

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Liam Collins Opinion Cabinet is leading us wide-eyed into a fourth wave once shackles are off and socialising begins

Politicians crave popularity, it’s part of their DNA. With another wave of coronavirus on the horizon, what’s needed now is repression, not softly softly rhetoric.

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Johnny Ronan interview: 'Worrying about what I borrowed was a waste of f***ing time'

From his pad in Mallorca, wearing a colourful shirt and with his slicked-back mane of hair falling over his shoulders, Johnny Ronan looks more like the veteran lead guitarist in a heavy metal band than Ireland's most creative, controversial and contrary property developer.

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Liam Collins Opinion Beacon has undermined fragile public morale and badly damaged trust in fairness of vaccine roll-out

A year on and our lives have progressed from a time of Covid, to a time of vaccine envy. In the great scheme of things, the Beacon Hospital using 20 ‘leftover’ vaccine jabs for teachers and pupils at St Gerard’s School in Bray, Co Wicklow, might not appear objectionable, but at the present time the optics are abysmal.

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Surprise as Olympic chiefs quit coastal HQ without any fanfare

The Olympic Federation of Ireland has done what has been described as "a disappearing act" from its headquarters in the Dublin seaside village of Howth.

Brother of family in bitter feud over business leaves €16m in will

The deceased brother of a family involved in a bitter business feud over the running of their hotel and property empire has left over €16m in his will, according to documents lodged in the Probate Office in Dublin.

SONG AND STORY: Carmel Quinn packed New York’s Carnegie Hall every St Patrick’s Day

Obituary: Carmel Quinn

With glorious red hair, bright blue eyes and a ballad on her lips, it didn't take long for Carmel Quinn to become America's "favourite Irish lass".

A man walks past a closed pub in Dublin's Temple Bar on St Patrick's Day. Photo: Peter Morrison/AP

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Liam Collins Opinion St Patrick’s Day passes with a whimper for a second year – no wonder we’re all fed up

You’re fed up. I’m fed up. We’re all fed up. But let’s not beat ourselves up about it. It’s OK to be fed up.

Never gave up: Charles Hill recovered priceless paintings

Obituary: Charles Hill

Charles Hill, the art detective, aided the recovery of many priceless objects, in an adventurous career both with the Metropolitan Police in London and as a freelance investigator, most sensationally Edvard Munch's The Scream and Titian's Rest On The Flight Into Egypt.

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Liam Collins Opinion Shoebox king: rise and fall of unlikely property tycoon

To some he was the 'shoebox king', to others 'an enigma wrapped up in a puzzle', but in reality his spectacular downfall in the summer of 2009 heralded the demise of the Celtic Tiger and the seven years of austerity that followed the reckless developer/banker-led economic crash.

Journalist and presenter Mike Burns, who was well-known for enjoying ‘the gossip and the craic’

Obituary: Mike Burns

Mike Burns was an influential figure in RTÉ, and one of the station's pioneering broadcasters.

Gordon Elliot in the photo that led to heavy criticism

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Liam Collins Opinion Gordon Elliott doesn’t deserve to have his life destroyed by one ill-considered moment

Horse trainer Gordon Elliott turned 43 earlier this week. No doubt, he’s had happier birthdays. The man who left an appalling hostage to fortune, by allowing himself to be photographed astride a dead horse, has seen his world implode over that single image.

What Ireland could bring to the party, apart from facilities, is the goodwill that the country and its soccer fans have garnered over the last four decades. Photo: Sportsfile

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Liam Collins Opinion Hosting the World Cup may be just an impossible dream, but it’s worth giving it a lash

In sport there is no such thing as impossible. It’s why the neutrals cheer the giant killers, get excited when the underdogs win, and exult when the mighty are humbled.

Gary Halpin regretted giving a two-fingered salute to New Zealand after scoring a try against the All Blacks in Ellis Park, Johannesburg, during the 1995 Rugby World Cup

Obituary: Gary Halpin

Gary Halpin was remembered last week as one of the great characters of Irish rugby, "a hard man on the pitch and a gentleman off it".

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Liam Collins Opinion Passport 'pause' won't fly with Irish citizens

I've held an Irish passport for the best part of half-a-century, the first one the impressive green variety with the Minister for Foreign Affairs requesting that I be allowed "to pass freely and without hindrance" in the world at large.

Denis O'Brien signing a national licence agreement with the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to make Newstalk Ireland's first national commercial talk-radio station. Also pictured is BCI Chairperson Conor Maguire. Photo: Jason Clarke Photography

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Liam Collins Opinion Three decades on from the ‘gold rush’ of commercial radio, Denis O’Brien is cashing in his chips

Commercial Radio was the ‘gold rush’ of the late 1980s, and everyone and anyone wanted a piece of the action. There were rock stars, impresarios, lawyers, sportsmen, public relations gurus, stockbrokers and socialites, all prospecting for a licence to print money.

Free spirit: Molly McAnailly Burke loved music and words

Obituary: Molly McAnailly Burke

Where did she get the name, I asked Matt Anderson about the sister he knew as Molly McAnailly Burke?

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his wife (now separated) Jordanian Princess Haya bint Hussein at Royal Ascot in 2010. Photo: REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo

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Liam Collins Opinion Gangsters' paradise – Dubai's finely spun web starts to unravel

His finely spun web has entangled the former Irish president, Mary Robinson, his estranged wife Princess Haya and the blue-bloods of the Irish Turf who tapped him for more than €5m for the redevelopment of the Curragh Racecourse.

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From the clubs to the courts: colourful tycoon who left €23m in his will

The publicity-shy nightclub/hotel owner and gym pioneer Philip Smyth, who died in 2019, has left more than €23m in his will. Smyth, born in Longford, ran the Blinkers/Club 92 disco at Leopardstown Racecourse, Sachs Hotel - now rebranded the Hampton in Donnybrook, and the West Wood gyms.

Liam Collins in Slattery’s of Rathmines. Photo: Gerry Mooney

Liam Collins Opinion On the dry for Lent now, but still pining for pints in the pub

'It's going to be very boring," said a friend when I announced I was giving up the drink last November. "It's boring already," I replied.

A scene from Henry Street, Dublin in 1971 as shoppers were getting used to decimaliation

All change: when Ireland switched to ‘new money’

It was dubbed D-Day, the day Ireland woke up to a new currency and abandoned £.s.d., a monetary system that had “debauched generations of school children”, according to Labour’s Justin Keating.

‘We are locking ourselves into importing gas that is piped from Russia, through the EU and UK, before it gets to us’

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Liam Collins Opinion The days when gas fired our imagination and brought wealth

As the days shortened, observant sailors south-west of the Old Head of Kinsale, Co Cork, in early 1971 wondered about the glowing flames they could see on star-filled nights out in the darkness.

The funeral of George Clancy and Michael O’Callaghan, in Limerick, 1921

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The mayors, the mercenaries and Limerick murders

Kate O'Callaghan walked through the doors of the Royal George Hotel to attend a function to raise money for a new church, St Munchin's, near her home on the North Strand in Limerick. It was the evening of Thursday, January 27, 1921 and in a few days her husband, Michael, would step down as mayor of the city and hand over the position to his good friend George (Seoirse) Clancy.

Builder Tom Brennan, seen here arriving at the funeral of developer Patrick Gallagher in Booterstown, Dublin, in 2006. Photo: Tony Gavin

Obituary: Tom Brennan

Tom Brennan was one half of the Mayo-born building duo Brennan & McGowan, who shaped the future of modern Dublin suburbs with affordable housing.

Stalwart Tommie Gorman is preparing to call time on his RTÉ career

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Liam Collins Opinion Tommie brought calm to Northern Ireland's political chaos

Tommie Gorman, RTÉ News, Belfast. This was the sign-off of a man who rarely brought good news into our kitchens or living rooms over the past 20 years.