Media

We emailed Eddie Hobbs the original draft of the accompanying article and invited his response. We also posed questions to Eddie Hobbs, which were:

In accordance with our practice at Village, we went to some pains to ensure we had both sides of the story concerning Eddie Hobbs and therefore we emailed him an early draft of the article on Wednesday afternoon (7 September), having first phoned his office and asked him to phone us.

An application is to be made by the liquidator of the Taylor investment companies to the High Court next month seeking direction on whether Eddie Hobbs should be restricted as a director of companies under Section 150 of the Companies Act 1990, along with the other directors. The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA), has already requested the liquidator of these companies to report to it on complaints made concerning the involvement of Eddie Hobbs in the handling of cases, possibly with tax implications.

Eddie Hobbs gets under the skin, cartoon characters wear nothing but skin, sailors see a surprising amount of skin and the 1980s feel like a second skin for Dermot Bolger

In the same way as the excerpts from John McGahern's Memoir in two Saturday newspapers surely refreshed eyes and spirits tired of summer silliness, the author's reading on Book on One restored appreciation of the power of radio to make us listen and be moved and stunned and to emerge feeling a little bit kinder about the human race.

This week the American peace protestor, Cindy Sheehan, decamped from outside George Bush's ranch in Texas and began to move to Washington. Over the last few weeks the protest has grown to resemble something from the anti-Vietnam war protests in the sixties as people from all over the country joined her and international film crews watched the demonstration grow.

At last the silly season is over, and not before time, as the major political parties kick off the new political season with a series of parliamentary meetings throughout the country. Last year, these meetings, especially Fianna Fáil's in Inchydoney, set a new agenda as the parties tried to market an image that would gather fresh appeal for the electorate.

Eddie Hobbes has emerged as not just a television phenomenon but a political one as well. His Rip Off Republic series has done possibly fatal damage to the reputation of this Government.

The success of the RTÉ programme Rip Off Republic and a rise in London newspaper sales in the aftermath of the 7 July attacks shows that traditional media still has an important place in the market.

Recent media has centred on a couple of food controversies from Richard Corrigan's poultry outbursts to La Stampa's bad review.