Business Opinion: The new year has arrived, but before we let go of 2005, Business Opinion must make its annual awards.
It was an exciting 12 months. For weeks the nation was entranced by a group of brave sisters fighting it out in a dog-eat-dog battle for supremacy in the full glare of national publicity. In the end they won and the Conway Sisters X Factor Prize for battling on regardless goes to the Doyle Sisters who prevailed in the struggle for control of the Jurys Doyle group.
The inaugural Cleanskins Award goes to Eugene Sheedy who became chief executive of AIB last year. Despite a career of almost 30 years with the bank he had no known links to the scandals that engulfed the bank over the last few years.
Rendition was another buzzword last year. And the Condoleezza Rice Medal for most imaginative use of other jurisdictions goes to Paul Coulson. By moving Ardagh Glass to Guernsey a few years ago, Coulson's takeout of the minority investors last year was made somewhat easier by the absence of requirement under Guernsey law for independent directors to take advice and the 75 per cent threshold for compulsory acquisition.
The Eddie Hobbs phenomena livened things up a bit during the summer. And a new award has been instigated in his honour. It recognises excellence in not doing what you tell others to do and goes this year of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority. After 12 months of telling everyone to shop around for best value, the watchdog plumped for one of its own, Patrick Neary, to replace outgoing chief executive Liam O'Reilly.
Tony Blair was elected for a third term as Britain's prime minister and the judges have marked the occasion with a special Tony Award for pulling the same trick twice, or even three times, without anybody seeming to notice.
This year's Tony goes to Sir Anthony O'Reilly. Having exited Arcon comfortably - thanks in part to the large number of shares he bought in a rights issue a few years ago - Sir Anthony looks set to repeat the tactic at Waterford Wedgwood.
The Brian O'Driscoll Shield for being a good sport and getting over it goes to Martin O'Rourke of Bupa. After years of making massive profits in the Irish health insurance market, Bupa was finally spear tackled by the Tánaiste and Minster for Health in late December when she triggered risk equalisation. But the nation can look froward to endless reruns as O'Rourke fights the decision in the courts.
The Eamonn Rothwell Prize for sensitivity goes to Michael McDowell for his clever reading of the nation's mood in repatriating Leaving Cert student Olukunle Elukanlo to Nigeria.
In a moment of symmetry the Michael McDowell Cup for services to democracy goes to Eamonn Rothwell who single-handedly revived the Irish trade union movement when he subtly decided to replace his Irish workers with cheaper foreign ones.
Rothwell also gets a special prize - the Bruno Ganz/ Downfall Cross, with oak leaves - for the best performance by an isolated and alienated figure in a bunker. The runner up in this category was Tom Healy of the Irish Stock Exchange who managed to keep the head down despite having some questions to answer about the exchange's role in the Fyffes/DCC insider dealing case.
This case drew to a close just before Christmas. Even more interesting than the result were the contributions to the study of metaphysics by the main protagonists.
Jim Flavin, the DCC chief executive, shed much light on the issue of how a body can deal in shares but not actually deal in shares, while David McCann of Fyffes furthered our understanding of the complex philosophical area of the boundary between the truth and what has to be disclosed to shareholders.
They share this year's Charlie McCreevy Award for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of business.
Last year was also a year of romance, no matter how short-lived. And the Renee Zellweger-Kenny Chesney Plate for shortest-lived celebrity marriage goes to Eircom and Swisscom. Renee and Chesney managed four months, but Eircom and Swisscom kept it to a tight four weeks before the father of the groom decided not to pay the dowry.
Willie O'Dea gets the Roy Keane Prize for shooting oneself in the media. His performance with an Army Rangers handgun narrowly beat the gouging antics of some solicitors representing victims in cases before the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
