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Bertie's banker and loads of cash
Bertie's banker, Philip Murphy, gave evidence to the Planning Tribunal in November. The evidence revealed even more curious aspects to the Taoiseach's financial affairs, including evidence that Bertie Ahern handed over to his banker IR£72,500 in cash from December 1993 to August 1994
By Vincent Browne...
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James Reilly: The TD with a GP's baggage
James Reilly, the new Fine Gael TD for Dublin North and party spokesperson on health, has made quite an impression very early. Articulate, analytic, combative, informed, he has been quite the best of Mary Harney's adversaries. He has lots of relevant experience in that he is an experienced GP and a former President of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), with some involvement in private medical practices. All of which might become liabilities for him.
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Laws and Fines
According to the government legislation programme published on 25 September the government was to publish 17 bills during the autumn session. Just two of these bills have been published. It is now likely the government will publish in a flurry a number of bills and push them through the Oireachtas in the 11 remaining sitting days before the Christmas recess.
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Montmatre
Paris is a great city for walkers because the main attractions are within a compact area. Use the metro for easy access to the best walking routes. Near the Abbesses station decorated in Art Nouveau style, climb steep steps or take the funicular to the top. ...
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Netting the lowdown on shopping websites
Irish consumers buying goods online can now check how reliable a particular shopping website is with the help of a new ‘oniine shopping assistant' from the European Consumer Centre. The consumer simply enters the name of the website into ‘Howard', the new search tool available at www.eccdublin.ie. Howard will then trawl the internet to find out key information including what consumers think of the site, whether it's a member of the TrustMark scheme for internationally accredited sites
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One-stop shop for Spa breaks
A new website has been launched, just in time for the Christmas shopping frenzy. Spa-Ireland.com is a one-stop shop for Irish spa goers. Alison Bell the, woman behind the service, came up with the idea when she decided to go on a Spa break and was surprised by the lack of information available for customers. The site also has its own online store full of luxurious beauty goodies. Bell charges commission on bookings made through the site but assures her customers that they will get the best deal.
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Poor deal for asylum seekers
The Social Welfare payment provided to asylum seekers in Ireland has not increased in the last eight years. It is the only social welfare payment never to have increased. Asylum seekers receive accommodation and food and a weekly allowance of €19.10 for adults and €9.60 per child. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work so they have no way of boosting this weekly income. The Irish Refugee Council is calling for the payment to increase to €60 per week for adults and €35 per wee
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Record murders of women
Since 1996 138 women have been murdered in Ireland, a majority of these relating to domestic violence. Far more women have been murdered by domestic violence than there have been gangland killings and yet the latter gets all the media and political attention. Research, by Women's Aid shows that nearly 48 per cent of the murders were committed by a husband, ex-husband, partner or ex-partner. And 63 per cent of the women were killed in their own homes.
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Roy Keane
Roy Keane was inappropriately voluble about the failures of the England football team, following its defeat in the Euro qualifiers by Croatia.
He spoke of outsized egos and distractions, presumably with his former colleague, David Beckham, most in mind. But within a few days he had to contend with his own ego which must have taken quite a bruising as his team, Sunderland, were thrashed 7-1 by Everton, in the most humiliating defeat of any Premiership
team so far this season.
Sunderland are (at t
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RTE to blame for 'High Society'
Sean O'Rourke got it right in his evisceration of Kevin Dawson, RTÉ commissioning editor (factual programmes). His focus in his News at One interview was not on the hapless, inexperienced journalist, Justine Delaney Wilson, who was responsible for the High Society series but on the RTÉ executive who oversaw the series.
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Rugby as garrison as GAA
Rugby was invented by an Irishman and is derived from an archaic form of gaelic football called ‘caid', according to rugby author Ciaran Cronin. Cronin's new book, Ireland Rugby Miscellany, says that William Webb Ellis may have been born in Ireland because his father worked here at that time. Webb Ellis had many cousins living near Clonmel and, it was caid that Ellis demonstrated to his friends when he picked up the football in Rugby, England in 1823.
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Seán Brady
Cardinal Seán Brady is quite a contrast to the other two surviving Irish cardinals.
He has none of the intellectual firepower of Cathal Daly. He has none of the arrogance or aloofness of Desmond Connell. There is a gentleness about him, a humility, a reserve, which is impressive. And there was a hurt to have been so publicly passed over when Desmond Connell was made Cardinal in 2001, a hurt now delightfully relieved by his recent elevation. Diarmuid Martin is likely to join him in the Col
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Sean Dunne
On the evening of 17 May last, exactly a week before the general election, Bertie Ahern and a woman friend joined other friends in Fagans in Drumcondra. Around 11pm, according to an informant, the developer, Sean Dunne, arrived in the pub and he and Bertie stood aside from the others for a while. They then, along with Bertie's woman friend, went across the road to Bertie's limousine and all three were driven away. This was at a critical time in the planning process for the spectacular developmen
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The debate over the Kerry Slug
The Kerry Slug – Geomalacus maculosus – has been getting its 15 minutes of fame recently. In the late stages of planning the upgrade of the N22 between Cork and Killarney it was discovered that the proposed new route would traverse territory occupied by this slug. So the roadworks were held up because the Kerry Slug is an Annexe 1 protected species under the Habitats Directive – a Directive voted into law in Ireland by referendum as part of the acceptance of the Single European
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Tony Clare
Tony Clare was one of the best debaters to come from UCD. Ever. Effortlessly fluent, witty, persuasive, commanding. He and his close friend of the 1960's, the late Patrick Cosgrave (who later served as an adviser to Margaret Thatcher) dominated university debating here and in the UK during their era. Tony Clare seemed destined for politics early on because of his rhetorical skills and the joy he took in performance. But he was serious about medicine and then about his chosen specialty, psychiatr
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Travellers wrongly banned from nightclub
Fourteen members of the Traveller community were denied admission to a New Years Eve party in the “South” Nightclub, Tramore on 31 December 2002. They believed that the refusal was solely because they were recognised as members of the Traveller community. They had not bought the tickets as a group and they arrived in various groups at the nightclub at separate times.
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Woodpigeon (Colm coille)
Found year-round throughout most of Ireland, save for some midland areas, the ‘Dipper' is something of an oddity amongst Ireland's birds. Although a typical songbird in most respects, resembling an oversized, plump wren, it is a highly aquatic bird, rarely found far from fast-flowing rivers and streams.
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Ronan O'Gara
The recovery of the Munster and Leinster players, who played so poorly in the Rugby World Cup, notably Ronan O'Gara, has been so striking that the fingers pointing at Eddie O'Sullivan have got even longer and more insistent. If Declan Kidney (Munster) and Michael Cheika (Leinster) can get so much more from the players that Eddie O'Sullivan failed with so spectacularly, doesn't that say something? And among the thing it says is that Declan Kidney should be preferred as the national coach. And soo
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Des Richardson
Bertie's closest ally (probably one of the few people – the only person – in whom he can confide), Des Richardson has had a torrid time at the Planning Tribunal. Forensically examined by Tribunal counsel, Des O'Neill, he has stumbled over Bertie's first “dig out” (£22,500) on 26 December 1993 (this supposedly was to pay off Bertie's legal fees but he (Bertie) had done that already) and then the admission that he received dollars from a UK businessman, Norman Turner,...
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Gun stolen from US Troop aircraft at Shannon
Every week thousands of US soldiers continue to troop through Shannon airport en route to and from the war in Iraq. Often there are four or flights a day, each carrying hundreds of troops. The airline now being used in the main is Omni Air International based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a charter airline (see picture).
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Holly - Cuilleann
 Because of its association with Christmas, holly is one of our more easily recognised native trees. It is probably the most ornamental of these native trees and many variegated and golden varieties are cultivated.
It is a visually attractive small tree and is very suitable for gardens as a specimen tree or hedge as it is slow growing and very dense. Trees can live for up to 250 years and the hard, pale wood is valued for carving, inlaying and engraving. They are found in oak-woods, on ditches ...
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The forgotten disappeared
The Irish media has extensively covered the Madeleine McCann case, yet there has been no mention of 79 children currently missing in Ireland
By Emma Browne...
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