“I don’t like poncey food. I want it to look good, but I don’t want it elaborate”

Publisher Michael O’Doherty, who won five stars on The Restaurant for this simple, peasant fare:

Starters

Main

Watch the full show here

Raymond Bitar.

He likes pies and poker.

In that order.

Head Of Irish-Based Poker Firm Accused In US Fraud Case (Irish Times)

Previously: Know When To Hold ‘Em, Know When To Run

Also: How Full Tilt Poker Started

You did hear Enda on BBC R4’s Today Show this morning didn’t you?

Listen here

Some highlights:

Evan Davis: “You’re talking to David Cameron today. Are you going to ask for lower interest on the British bilateral loan that’s part of the bailout?”

Enda Kenny: “Well obviously we’re very grateful to our colleagues here in Britain for the bilateral loan that they’ve made available. That would be nice. I think we’ll talk about the issues of continued development between Ireland and Britain, the very strong traditional links we have here, trading links, and where we want to be wit the British government in terms of developing our place in Europe and of course events to follow quickly with the visit of the queen, and the issue of Northern Ireland that we have to discuss and will discuss with the prime minister today.”

Davis: “Some say that you’re in a much stronger position in negotiations  than perhaps most people realise because you could say, you could say, ‘hey guys don’t give us what we want and we will create mayhem across the eurozone by defaulting on our debts… we can’t cope and we won’t cope and the rest of europe would have to just lump it wouldn’t they?”

Kenny: “Well we have no intention of causing mayhem here.”

Davis: “No but you could, if they didn’t play ball.”

Kenny: “Well we’ve always been absolutely responsible and central to the entire European process since we joined in the ’70s. We supported every referendum that came along in terms of European treaties. We’re not looking for more money from Europe, we’re looking for less money but greater flexibility. And that’s where our pitch is. And that’s why in terms of the three fundamentals that affect Ireland at the moment – the banking sector, our financial problems at home and our job situation – they’re the three serious challenges for this government. And I see a day, and I’d like to see it happen as quickly as possible, where we can say goodbye to the IMF, go back to the bond markets, borrow at normal interest rates and be in charge again of our own economic sovereignty and our own economic destiny.”

On the queen’s visit:

Davis: “Are you confident it’s all about to go smoothly?”

Kenny: “I am, and the vast majority of Irish people will welcome very warmly the visit of the queen. It is the first visit of a reigning monarch in over a century. I’m very glad that at the at the closing months of the presidency of President McAleese, that her invitation to the queen was accepted by the palace, that it’s now going to happen. I think the visit has been very carefully structured.It’s in accordance with the wishes of both the president and the queen. The fact that the queen will visit both the Garden of Remembrance in Ireland and Islandbridge, which has direct links with World War I and so on speaks for itself. So from that point of view, ah, obviously I’ll discuss with the prime minister today the implications of security. The fact that I see this visit as being the conclusion of so many years and centuries of division and divisiveness and it puts up that pillar that we now build on for the future in building on the absolutely incredible links between Ireland and Britain for so many years.”

“Because it can’t be easy being a tabloid hack at the best of times. Sure, there’s the camaraderie, the sense of power, the rush of skulduggery, the thrill of feeling like one of the chosen few who can see through the Matrix but these are illusory compensations, sweatily constructed by your quaking, sobbing psyche in a bid to counterweigh the cavernous downside: the awful knowledge that you’re wasting your life actively making the world worse.

Chances are you’re quite smart. And you probably love to write – or did, once, back then, before . . . before the fall. Now you’re writing nothing but NYAHH NYAHH NYAHH ad nauseum. You use the only brain you’ll ever have to puke out endless gutfuls of cheap gossip or crude propaganda. Half the time you’re wrecking lives and the other half you’re filling your readers’ heads with nakedly misleading straw- man fairytales. Every now and then something might come along to temporarily justify your existence: a political scoop; a genuine outrage . . . but do you build on it? No. You retreat to the warm cave of your celebrity chef shag-shocks and your tragic tot death- porn double-pagers: wasting your life actively making the world worse.

I suppose the best way to cope with the dull, constant, pulsing awareness that you’re wasting your life actively making the world worse is to somehow bewitch yourself into believing you’re actively making the world better. That by writing about a footballer’s bedroom exploits you’re fearlessly exposing the ugly truth behind the wholesome public image and blah blah role model blah blah fans’ hard-earned cash blah blah sanctimony blah. Hey – whatever works for you, yeah? Dress as a priest if it helps. We all know you’re just grubbily recounting a sex act for our fleeting amusement, like a radio commentator describing two pigs rutting in a sty.”

The Real Victims Of The Phone Hacking Scandal Are The Tabloid Hacks (Charlie Brooker, The Guardian)

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