Monthly Archives: May 2011

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the agency would make a profit “somewhere in the order of €1 billion”.

He said there had been some misunderstanding of the Nama plan in advance of its publication. “It is not true to say that Nama expects to make a loss,” he added.

Irish Times July 6, 2010

Nama, which announced a loss of €714 million for last year, said another €3.5 billion of loans may be acquired over the coming months.

Irish Times May 4, 2011

Ah well. No harm done, eh?

(Photocall Ireland)

According to The Phoenix, out today:

“Harney’s lawyers (solicitors Vincent & Beatty) demanded a cool €1 million in damages and the last 12 months has seen a game of poker between her team and station owner Denis O’Brien’s lawyer, Paul Meagher, with Meagher having little in his hand.

O’Brien even tried to settle personally with Harney but was rebuffed.”

She can put the settlement with her tax-free lump sum of €159,000, pension lump sum of €160,000 and pensions totalling €121,000.

David Cochrane’s Twitter
The Phoenix

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BPGee7OdVo&feature=player_embedded

The Newstalk apology (includes Nell’s expensive words).

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRDiqinG8Ow

We’ve nailed the shorts thing, we rock at animation, and can fire off no end of decent documentaries – now the New York Times is writing love letters to Conor Horgan’s splendid, low-budget ‘dystopian’ drama One Hundred Mornings (which opens here on Friday).

There are more to come, most notably John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard, which did the business at Sundance. We’ve even got a movie (The Other Side Of Sleep) at Cannes this year.

Elsewhere, Xtravision bargain bins across the nation are flooded with copies of Zonad, and we’ll still waiting for that rumoured 3-D sequel to Shrooms.

Ileclash House, the former County Cork home of Hitler’s old pal Oswald Mosley and his ludicrous wife Diana Mitford is on the market.

Mosley was leader of the thuggish British Union of Fascists and an all round bad egg.

MyHome.ie, being a cornerstone of the Irish property industry, describe him simply as a British political activist with a “colourful past”.

They’re probably only obeying orders.

Ileclash House (MyHome.ie)

Via Brian O’Connell

Despite its central role in the Arab revolts, Facebook now plans to launch in China under Chinese rules, just when Beijing is clamping down hard on political activity, including online. Facebook lobbyist Adam Conner tested the waters on this notion, telling a Wall Street Journal reporter recently that “now we’re allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven’t experienced it before.” He added, “Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others.”

“Ask Facebook” may also become the answer to who wins the great standoff between the powerful open forces of the Internet versus Beijing, the most aggressive force on Earth trying to control information.

Facebook’s Dubious New Friends (Wall Street Journal)

JoyOf Tech