Yearly Archives: 2013
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Sighgella
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[From top: Elisabetta (left) and Francesca Grillo, cleared of theft, and their former employers “Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi}
It can now be reported that David Cameron’s “unprecedented” public backing for Nigella Lawson during the fraud trial of her former personal assistants came close to collapsing the case because it was considered “an abuse of process”. The prime minister had stunned lawyers when he gave a magazine interview in the middle of the jury trial, where he described the TV chef – the key prosecution witness – as a “very funny and warm person” and said he was “a massive fan”.
Nigella Lawson assistants found not guilty of fraud (Daily Telegraph)
Nigella Lawson, Charles Saatchi and the ‘case with no winners’ (Guardian)
Calvary (2014), will have its Irish premiere as the opening gala for the 2014 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
And we have TWO (a pair of!) tickets to the opening night on February 13..
The fillum [from The Guard’s John Michael McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson, above] – glowingly trailer parked earlier this month, is among five new movies opening at the festival.
And You and a chum can watch it among Irish cinema’s movers, shakers and assorted hoi polloi at Dublin’s Savoy Cinema WHILE sipping two fingers of ‘Jemmie’.
To enter, just answer this simple question
Excluding this scene, what do YOU regard as the best piece of dialogue in an Irish movie?
Lines close at 5pm Extended Until MIDNIGHT tonight (Friday) due to overwhelming stoner popular demand.
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival 2014
Thanks Colm Ó Riagáin
No cash, favours, cinema tickets, hooch were given for this post other than the prize but Jameson has previously carried ads on broadsheet.
From today’s Irish Daily Mail:
Rhona Mahony has repeatedly failed to give the HSE evidence to support her claim that her €45,000 salary top-up was in respect of fees from private patients. Despite ‘several’ attempts from senior HSE figures to get information, the Master of the National Maternity Hospital has not explained how her €236,000 HSE salary is topped up.
PAC chairman John McGuinness said Dr Mahony would be compelled to come before the committee if she did not explain her top-up to the HSE.
Yesterday, it emerged that Dr Mahony even attended a high-level meeting with HSE director general Tony O’Brien last month where she was asked to hand over payslips and bank documents dating back four years. After details of Dr Mahony’s salary became public last month, a PR firm issued a statement on her behalf, claiming that the €45,000 – paid on top of a €236,000 HSE salary – was ‘in respect of professional fees from private patients attending the National Maternity Hospital’.
Has the Mail lost the true meaning of Christmas?
YOU decide.
HSE: Dr Rhona Won’t Explain €45,000 Top-up (Philip Ryan, Irish Daily Mail) (not available online)
Previously: My Cher Rhona
Professional Fees From Private Patients
Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
The Slo Bowl is a food dish for dogs, available in eight maze-like configurations (about €18 each) designed to slow down the feeding process from ‘wolf’ to ‘scavenge’.
{President of the European Commission Jose-Manuel Barroso, right.with Enda Kenny in Dublin in January]
Irish officials have insisted that the possibility of the EU’s permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, retroactively recapitalising Irish banks is still a work in progress.
In response to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appearing to pour cold water on the idea at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, officials stressed that the negotiating process is ongoing.
Last night, Mr Barroso said the process was “for the future” and not “retroactive”.
However, the officials insist he was referring to a separate process relating to Europe’s forthcoming banking union, elements of which were agreed by finance ministers this week and which also involve the ESM.
Anyone?
Irish officials say recapitalisation talks ongoing (RTE)
(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
Orla Writes:
In order to highlight the plight of puppies bought as gifts this Christmas, Dog’s Trust put up this thought-provoking outdoor poster as part of their ‘Press Paws’ campaign.
On a single day in January this year, there were 55 ‘surrender’ phone calls – and that’s not including the dogs just abandoned at the gates. Some of the reasons given for handing dogs in were that ‘they didn’t match the sofa’. We think this poignant image says it all – don’t give a dog as a gift this Christmas.
Ronan McCormack writes;
To get into the Christmas Spirit, we at HeyStaks (a Dublin startup based in UCD), have created a “Guess the Christmas Movie” game using word clouds made from the dialogue of different Christmas films. Thanks, and Merry Christmas.