Taoiseach Enda Kenny and former Fine Gael director of elections, Frank Flannery
“Why must Government act as if it is a fucking dictator? We’re supposed to be a democracy but the last people asked how to do anything are the citizens.”
“There’s a lot of the didactic about him [Mr Kenny], almost the school teacher about him.”
Frank Flannery, dumped Fine Gael strategist and former Rehab CEO, ahead of his inaugural weekly political podcast, Flannery Files, with ex-RTÉ sports anchor Bill O’Herlihy tomorrow.
1. The third and ultimate instalment of the re-released Hobbit (1977) films has arrived. The armies of Men, Dwarves and Elves must reluctantly unite to defeat the Dark Lord, Sauron. We get a full trailer this time after getting teased back in July.
2. The entire film is only six weeks away and cutting a new trailer is a pain. Those wonderful few minutes after the ads and before the Interstellar and Hunger Games films begin playing in the cinemas anyone?
3. We read The Hobbit for Junior Cert English. We don’t remember any of this messing. Is a plot addition the same as a plot deviation?
4. This part of the trilogy features an epic 45 minute long battle scene. That’s a lot of handbags.
5. The Hobbit is the most expensive trilogy ever filmed. It had an estimated budget of $150 million per film but it is rumoured to have come in at north of $745 million for the three.
6. But don’t fret for Warner Bros just yet. The first part made $1 billion worldwide and the second raked in $958 million. Just see it through to the end folks.
7. Remember 48 frames per second? So does Youtube. It now supports High Frame Rate trailers like this one.
Broadsheet Prognosis: Big feet means big budgets.
Release Date: December 12
(Delboy is watching the telly. Dylan is Tom Dillon, a farmer/Broadsheet writer hybrid)
Meanwhile, in today’s Irish Daily Mail, Alison O’Reilly and Neil Michael write [not online]:
A second burial ground has been discovered near the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam. It adjoins the controversial septic tank site at the centre of the baby deaths’ scandal that erupted in May. According to archive plans, it is at least three times the size. Documents also show Galway County Council planners have known about the additional burial ground since at least 1979.
Catherine Corless, who discovered that 796 babies died in the Tuam mother and baby home run by the Sisters of Bon Secours, has already passed details of the grave on to Children’s Minister James Reilly. The researcher met the Minister three weeks ago as part of discussions he is having with interested parties, before he draws up the terms of reference for the Government’s investigation into the homes.
…
[Ms Corless’] latest discovery shows the area of land used to bury babies who died at the home could be considerably larger than first thought.
