Stop that.
The smiling.
This morning.
Former Hollyoaks and Strictly Come Dancing star Danny Mac at an unidentified tea and macaroon emporium in Dublin to announce his casting as male lead – the Johnny Depp Mathieu Kassovitz part – in Amélie The Musical which arrives in Dublin on May 28 for a limited run at the Gaiety Theatre.
Photocall Ireland
https://vimeo.com/306739628
A toy designer tries to please his boss by resuscitating her dog in an accomplished short by CalArts student animator Andrea Reyes.
Free tonight?
The Eastbound music festival for new and breaking artists kicks off this evening with Limerick’s WhenYoung playing Whelan’s, Wexford Street, Dublin 2.
In all, there are 12 shows over 6 days in 5 different Dublin venues.
Scottish tyros The Snuts play The Workmans later; Brighton native Maisie Peters plays her first Irish show in the Button Factory; and Lion – aka Beth Lowen – headlines the Sound House on Eden Quay.
Nick says: Go East!
Eastbound festival (Aiken Promotions)
Tickets are sold separately for each event
The elaborately decorated animal/plant fusions of Canadian sculptor (and former student of animal behavioural science) Ellen Jewett.
Currently exhibiting at the Urban Nation Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin, if you’re passing.
From top: Denis O’Brien in Haiti, 2010; Part of an FBI affidavit in a Haiti bribery case to be heard next month
In January 2007, Denis O’Brien’s Caribbean mobile phone company Digicel become the first company to be awarded a license to operate a GSM network in Haiti.
The company described the contract as a ‘milestone’, and said it came about as a result of a tender process entered jointly with onefone, a subsidiary of Haitian GB Group.
Next month in New York, retired US Army colonel Joseph Baptiste faces charges for his alleged role in a bribery and money laundering scheme in connection with a planned $84 million port development project in Haiti.
Mr Baptiste was the president of a Maryland, USA-based non-profit organisation with the stated mission of ‘helping the impoverished in Haiti’.
He allegedly told FBI agents during a recorded meeting at a Boston hotel that he would funnel payments to Haitian officials through the non-profit.
In an affidavit from an FBI agent – part of the criminal complaint – Mr Baptiste also boasts of he and his affiliates having delivered the licence to ‘build a cellular network in Haiti’.
Mr Baptiste claims ‘he had used a Haitian company to facilitate payments to government officials for the telecommunications deal..’
He described it as one of “his most successful personal investments”.
Last month, Mr Baptiste, who had signed a plea deal, filed a motion to suppress the statements made to the FBI agents and asserted that they were taken in violation of his rights.
Digicel, meanwhile, remains an alleged “co-conspirator” in a lawsuit taken by US-based Haitian emigrants concerning a $1.5 billion ‘scam’ to divert cash that was meant to fund education. Denying any wrongdoing, the company last month, stated:
“Digicel has always conducted its business in Haiti consistent with all applicable laws and regulations.”
This morning.
Taoiseach Leo Vardkar arrives for a cabinet meeting to discuss the National Broadband Plan whose tender submitted by the sole remaining bidder is being gone through in “excruciating detail”.
Also on the agenda?
Malaria, eh?
Thanks Derek
Von Liz – Twats In Leprechaun Hats
A sobering anti-Paddywhackery anthem from Tipperary-born, Berlin Based music making exile.
Not suitable for work – unless you toil in an openly sweary environment.
Spotted outside Rollercoaster Records, Keiran Street, Kilkenny
Jeannie Frampton writes:
Kilkenny’s Rythmn and Roots Americana Fest was a runaway success at the weekend Rollercoaster Records, Keiran Street Kilkenny are the hub of a talented wheel.
The late and very missed Willie Meighan, founder of The Happiest Little Record Shop in the World aka Rollercoaster Records will be chuckling from on high…
Previously: Home On The Kilkenny Range
