From top: Michael McDowell SC with Journalist Tom Lyons; Denis O’Brien with Luán Ó Braonáin SC at the High Court last week.

This morning.

The High Court, Dublin.

In the libel trial between Denis O’Brien and The Sunday Business Post…

The ‘sheet‘s Olga Cronin was live tweeting from the court…

Update:

Paul O’Higgins SC [for Denis O’Brien] said that Mr O’Brien was clearly a wealthy man, written about in newspapers and involved in a certain amount of litigation but he told the jurors they could not make a judgment based on any such factor.

He said Mr O’Brien was not “coming the heavy” to destroy people. He said Mr O’Brien could have sued the former editor Ian Kehoe and former business editor Tom Lyons personally, but he did not do that.

He claimed Mr McDowell’s speech was not short of words but that very few of them dealt with what the case was about and said it was not about most of the things the defence claimed it was about, but was much more complex.

Mr O’Higgins accused the newspaper of presenting the articles in a sensationalistic, heavily coloured “get up” designed to wow the reader from the front page.

He said Mr O’Brien claims the message coming from the articles was that the businessman was one of the borrowers most to blame for the destruction of the Irish banking system and the subsequent bail out.

It was irrelevant if the newspaper did not intend to convey that meaning.

Lawyers deny O’Brien ‘coming the heavy’ for SBP (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Fingal Dog Owners Group (Fingal D.O.G) hold a protest march last Month through Malahide village in opposition to the dog ‘off-leash’ bye-law  by Fingal County Council which restricts off-leash activity to to designated fenced-in areas and specific times (in smaller parks).

This evening.

A public meeting to discuss a dog off-leash by-law is to be held in Fingal County Council.

All 40 Fingal County Councillors will attend the meeting later.

They are to discuss with the residents and dog owners the adoption of the controversial by-law, which was introduced last June.

There is growing public demand to reverse the by-law as it prohibits people from walking their dogs off their leads between 11am and one hour before dusk in some public parks

Sign petition here

Controversy over dog off-leash by-law in Fingal (RTÉ)

Previously: Where We Go One We Go All

Rollingnews

Coined by the late Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker but in use long before that, the term ‘grawlix’ denotes a string of symbols used to indicate obscenity without using obscenity.

We prefer the more provocative ‘tootle-pootle popkins’.

kottke

This afternoon.

Seapoint, County Dublin

Galoofing Trinity College students, including Aoife Walsh (above left) and Ella Walter (above right), become dangerously overheated in freakishly-early Spring sunshine.

Put some clothes on.

Life-loving layabouts.

Rollingnews

This afternoon.

ESB Head Office, Dublin.

Members of the ESB Retired Staff Association (ESBRSA) protest protesting against a ten-year pension freeze.

Last August, the ESB Retired Staff Association submitted a claim for a 7.7 per cent pension increase, which was rejected.

The National Executive Chairman of the Association is calling for the traditional linking of pensions and employee salaries to be restored.

Tony Collins says pensioners are under represented on committees connected to ESB Defined Benefit Pension Scheme:

The protest involves all 15 Branches of the organisation.

ESB Pensioner Protest Over Decade-Long Pension Freeze (KFM)

Sam Boal/RollingNews

Behold: the Citroën Ami – an all-electric concept vehicle designed for short term city rental (with or without a driver).

Envisaged for rental use from 5 minutes to five hours, the Ami has a tiny footprint,  fairly accommodating cargo space for its small size and a smartphone dock via which you tell it where to go, what music to play on the way there and so forth. 

uncrate

Bastards.

Thanks Ted

Broadsheet.ie