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Bangor’s Kelly Gallagher and her guide, Charlotte Evans won Britain’s first ever gold at the Winter Paralympics in Sochi yesterday in the visually impaired Super-G competition.

Her mum, Margaret (above, waving a tricolour leprechaun hat) is from Leitrim and her late father was from Donegal, neither a skiing stronghold.

Fair play though, in fairness.

Winter Paralympics 2014: Kelly Gallagher wins Great Britain’s first ever gold medal at Games (Gareth A Davies, Daily Telegraph)

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[From top: Gene Wilder and Eileen Colgan in Quakser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx (1970 The Bronx;  with Mick lally and Jeni Courtney in The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) and as Esther in RTE’s Fair City and a portrait from 2007]

Eileen Colgan, whose stage film and television career in Ireland spanned five decades [including  fabulous hidden Gene Wilder classic Quakser Fortune] has died aged 80 after a short illness.

Apart (from possessing) extreme acting chops, Eileen was warm, wise and wickedly funny. She was so kind she even bothered to give us encouragement and advice over the years. We will miss her very much and send our condolences to her family and many friends.

The funeral mass will take place at 10am on Thursday at the Church of the Visitation, Fairview, Dublin with burial at St Patrick’s Church cemetery in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

Fair City Actress Eileen Colgan Dies (RTE)

Eileen Colgan

Pics: IMDB/RTE/Lisa Richards

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Frank Flannery, former Rehab director, lobbyist and Fine Gael Director of Elections.

He could always get into bananas.

“I have informed the Chairman of the Rehab Group board, Mr. Brian Kerr, that I wish to step down as a director of the Rehab Group and any other group boards with immediate effect.
“It is a step that I undertake with real regret but I have come to the opinion that my involvement with the board is making the Rehab Group the subject of political controversy as this time. I spent 34 years in the Rehab Group and retired in December 2006.
I rejoined the board in 2011. The Rehab Group has played an enormously valuable role in Irish Society for nearly 70 years and I wish it continued success for the future.
“I have also informed the General Secretary of Fine Gael, Mr. Tom Curran, that I am stepping down as Director of Elections and as a Trustee of the party as of today. My involvement with Fine Gael related only to electoral strategy and organisation and I had no role in advising the government.
“Fine Gael has been mandated, along with the Labour Party, with the onerous task of turning the economy around after the deepest recession since 1929.
“I believe the government, and Fine Gael in particular, is performing well and the economy is on the mend. The party and the Taoiseach will continue to have my complete support and I will assist the party in any way I can as a private citizen and as a proud ordinary member of Fine Gael.”

Frank Flannery this afternoon.

Frank Flannery quits Rehab and Fine Gael roles RTE)

Earlier: How Do You Lobby Yourself?

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

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