More to follow.
Covers to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie
Thanks Joe Leogue, Enda Cunningham, Iain Henderson, Enda Bolger, Garrett Rowe, Mike Hogan 4FM, Meliosa Fitzgibbon and Joe Donnelly.
Stop that.
Virtuoso Seana Davey (top) – “The Jimmy Page of the 47-string concert harp” – and the Celtic Latvian Cello Trio (above) from front, Melo-M Karlis Auzans, Janis Pauls and Mikelis Dobicins, launching the 2014 Temple Bar Tradfest In Temple Bar and on the Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin this afternoon.
The Tradfest festival runs from January 22-26, in 40 venues, including over 200 FREE gigs.
Perishing string fiddling tradtards.
(Leon Farrell/ Photocall Ireland)
Ah here.
Mix them up a bit.
President Higgins with, from left Bronagh O’Hanlon, Marie Baker and Max Barrett newly appointed judges of the High Court at the Aras this afternoon.
Name their political affiliations (not that there’s anything wrong with that), anyone?
Lines close at 7.15pm
(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)
It’s heavenly.
Eric Stewart writes:
“In 1991,I saw a man building an airplane in a barn in Iowa [USA}. I didn’t know you could do such a thing, but I knew instantly I’d build my own plane some day.
“N986BP is a Van’s RV-4 kitplane and took about 21 months and 5,000 hours to build. She’s named Banana Puddin’ after a song by my favourite band, Southern Culture on the Skids.”
Filmed near Wellington, Nevada and Mono Lake, California
Song: Major Tom, by Peter Schilling
Thanks Darragh McManus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9SbtnSL5E8
Robert Jones’ sequel to last year’s brilliantly sequenced Hollywood Dance Tribute: 73 movie dance clips set to Neutron Dance by the Pointer Sisters.
Further to the Construction Industry Federation’s call for an increase in house prices.
John Gallen writes:
“I contacted them [CIF] via Twitter. I wanted to know why they saw it that “house prices need to increase in order for the building of residential properties to become more cost effective”.
The basic response is that although land has come down since the boom years in varying degrees other costs have not. I asked for detail of these other costs. I got this breakdown of how much to build a typical 3 Bed Semi-d. It comes in at €197k just to build it. Excluding VAT.”
Earlier: The Only Way Is Up
As commenter Alive Oh reminds us, a variant of this game is also available on Brittany Ferries.
In a taxi?
In Glasgow?
Cousins, Joseph and Anthony Blair, 19 and 21, respectively are native speakers of Irish Gaelic. Ms McAleer said: “My cousins were just talking to each other in Irish, which is their first language.
“The taxi driver turned around and said to them ‘Stop speaking in that language’.“We didn’t really know how to take it. He said: ‘When you are in Britain, it is English you speak.’
“I said to the driver ‘Excuse me’, shocked that somebody would say that to them.”
I said: ‘That is out of order’.
“He then said: ‘If they want to speak in that language they can get out of my taxi.’
So we got out and said we wouldn’t pay.”
Initially the company’s Paul Muir insisted the incident related to what he called drunken passengers who had been at a city concert the previous day who had allegedly intimidated an elderly driver and been asked to leave the car.
However, after being told Ms McAleer was reporting an incident a day before the concert, he said he would not comment.
But before doing so he said: “I couldn’t imagine four people coming over from Donegal and going to a party in Britain and not being drunk”.”
FIGHT!
Taxi driver in Irish ‘rant’ probe (David Leask, Glasgow Evening Times)
Thanks DD
Is it really a tragedy? Sparky Sweets PhD sez fate be doin’ our lovers straight dirty.
Either way, shit be cray.