Liam Harbison, chef de mission for Team Ireland at the London Paralympics 2012, writes:

“We have a talent ID event running on Oct 13 in UCD and that is based on a model we ran after Beijing in 2008. That was a day we expected about 50 people with disability to turn up and try out all the sports, meet the team and the coaches, but 400 people turned up, with very little promotion or coverage.
At least six of the athletes who competed in London turned up at the open day four years ago and one of the great stories from that day was Anne Marie McDaid, who came in with MS and hobbling on crutches. She was struggling with mobility but got into our programme quickly, got heavy sports science and medical support over three years, and now walks 3km to 5km a day free of assistance. That gives her great quality of life and she is now a Paralympian because of it.

…I just hope now they are home that the guys get the recognition they deserve. I don’t care what anyone else thinks: This is the greatest Irish team ever in any sport.”

 

This Must Be Irelands Greatest Ever Team (Liam Harbison, Irish Examiner)

Spirited homecoming for Team Ireland’s Sweet 16 (Shane Hickey, Independent.ie)

THE PROPERTY tax will be pitched at 0.25 per cent of current house value, a Government source has predicted.

The source said the new tax to replace the €100 household charge “would not be a million miles away” from the example cited in an ESRI report focusing on a tax rate in the region of €2.50 to €3 per €1,000 of house value.

Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton told The Irish Times last week there should be no automatic exemptions from property and water taxes for pensioners or social welfare recipients, although ability to pay should be taken into consideration.

Shouldn’t it, though?

Property tax to cost 0.25 per cent of house value (Mary Minihan, Irish Times)

(Sam Boal, Photocall Ireland)

Fergus O’Neill writes:

Irish director John Moore (centre) with his crew on the set of A Good Day To Die Hard (Die Hard 5) in Budapest, Hungary, wearing ‘Feck It Sure It’s Grand’ T-shirts.

He bought them for all his crew (a lot of whom are Irish).  Apparently John (from Dundalk) liked the phrase so much that Bruce Willis utters it at the start of the film. Yippee- ki -yay mammy fecker.

Grandgrand.ie


A genuine ad in support of Romney’s presidential bid funded by the Campaign For American Values PAC.

Watch it. Then shake your head violently from side to side. Then watch it three more times.

Mitt Romney Anti-Gay Marriage Ad Is Unintentionally Hilarious (HuffPo Comedy)

(Hat tip: Colin Murphy)

Broadsheet.ie