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As we’ve been mentioning throughout the morning, the Oscars were held in Los Angeles last night with Wicklow based Daniel Day Lewis securing the nod for best actor. But they weren’t the only awards being held in Tinseltown. Page 3 of the Examiner reports that the Razzies were handed out on Saturday night. The annual awards highlight the worst movies, worst directors and worst actors of the year. The latest instalment of the Twilight Saga secured the worst movie title with Kirsten Stewart and Adam Sandler picking up the actor awards.
More on the Oscars:
In Ireland, our idea of a protest vote in 2011 was voting for Fine Gael and Labour in unprecedented numbers. The Italians however really know how to do it. Paddy Agnew reports on page 3 of the Irish Times that the big winner in the Italian elections is predicted to be the Five Star Movement, led by former clown Beppe Grillo. While results won’t be known until later this morning, the FSM are expected to win over 20% of seats, making them the second largest party behind the Democratic Party. Despite breaking an election curfew in order to campaign at a Serie A game on Saturday night, Silvio Berlusconi can expect to see vote fall from almost 40% to lower than 20%.
It appears that all of the horse in our beef burgers has given us a taste for the fillies. Page 5 of the Irish Times reports that Pat Hyland, a Laois man who sells horse meat in Temple Bar, has been busier in recent weeks than at any other time in the last three years. Despite the upturn in trade, he is worried that a clampdown in production here will mean his horse sandwiches and horse steaks may not be on the menu for long.
Families of disabled children in North Dublin have been told that they cannot use a swimming pool in St Michael’s House at Belcamp despite the fact that they helped to fund the construction of the pool. Page 6 of the Irish Times reports that the pool is now going to be opened up to commercial groups on Saturdays who will pay to use the facility. Families who had sold raffle tickets and set up direct debits to help fund the premises gathered outside it over the weekend to protest at the decision.
It’s good work if you can get it and one Dublin barrister appears to have gotten the lion’s share. Felix McEnroy was paid €1.3m over 11 months last year by the HSE for work he carried out on the organisations behalf. Page 8 of the Independent reports that the next highest earning barrister on the HSE books was Peter Finlay, who was paid €380,000 for the same period.
History has taught us many things and one of them is that you should never wage a war on two fronts. The Irish Medical Organisation skipped that class. Page 15 of the Independent reports that despite being embroiled in tense Croke Park 2 negotiations over the weekend, the organisation has found itself engaged in a bitter dispute with rank-and-file members over the pay package given to George McNeice. Dublin GP Cathal O Suillobhain has been spearheading a campaign to force the IMO to discuss McNeice at next month’s EGM but he was told on Saturday that the union’s council will draw up the agenda for the meeting and George McNeice, and his pay packet, will not be included.
It has topped some ignominious league tables in the past and now it can add another to the list. Page 2 of the Examiner reveals that more cars are vandalised in Limerick that anywhere else in the country. An AA survey found that almost 10% of people in Limerick have found their car deliberately damaged in the past two years.
Behind every good man is a good woman and it appears that it’s no different in Hollywood. Ben Affleck picked up an Oscar last night for producing best movie Argo but before the ceremony he revealed that his mother has always been in role model. According to page 14 of the Mirror, the actor and director says that she taught him right from wrong in the world.
For the first time in years, developers are selling homes off plans according to page 6 of the Independent. A bottle neck in supply of family sized homes means that deposits are being put down in advance of construction in the greater Dublin area for the first time since the recession bit.
