Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod

A round-up of news from around Ireland

"I do the same numbers on my usual tickets but the winning line was a spur of the moment selection -- the girls’ ages, 11 and 17; my age, 50; 21 for our wedding anniversary and 9 for the year we married in 1990 -- I reversed the 90 to 09.

"I decided then to use Gail's age but put the wrong number of 48 down, instead of 49! I don't think she minds though!"

Asked about plans for the future, the couple plans to just take one day at a time. There are no plans to retire from their nursing jobs as Gail said, "We have both been nursing for 30 years, since we were 17. We love our jobs and our work friends.

"We are very fortunate and so grateful. We decided to go public as we didn't want people surmising how much we had won and we didn't want to lie to people. It's a relief to get it out in the open.”
- Ballymena Guardian

Shady Donegal

Though residents of Donegal may have a reputation for being traditional and conservative, ladies here have most definitely been quick to embrace this summer’s hottest craze.

Copies of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy have been flying off the shelves here quicker than you can unlace a bodice.

Booksellers from right across the county confirm that, once word started to spread about the steamy book, never mind its two even steamier sequels, demand quickly became...well, insatiable.

A sales assistant at Eason’s in Letterkenny said, “Demand has been very high. Like most other shops, we ran out of copies and couldn’t get any more for a while.  We had a list of about 100 customers waiting on it, but once we were able to get re-stocked, it’s been fine. There’s still a strong demand for it.

“We have the books on a three for two offer, so a lot of people are buying the whole trilogy at the one time. And there are a lot of copycat books coming out now too that seem to be doing well. People are looking for those as well.”

Rosaleen O’Rourke of The Four Masters Bookshop in Donegal town added, “Sales of the whole trilogy have been very good here. We anticipated the level of interest and so had pre-ordered a good quantity. One day we were sold out but that was the only day. People are still looking for it but the demand doesn’t seem to be just as strong as when it first came out. The first few weeks were huge but it’s settled down a bit now. The majority of people are coming back to buy the second and third books as well.”

PJ Sweeney of Books and Charts in Dungloe admits, with a bit of chagrin, that they were a bit late to get in on the act.

He said: “We only got our hands on the book last week, after much searching for it. There was a huge amount of interest in it, and everyone seems to be very curious about it.”
- Donegal Democrat

Granny-Fest!

When one-year-old Niamh Anne Kerrigan arrived home from Melbourne, Australia with her mother Majella, a very special welcome lay in store in Doughmakone, Louisburgh.

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Nster.com