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Brian Cowen on Jay Leno
In September following Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen's disastrous radio interview, when the public believed that Prime Minister to hungover to speak properly, Jay Leno created a sketch mocking the controversy.
Up and Over it
Niki Mc Carthy's photo appeared in the Irish Independent. She's pictured opposite with his children Mischa and Oscar.
The mother-of-two has organized the charity swim at at Dundag Bay in Muckross Lake, Killarney, for 11am, with all proceeds going to AWARE, a charity that fights depression.
Galway has been voted as the best town in Ireland by voters in the website likeplace.ie.
The official State of the Nation’s Children report showed how Ireland’s more vulnerable children were missing out on basic services because of the level of poverty in which they live.
The number of families in need of social house increased to 24 percent. The report also showed that children in Traveller families or with disabilities were less likely to feel safe.
Under the terms of the 1967 Censorship of Publications Act, books classified as “indecent or obscene” have their prohibitions lifted after 12 years.
Odran Flynn, a member of the board of censorship in Ireland since 2001 has noted there has been a dramatic decline in prohibitions in recent times.
According to the Irish Times the email's heading reads "An raibh Roghnaithe Comhghairdeas leat Seoladh R-phost a fháil £888,446.00 Ó Náisiún Aontaithe!”
Professor of translation studies at Dublin City University, Dr Michael Cronin says the fluency of the Irish is impressive but it's unlikely that the con-artists are actually Irish speaking.
In a survey among users of Irish travel website GoHop.ie Las Vegas has been voted the money-no-object place Irish people would love to visit in the United States.
No destinations in Europe made it into GoHop.ie's top ten. Australia came in second place followed by South Africa, Orlando and San Francisco. A cruise was the seventh most popular holiday idea. Other destinations that made the top ten included Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius and Dubai.
The website's founder, Stephen McKenna said the results showed "strong desire for far flung, romantic and exotic holiday destinations for the Irish holidaymaker. I do think there is a desire in Ireland for holiday destinations that offer complete escapism and unique, life-changing experiences."
The Irish Star, Daily Mirror and the Donegal Daily all reported that in fact "teenage terrors" had stopped cars in the middle of the street and were pelting them with snowballs. They had also pushed two cars into the middle of the road. Donegal Daily reported that police were unable to respond because they were snowed in.
The army are denying that they were called in. A spokesperson told NewsWhip.ie "I made inquiries of our people over in the West, they can’t recall any such operation...Certainly there was no specific request by the Gardai [police], who we would assist in situations like this, to help them.” He also said that the army were working on clearing roads in the area and may have simply been in the right place at the right time.
The six bedroom period waterfront castle has five bedrooms and is available furnished or unfurnished.
The exclusive residence is located in the leafy suburb of Dalkey in South Co. Dublin and overlooks Dublin bay.
Currently product placement is banned on home grown television programs.
Proposals have been put forward for a new advertising code which would permit paid product placement in drama program including weekly soaps, comedy, reality and lifestyle shows.
The British Department of Work and Pensions has released figures which show that 5,500 Irish nationals registered to work there between January and June of 2010.
Data obtained by the Irish Independent showed that 11,000 people emigrated to Britain last year.
It seems that the Rubberbandits might have some competition for the number on spot in the charts this Christmas as Carl Cullinane's single "Christmas in Crisis" has been released.
Having previously endorsed by NewsWhip.ie's "Fill The Charts With Sound People This Christmas Campaign" Carl has now released his song "Christmas in Crisis" in aid of the Irish homeless charity, Focus Ireland.
Although it may not be quite as catchy as "Horse Outside" it does paint a good picture of the financial difficulties Ireland's in while including Santa and his elves. Carl has managed to cram the zeitgeist of Irish society into his Christmas ditty.
Facebook was found to be Ireland's top searched term on Google for 2010 and it's clear from map, with Ireland almost completely white, that the Irish are busy making connections across the world.
Facebook's Paul Butler said it was "interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends”.
A new rhino calf, born last Friday took it’s first steps yesterday alongside its mother Ashanti.
The new addition to Ireland’s largest zoo will be named via public competition.
More than 10,000 people recently applied for a mere 230 jobs in the Irish Defence Forces.
A recruitment drive for 160 vacancies in the Army attracted a total of 6,522 jobs.
Many of the positions have been filled and two groups of 40 will be deployed in the Eastern and Southern commands before Christmas. The remaining two 40-strong deployments will be sent to the Western command and to the Defence Forces Training Centre at the Curragh in Co. Kildare.
Ireland's drug treatment services have reported that cocaine use has ris
With an over-population of deer in Ireland, the damage they are doing to horticulture and woodlands is becoming a serious problem according to a new report.
At the launch of the report "Developing a Collaborative Strategy for the Management and Control of Invasive Deer Species for County Wicklow" commissioned by the Wicklow Deer Management Group, it was revealed that the deer population in Ireland has drastically increased in recent years and they are now at the top of the wild food chain.
AllSafe.ie's founder Neill Donnelly spoke the the Irish Independent about the massive explosion in sales of safes. Mr Donnelly says that his sales are up by 80 percent in Ireland, in the last three months, as the public fears a run on their banks might result in their cash being inaccessible.
It could well be that it is the safer option. Donnelly said that some of his high end models would not be fazed by a stick of dynamite. However, he was also careful to say "I’m not saying it’s a sensible thing to do at all...It’s up to the individual person themselves to decide what they want to do with their cash.”
The firm usually specialize in novelty GAA-related clothing but now they’ve branched into economic crisis gags. Their stock includes underwear which reads “I’d rather be screwed by the IMF.”
A comedy group, The Rubberbandits, from Limerick, could be in with a chance of securing the coveted Christmas number one slot in Ireland this year. Now that their comedy hip hop song “Horse Outside” has gone viral it’s thought that they could beat Matt Cardle, the ‘X Factor’ winner to the top of the charts.
The song already has nearly 1,000,000 and as the track goes on sale on December 17 it stands a good chance of being in the running for this year.
Although the comedy tune has been a big success in Ireland it seems that those from across the pond didn’t quite understand the humor. The songs theme is that of the “Horse Outside” being a better form of transport and more of a “chick magnet” than the other men’s cars.
With a backing track of John Lennon's “Slippin and slidin” the video was recorded by students sitting in a car during the cold snap.
It shows a number of students slipping and slidding as they try to walk along the path which is used as a shortcut to get to the University.
Each Irish person will spent an average of $413.12 on gifts (buying an average of 14 gifts). They will spend the rest of decorations, celebrating and food and drink over the festival season.
The survey carried out by TNS on behalf of eBay also found that parents will be spending an average of $391.39 on kids presents. Figures indicate that kids are due receive $74.90 less in presents this year against last Christmas.
The Wexford Carol
A graveyard in the Aran Islands is so full that they are now burying the dead on pathways.
Islanders on Inis Mor have tried for several years to extend the cemetery at Cnocan na mBan and they suffered more setbacks when they discovered the newly acquired land for the planned extension had been designated under the EU's Habitats Directive.
Before the news, local resident, Jamesie O Flatharta was delighted that the graveyard crisis had finally been solved.
While the total number signing on the Live Register has fallen for two consecutive months, the amount of people drawing long-term unemployment benefits has more than doubled, with more than 140,000 currently signing on.
"Unemployment is the true gauge of economic performance. Today’s figures show that Fianna Fáil have ruined this State and failed its people," Sinn Fein spokesman Arthur Morgan said following the release of the statistics.
According to a new European Commission report the number of suicides in Ireland is on the increase. The reports states that 2008 saw and increase from 82 to 92 suicides. After yesterdays Budget spending on mental health services will be down by 1.8 percent.
John Saunders, director of Shine, which represents people suffering from schizophrenia, spoke to the Irish Independent. He said "While it is unfortunate that mental health will see up to a 1.8pc reduction, we do welcome the statement recognising that mental health services are provided to vulnerable people, and therefore should receive preferential treatment.
"We acknowledge that this decision was made within the context of a severe recessionary budget, however, we would still like to draw attention to the fact that at just 5.3pc of the overall health spend, mental health continues to be at its lowest level in modern history.
The map opposite was taken recently from the European weather emergency service and rates the severity of snow storms across Europe.
The scale of severity goes from green (safe) through to yellow and orange (potentially dangerous) to red (very dangerous).
In yet another bout of gallows humor the Irish Examiner newspaper released this clip.
The ladybirds were spotted in County Cork and Wicklow. Colette O’Flynn from the National Biodiversity Data Centre “If the Harlequin Ladybird becomes established, it will lead to a decline, and in some cases, the extinction of some of our 15 native ladybird species."
It's believed that they arrived to Ireland on imported vegetables, fruit or plants. Ms O’Flynn said they could represent “the tip of the iceberg in terms of a new invasion to the island of Ireland.
The Irish whiskey Jameson has sold three million cases worldwide.
Its owner Pernod Ricard has said that the sales volume has increased by nine percent while its value grew by 12 percent for the year ending June 2010.
Sales in the United States grew by 24 percent with key markets such as Russia, South Africa and France also enjoying success.
Dublin City Council voted last night in favor of twinning with Beijing.
It is hoped the move will open up business opportunities with the city which has a population of 22 million.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Gerry Breen said that Cork's twinning with Shanghai has made it one of the top ten destinations in the world for Chinese people to visit.
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