The front pages
‘Botched op medics cleared by inquiry’ is the lead headline in the Irish Independent this morning, which relates to the quite shocking story of two surgeons who removed the wrong kidney from an eight-year old boy in an operation at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin in March 2008. The boy was left with one poorly functioning kidney and may need a transplant.
Sri Paran, the junior doctor who removed the healthy kidney from the boy during the operation, broke down in tears yesterday during the medical inquiry which ruled that he and senior doctor, Martin Corbally, had no case to answer for.
The parents of the boy involved, Jennifer Stewart and Oliver Conroy said afterwards that lessons had to be learned from the incident because doctors have ‘the lives of children in their hands.’ “They must realise this when making decisions,†they added.
The Irish Times lead with the headline ‘Tánaiste plays down row over halt to EU funds for Fás’. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan yesterday confirmed that a claim for €57 million spent by Fás on training, which was to be repaid by Europe, was withdrawn because of issues raised by European audits.
Coughlan eased fears over the controversy, however, by claiming that other eligible Fás expenditure was used to replace the withdrawn claim, so that there was no overall loss to the exchequer.
The emergence of the latest controversy to hit the state training agency had led to Labour Party spokesman Ruairà Quinn to call for Fás to be shut down after the latest blow to its credibility.
‘8,000 jobs lost as state budgets unspent’ is the lead headline in this morning’s Irish Examiner, who claim in a report that the Government’s failure to spend more than €800 million of its capital budget this year cost 8,000 jobs in the construction industry.
According to the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), with 10 jobs created for every €1 million spent on capital projects, the latest exchequer figures represented a missed opportunity for the government to stimulate economic activity by providing vital infrastructure.
“This volume of capital investment has the potential to sustain 8,000 construction jobs for a year. The bulk of this year’s direct exchequer investment will be spent on projects already under way and, in most cases, completed,†said CIF policy and research director Martin Whelan.
“But our analysis indicates that sufficient replacement contracts are not being prepared or rewarded, and the figures showing capital spending are almost 24% behind profile reinforce this,†he added.
Tales from the tabs
There’s more fall-out from Wednesday night’s disastrous Guns N’ Roses concert at the O2 this morning as the Irish Sun reveal that hothead Roses frontman Axl Rose threw a punch at concert promoter Denis Desmond when the MCD boss attempted to get him to go back on stage.
Rose and his band left the stage only a few songs into a gig for which they had already appeared over an hour late after being pelted with bottles, some apparently containing urine, from angry fans. The band eventually came back out and finished their set but the incident has left many with a bitter taste in their mouth.
That anger is bound to be fuelled following revelations from ‘an insider’ quoted in the paper as saying, “Axl did get physical with Denis backstage and there was also a heated exchange between the two of them as he wanted to leave the building altogether.
“He shaped to him and threw a punch but Denis remained calm. Denis told him in no uncertain terms that he was obliged to get out there and deliver a performance to fans.
“As far as Denis is concerned, he is a puppy dog in comparison to what he used to be like in his heyday so he just shrugged it off,†he added.
The Ray D’Arcy show celebrated its tenth birthday yesterday and marked their milestone show by recalling some of their favourite memories from over the years.
The Star pays tribute to the affable jock this morning by publishing some of the aforementioned memories. JOE’s own personal favourite relates to the story of a woman who called the show in an effort to find the man who impregnated her after a wild night in the infamous Copperface Jacks nightclub in Dublin.
Ray, Jenny and co got on the case and eventually found the culprit and managed to bring them together. Heartwarming and all as the story is, however, we wouldn’t recommend that Ray continues down that particular road too often, as given the reputation of the nightspot involved, we can only imagine that there are hundreds of single mothers out there who can’t find the fathers of their own little copper-babies.
The Sports Pages
All of this morning’s papers are united in saluting Ireland’s Keith Fahey after the Birmingham midfielder scored the only goal against Armenia in the Euro 2012 qualifying opener in Yerevan yesterday evening.
The Star make a decent effort with ‘By the skin of our Keith’, which amply reflects just how difficult a task it was for Trapattoni’s men, while The Irish Sun let themselves down a little with ‘Fahey’s a jolly good fellow’, possibly with the idea that readers would pronounce Fahey’s name (Faw-hee) which seems to be the trend amongst commentators across the pond.
In any case, while it wasn’t pretty, Trap’s boys came away from a difficult venue with a good win and are in good stead ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Andorra at the Aviva Stadium.
The other big news this morning is that Henry Shefflin will indeed start tomorrow’s All-Ireland final against Tipperary, completing a remarkable recovery from a ruptured cruciate ligament sustained against Cork less than a month ago.
The Sun redeem themselves with the headline ‘Hen Picked’ in relation to the story, while also revealing that fellow injury doubt John Tennyson will start in place of broken finger victim Brian Hogan at centre back.
Most of the experts in today’s papers are predicting that Kilkenny will win and go on and complete a momentous five-in-a-row, including the Irish Independent’s Cyril Farrell, who believes that the Cats’ seven heavenly virtues of power, pace, poise, precision, pattern, persistence and perception will lead them to victory.
An ever-improving Tipperary side shouldn’t go into the final without hope, however, as one of the game’s most famous names, the outspoken Ger Loughnane, believes that the Premier County can upset the odds tomorrow.
Loughnane writes in The Star: “The comeback against Galway was something special, the kind of thing that makes a team and drives them onto greatness.
“Their recovery from the Pairc Ui Chaoimh disaster in late May has been the making of them, wiping away any notions of grandeur and hardening them mentally to the realities of sport. They are now a genuine force and, despite having weaknesses, they are more importantly a really genuine team.
“Strange things sometimes happen in finals, so against all the odds, I’m going for a Tipp win.â€
