12/09 The Front Pages

The Sunday Times runs with ‘Higgins favourite to run for president,’ which is the story that the Labour Party’s Michael D Higgins is the favourite to win his party’s nomination for next year’s presidential elections. The other candidate is Bernardo’s chief executive Fergus Finlay. The newspaper contacted ten Labour TDs last week, seven of which said they would support Higgins, while three were undecided. None said they would support Finlay.

The Sunday Times also has ‘Protest at Ground Zero,’ which is the story that the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks were overshadowed by protests over plans to build a mosque near the site of where the World Trade Center stood. Radical Christians in Wyoming, Kansas and Tennessee are also planning to burn Korans in public, despite Pastor Terry Jones calling off ‘International burn-a-Koran-day’ in Florida.

In the Sunday Independent is ‘Nama developer bash sparks rage,’ which is the story that a company controlled by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett will get €633,000 a week off the taxpayer for the next five years, despite not being in the Nama top ten.

The newspaper also runs with ‘O’Dea call to Cowen: face up to by-elections,’ where ex-defence minister Willie O’Dea has called on the government to run the three outstanding by-elections, as “sufficient time has elapsed”. He also attacked the Green Party, claiming their “tweeting politics insults the public’s intelligence.”