11/07 The Sunday Papers

Wow, the Sunday papers tell us bankers lie and lawyers are greedy. Plus, Oxegen mud, Gerry Ryan: The Movie and World Cup final referee protection.

The Front Pages

It’s a double dose of – you guessed it – Nama on the front of the Sunday Independent.

Separately based on a survey and investigative journalism, neither contains much in the way of good news, as one might expect.

Under the headline “Over 60pc of banks ‘lied’ over Nama loans”, we’re told of a new survey commissioned by the paper in conjunction with Quantum Research in which a majority of the public reckon the banks were telling porkies to Nama when it came to the capacity of developers to repay their toxic loans.

Bankers and lies? Tell us something we don’t know. Astonishingly, it did come as a surprise to Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh who, we’re informed, believed it was “an extraordinary surprise”.

Sharing the front page is another Nama story about the transfer of loans to “property syndicates involving some of the country’s wealthiest doctors, lawyers and several members of the judiciary” to the asset management agency.

The amount of the loans? A not insignificant €11bn, which will be included in the third tranche of loans to be taken over by Nama next month. The first group of loans totalling €15bn and relating to ten of the country’s biggest builders, was taken over by Nama in April and a second tranche (from other developers and worth €13bn – we feel like we’re picking numbers out of thin air, for all they’re worth) will be transferred by the end of July.

Speaking of the sound of money going down drains, the main story in the Sunday Times is “Lawyers for Moriarty claim €25m”.

We’ve read as far as the first sentence before reaching for the sick bucket. “Lawyers working for the Moriarty Tribunal have been submitting pay claims for six- and seven-day working weeks at a rate of up to €2500 a day,” it tells us.

Over the past 13 years, senior counsels Jeremiah Healy and John Coughlan have been paid €9m each. Thankfully, though, that figure includes VAT. The wealthy triumvirate, if that word can be used in relation to a group which includes a woman, is completed by Jacqueline O’Brien, who will be horrified to learn that gender imbalances are alive and well in the Irish judiciary. She’s only raked in €6.5m, apparently.

Tales From The Tabs

The front-page story on the Irish Daily Star Sunday, beside the headline “Monster’s Ball”, promises “amazing new footage of suspected serial killer [Larry Murphy] at wedding as fear grips hometown ahead of jail release.”

The 45-year-old, a convicted rapist who has been the lead suspect in the disappearance of three women in the south Leinster area in the 1990s, is due for release next week.

Just inside the Star Sunday, there’s a two-page spread about the mud-splattered Oxegen music festival at Punchestown Racecourse in Co Kildare, including a great picture of Florence, the eponymous heroine of Florence + The Machine, being carried off stage by minders, ostensibly to keep her precious little toes clean and dry. Festival fit, indeed.

Also in the Star there’s a story about Gerry Ryan: The Movie. A housewife was secretly collaborating with the late RTE broadcaster on a film about his life. The extroverted 53-year-old had been due to see the final draft of the script days before he collapsed and died at his Dublin apartment in April.

Marilyn Kearney, from Kilnaleck, Co Cavan, is determined to press ahead and film the script, which Ryan was said to have loved.

The Sports Pages

While not on the sports pages there’s an interesting piece in the Irish Daily Star Sunday about Howard Webb, the English referee who will take charge of Sunday night’s World Cup final between Holland and Spain.

Webb, 38, will have the entire force of the police on his side for the game of his life – because he’s a boy in blue too.

The paper tells us that a senior police source in Johannesburg said, “Obviously any referee for a World Cup final will be closely guarded but because Mr Webb is one of us he will get extra special attention. Police always look after their own and it would be a terrible embarrassment if anything were to happen to Mr Webb while his safety was in our hands.”

Hmmm. Or, rather, ho-hum.

Dion Fanning in the Sunday Independent is clearly hoping for a Spanish victory at Soccer City stadium in Soweto. “If it is van Bommel’s destructive talents or the hard running of Dirk Kuyt that are the most influential factors in a Dutch triumph,” he writes, “then Spain and the lovers of football to whom Vicente del Bosque dedicated their semi-final victory will be distraught.”

Another different angle to the World Cup final is the story on the back of the Star suggesting Wesley Sneijder, Holland’s number 10 who will be attempting to add the World Cup crown to the Champions League and Italian Scudetto he won with Inter in May, is keen on a move to Manchester United, who have been linked with a £25m move for the 26-year-old playmaker.

Into hurling, and the Sindo tells us that Waterford are sweating over the fitness of star man Eoin Kelly ahead of the Munster hurling final against Cork, which takes place at Semple Stadium at 4pm today.

You can follow that game, plus the Meath-Louth Leinster football final, with our GAA MatchTrackers from 1.30pm.