13/06 The Sunday Papers

The future is bleak for Enda Kenny, there are two villains in sport and the perfect way to end your marriage – all in Sunday’s Morning JOE.

The Front Pages

The broadsheets are interested in only one thing this Sunday morning – the future of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenna, who could be ousted early this week following the latest damaging opinion poll.

“FG revolt as knives come out for Kenny” – Sunday Independent

“FG rebels may trigger heave against Kenny” – Sunday Tribune

“Kenny faces leadership challenge” – Sunday Times

The revolt has been sparked by Friday’s Irish Times/Ipsos/MRBI poll which showed that Fine Gael had fallen behind Labour in the views of the public.

Enda Kenny is “facing into arguably the most important week of his leadership of Fine Gael”, says the Tribune. The Sindo quotes one unnamed “frontbench TD” as saying, “Fianna Fáil has shed 25 points and clearly we haven’t picked up one of them.”

Kenny’s chances of survival are rated “50-50 or worse” by one of the Tribune’s sources and the game could be up within 48 hours, with Richard Bruton, who has been conspicuous by his silence in recent days, set to assume the leadership as soon as he declares an interest in it.

The Independent has another front-page story which caught the eye: “‘La Dolce Vita’ is over, warns Nama”.

Apparently seven out of the first ten business plans furnished to Nama by major developers have been rejected by Nama, with concerns focusing on the level of “management fees” included. These fees, the report claims, would include direct payments to the developers, many of which would go towards financing the lifestyle to which they became accustomed during the boom.

One developer who has downsized the high life is Paddy Kelly, who has “moved out of his mansion in Dublin’s Shrewsbury Road to a more modest address in the capital in the hope of obtaining financial support from Nama”.

There’s an interesting twist to the Rachel Corrie story according to the Tribune, who have an interview with the vessel’s first mate Derek Graham. He alleges that during his time in Israeli custody he was shown “photographs of several members of the group clearly taken in Ireland”, effectively meaning that Mossad or other Israeli agents are currently operational within our borders.

Sports Pages

The front pages are all in agreement on the main stories of the day and it’s a similar situation in the sports supplements, where there are joint-villains of the piece.

England goalkeeper Rob Green and Ireland rugby player Jamie Heaslip are the men in question after the most damaging moments of their professional careers.

The Sunday Times and the Irish Daily Star Sunday have both gone for headlines of “Green fingers” after the West Ham goalkeeper’s horror moment in England’s World Cup opener against USA.

Green, who allowed Clint Dempsey’s weak, speculative, bouncing shot to elude his grasp as England were held to a 1-1 draw in Rustenberg, joins a long list of England World Cup pariahs which includes Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce (Italia ’90), David Beckham, David Batty (both France ’98), David Seaman (Korea/Japan ’02) and Wayne Rooney (Germany ’06).

So shockingly memorable was Green’s error on Saturday night that it’s likely that will be demonised even more than the rest of that group, with his name destined to become synonymous with England failings at major tournaments.

Closer to home but further away, Heaslip has been singled out for blame by all the papers following his red card in the Test match against New Zealand in New Plymouth.

The Leinster number 8 became the first Ireland player to be sent off during the professional era after two indefensible knee offences against prone All Blacks captain Richie McCaw. Ireland conceded 66 points, including nine tries, in one of the most unforgettably forgettable days in the history of Irish rugby.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Times reports that the tour is over for John Muldoon, who sustained a displaced fracture of his forearm, while Mick O’Driscoll is a major doubt for the remaining games against New Zealand Maori and Australia after his back went into spasm.

Tales From The Tabs

There’s an interesting slant to post-Celtic Tiger Ireland in the Daily Star Sunday, which reports that high-street department store Debenhams has devised a “Divorce Gift List” – which will “guarantee divorcing couples get the break-up gifts they deserve”.

The report continues: “The new list is a toast to unhappy couples across Ireland and allows exes to pick the ideal pressies to suit their newfound singledom.

“Forget about dividing the assets – draw up a Divorce List and let your family and friends do the buying.”

Whatever next.

Also in The Star, the author of a banned book on England striker Wayne Rooney has spoken out in defence of his work.

Rooney’s Gold, written by BBC journalist John Sweeney three years ago but the publication of which was postponed due to legal threats, has been banned by UK firm WH Smith.

The book details Rooney’s home-place of Croxteth in Liverpool, an Irish Catholic area which “has been beset by drugs and gangland style murders”.