The Front Pages
Only one story and one man dominates the broadsheets today and you’ll know who we’re talking about, unless you’ve been living under a stone. The headlines:
‘Cowen drink-in: the inside story’ – the Irish Independent.
‘Cowen says FG claim against him new low for Irish politics: Taoiseach attempts damage limitation after interview’ – the Irish Times.
‘Cowen: I was not drunk’ – the Irish Examiner.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s excuse for sounding ‘halfway between drunk and hungover’ (the words of Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney’s Twitter post) on a Morning Ireland radio interview yesterday was that he gets a little hoarse in the morning. Amazingly, it had nothing to do with the fact that he was drinking, singing and telling yarns in the bar at the Ardilaun Hotel in Galway as the Fianna Fáil think-in came towards an end.
Cowen refuted the claims from Coveney and a comment from Fine Gael Finance spokesman Michael Noonan who said the Taoiseach’s interview was uninspiring.
Once he miraculously overcame his vocal problems yesterday afternoon, Cowen found his voice to brandish the claims made by some of the shadow government as “uncalled for†and a “new low for Irish politics†at a press conference where he attempted to joke about doing more early morning interviews.
Tales from the Tabs
Singer George Michael was left in tears yesterday after he was sentenced to eight weeks in prison for crashing his Range Rover under the influence of cannabis.
The former Wham! superstar was locked up in Pentonville prison last night despite his barrister’s desperate pleas for leniency in court yesterday.
He was told he would serve four weeks behind bars, then the rest of his sentence out on licence, according to the Sun.
A visibly shaken Michael burst into tears in his court cell after he was sentenced.
The Sports Pages
It was an injury so horrific that TV networks covering the Champions League match didn’t show any replay of the incident. Of course, we’re talking about the moment when Manchester United’s Antonio Valencia went down under an innocuous challenge from Rangers’ Kirk Broadfoot and players from both sides immediately realised the seriousness of the problem.
Man United were held to a goalless draw with Rangers last night at Old Trafford but the more worrying sight for Alex Ferguson was Valencia’s injury as his left ankle twisted at a horrible angle.
