18/07 The Sunday Papers

Fine Gael targeted, an Eminem tribute to a tragic young Irishman and Gardai to press charges against Louth louts. All in Sunday’s Morning JOE.

The Front Pages

It’s another disappointing Sunday for Fine Gael as two of the main broadsheets lead with stories attempting to damage the credibility of Inda Kinny’s party.

Under a front-page lead of “FG taps ‘Nama 10’ developer for money”, the Sunday Independent tells us that the opposition party sought and accepted cash from one of the country’s most indebted property companies, the debts of which have been taken under the Nama umbrella.

Michael O’Flynn, Managing Director of O’Flynn Construction, provided €1500 in sponsorship money for a four-ball at the K Club resort in Co Kildare as well as an additional sum to sponsor the 18^th hole for the fundraising golf classic. O’Flynn Construction, the paper informs us, recently transferred debts of approximately €1bn into the National Asset Management Agency.

The Sunday Tribune, meanwhile, goes with a revelatory “Five days that expose the myth of FG unity”, pointing to three incidents over the past week which suggest that all is definitely not well in the party following the quelling of the recent leadership heave against Kinny.

John Deasy, the outspoken Waterford TD, said that it was “untrue” that the party was united, there was criticism from finance spokesman Michael Noonan of party policy and a social get-together of Fine Gael senators was described as “difficult”.

The paper quotes a senior Fine Gael TD as saying, “Of course there is division … the party is split down the middle,” although anonymous sources always detract from a story’s credibility.

Over in the Sunday Times, the focus is on Fianna Fail and an appearance by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan on the Sunday with Sam Smyth current affairs radio show on Today FM this morning.

The paper has apparently gained transcripts of the interview, in which Lenihan “hits at department under Cowen”. One would imagine that the Department of Finance was surely the most important government department as the country slipped into serious economic problems three years ago. Not so, according to Lenihan, who apparently suggests that the department lost power and influence at that time, when current Taoiseach Cowen occupied the role of Minister and Bertie Ahern still led the Government.

All of which suggests that this morning’s radio interview, which airs between 11am and 1pm, will be damaging to Cowen, so it should make for interesting listening.

Tales From The Tabs

In the Irish Daily Star Sunday there’s a story that will be of interest to any man who has been forced to mark time while the other half spends half the day getting ready upstairs.

Fake tan (for which Clonskeagh, it seems, is the Irish capital) is often one of the requirements for social occasions of any importance, but one of the country’s top designers has slammed Irish women for the amount of value they place on their orange-ness.

Peter O’Brien, a judge on TV3’s Style Wars who has designed for the A-Wear chain of women’s clothing retailers, said, “We need to tell young Irish girls that they’re pretty and attractive and they don’t need to disguise themselves as Winnie Mandela.”

He went on, “I’ve seen women with fake tan on who think they look like they’re from Brazil, but they don’t. They just look like they come from Clonskeagh in Dublin and have painted themselves orange.”

Also in the Star Sunday, there’s the touching story of star rapper Eminem’s tribute to a tragic young Irishman who succumbed to cystic fibrosis earlier this month.

David Smith, a 28-year-old from Naas, Co Kildare, had been in line to meet his idol at the Oxegen music festival at nearby Punchestown Racecourse last weekend before losing his life to the crippling illness.

During his headline set at Oxegen, Eminem paid tribute to David by saying, “I hope I don’t f*** this up but this next song I wanna dedicate to a very special person. He’s a little man from Ireland. His name is David Smith.

“He was supposed to be here tonight at this concert but unfortunately he passed away last night. So look man, I know he’s not here with us tonight but he’s here in spirit.”

The Detroit superstar then launched into a stirring rendition of “Sing For The Moment” while concert-goers raised cigarette lighters and mobile phones in tandem.

The Sports Pages

“Cool Hand Louis” – Sunday Times
“Still ahead of the pack” – Sunday Tribune
“Casey makes his move to the summit” – Observer
“Happy Deise For Dan” – Irish Daily Star Sunday
“Fergie stews over Lahm – and Dimi can bugger off” – Irish Daily Star Sunday
“Gardai close in on Croker prosecutions” – Sunday Independent

Many of the sports headlines relate to happenings at St Andrews golf course in Scotland where for the second day running South African nobody Louis Oosthuizen held his nerve while many of those around him were losing theirs.

Oosthuizen holds a four-stroke lead going into the final round of the Open Championship, following up rounds of 65 and 67 over the first two days with an exemplary 69 on Saturday. Oosthuizen will begin his final round at 2.05pm, four ahead of playing partner Paul Casey, with German Martin Kaymer next best, fully seven behind the 27-year-old world number 54.

The Irish Daily Star Sunday leads with events at a sodden Semple Stadium on Saturday night, where Dan Shanahan’s extra-time goal gave Waterford a 1-16 to 1-13 win over Cork in a tense Munster final replay.

The Star also suggests that Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will offer £30m flop Dimitar Berbatov to Bayern Munich in a bid to land Germany’s World Cup captain, right back Philipp Lahm.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Independent is concentrating on last weekend’s scenes from Croke Park, where referee Martin Sludden was targeted by several Louth louts and a steward was felled by a bottle thrown from the stands after the Wee County was controversially denied a first Leinster title in 53 years.

A number of Louth supporters are expected to be charged with assault and battery under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, and Gardai in Dublin and Louth are liaising to discover the identity of all those involved.

Not on the sports pages but one that will be of interest to GAA fans is a piece in the Sunday Independent about controversial Kerry star Paul Galvin, who has apparently been offered the chance to launch a TV career.

Galvin, a secondary school teacher in Killarney, could take a leave of absence from his day-job to become the latest member of TV3’s Xposé team, where the Sindo reports that he will replace Sean Munsanje.