Dated 13^th March 2007

Weekend rugby results –

Ireland beat Scotland 19 points to 18 points in a hard battle with Ronan O Gara scoring all the points and almost strangled during a loose ruck in the last few minutes.

England defeated France by 26 points to 18 points and Italy defeated Wales in the other game. Ireland has won the Treble Crown and trail France by seven points in the championship race. Next weekend Ireland play Italy, France play Scotland and Wales play England in the final series. Ireland had four players seriously injured at the weekend and three of them are very doubtful to play next weekend.

Motorola announced the loss of 330 jobs in Cork last week.

Sit com star John Inman (71) has died. Starred in ‘Are you being served’ and his catch line was ‘I’m free’. May he rest in peace.

Some people around for a visit including

- Ken Gunning for a short break from Jersey Island

- John and Debbie Luker over for a visit from England.

- Ethel Price on a visit from Kerry.

- John Killeen, the brother, home for Saint Patrick’s Day from New Jersey.

The Shelburne Hotel in Dublin reopened to the public yesterday after a 90 Million facelift. By account most of the well known items such as the Horseshoe Bar and Staircase are as they were.

The Cheltenham Racing Four Day Festival runs from Tuesday to Friday this week.

The government have plans to have 1/3 renewable electricity by 2020.

John went for a walk to Raghrabeg on Monday evening and found many primroses in bloom. Also some wild strawberries and a few unknowns. He was delighted to hear so many birds singing on his trip.

An Irish radio station called Newstalk Radio or Radio News talk gives ongoing news items with headlines on the half hour. Ray Walshe was telling us about it but he did not know the frequency. Maybe a Google search might have it. Ray finds it interesting for lots of things.

Temperatures today were about 13 C. Yesterday there was some type of rain practically all day. This morning it was clear with sunshine and the week is promised good apart from some rain on Thursday.

The free paper Athlone Advertiser has a few cocktails for Saint Patrick’s Day like Irish Eyes, The Irish Trinity, Dublin Handshake, Wild Irish Rose and Irish Head Lock.

See March 9^th on Page 18.

Irish Eyes contains –

1 shot of Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey

Dash green crème de menthe

Two shots of double cream

Shake with ice, strain and serve.

Find the others.