Among the runners and riders tipped to replace Drew Harris as Garda Commissioner are a couple of decent runners, it turns out. Last weekend’s Dublin Marathon was a good PR exercise for Ireland’s finest, with about 100 gardaí competing, including four officers who flanked actor Colin Farrell as he ran for the charity Debra Ireland.
Also competing were two of the favourites to take over from Harris, who is due to leave in June after declining the offer of a further two-year extension to his contract.
Justin Kelly, the recently appointed deputy commissioner, proved he’s no slouch. He ran a sub-four-hour marathon, crossing the line in a creditable three hours and 59 minutes.
Also avoiding the doughnuts in recent weeks was Michael McElgunn, an assistant commissioner in charge of crime and security. He was even quicker, coming in at 3:49.
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Will it give him a head start in the race to succeed Harris?
Love/Hate dynamic duo working on Dublin crime film
When the television series Love/Hate finished a decade ago, director David Caffrey suggested he would be interested in directing a spin-off film if he could convince series writer Stuart Carolan to breathe fresh life into the characters. The pair subsequently worked on Taken Down, a 2018 crime drama about the murder of an asylum seeker in Dublin.
Now they have finally teamed up to make a film, with Love/Hate’s producer Jane Gogan also on board, although fans of Nidge, Fran and the rest of the low-lifes that populated the hit crime drama will be disappointed that they’re working on a different project. The pair were recently granted €35,000 in feature film development funding by Screen Ireland for a movie with the working title of The Witness, to be produced by Gogan’s Yellow Path Productions.
The movie will tell the story of Joseph O’Callaghan, the youngest person to go into witness protection in Ireland. At the age of 18, the Dubliner gave evidence that helped to convict two drug dealers for the murder of Jonathan O’Reilly, a rival gang member.
O’Callaghan’s story has already been told in a book by crime journalist Nicola Tallant and a podcast by Gogan’s production company but it sounds very much like it will work as a companion piece to Love/Hate.
Michael O’Leary has Robert Troy’s backing for land plans
Michael O’Leary’s recent purchase of a 253-acre farm near Collinstown led to him being dubbed “the Magnier of Mullingar” given how much land he has assembled in recent years around his Gigginstown Stud base. O’Leary, who is estimated to own more than 2,000 acres in Co Westmeath, denied on local radio earlier this month he was at fault for driving land prices up, placing the blame on dairy farmers instead.
But O’Leary is not without his supporters in the midlands. His property investment vehicle, Tillingdale Unlimited, is seeking planning permission for agricultural sheds and a silage pit south of Gigginstown but the council has raised a number of queries about the amount of proposed slurry and how many livestock he is planning to keep at the location.
Support has come from local Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy. The former minister of State wrote to the council last month backing O’Leary’s plans for the land in rural Balreagh. Troy is no stranger to buying up land around Co Westmeath himself – he had to resign his junior ministerial role two years ago when it emerged he owned 11 properties, more than he had previously declared in the Oireachtas Register of Interests.
No FOI from Micheál Martin’s meeting with Apple
During the summer Tánaiste Micheál Martin met Crispin Maenpaa, Apple’s head of government engagement, in Cork to discuss public transport in the region. It says so on the lobbying register. But a Freedom of Information request for a copy of records related to the meeting were refused last week by Martin’s Department of Foreign Affairs. Why the secrecy?
“The Minister attended the meeting that is the subject of your FOI Request in his capacity as a TD for Cork South-Central and not in his capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs,” the department responded. “Any records pertaining to this meeting are therefore constituency records ... which are not subject to the FOI Act.”
Funnily enough, there don’t seem to be any recent meetings between Apple and other Cork TDs from outside Government parties. Perhaps they are less interested in a critique of their business model by socialist Mick Barry.
Leo Varadkar needs to keep a lid on it
How has Leo Varadkar been keeping busy since stepping down as taoiseach earlier this year? In a new podcast with celebrity chef Mark Moriarty, who earned his chops working in restaurants such as Chapter One and the Greenhouse, the Fine Gael TD says he recently discovered the air fryer, although his death row meal would definitely involve ice cream, “the king of food”, according to Varadkar.
“It’s perfect for any occasion, if I’ve had too much to drink the night before it’s a great way to settle the stomach; a great way to finish off a meal; I’ve been known to have it as a starter as well as a dessert,” he told Moriarty’s Roasted podcast.
You would never guess his fantasy dinner party line-up. Asked to pick four guests, he plumped for Winston Churchill, “the hero of the second World War”; “Celtic goddess” St Brigid; Liz Truss, who is “apparently good fun”; and Freddie Mercury, with whom he reckons he would have loads in common, including their sexuality and Indian heritage.
Hopefully they’d all survive the meal. Two years ago the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had to put out a tweet reminding the public to place lids on foods being stored in the fridge after Varadkar posted a picture of his partner Matt’s meal prep for the week.
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