Daily JOE

The Royal Wedding predictably dominates the rags this morning, while the atmosphere builds ahead of the Heineken Cup semi-final and the National Hurling League final.

The Front Pages

Not surprisingly, the Royal Wedding dominates the headlines today after millions gathered to watch the union of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at Buckingham palace.

The same photo of the newlyweds sharing a kiss is plastered across the front of both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times this morning and it seems as if we weren’t the only ones that were quite sick of all the coverage of the most anticipated nuptials in many a year.

While Kate and Wills shared their first post-wedding public pecker on the palace balcony, young bridesmaid Grace van Cutsem, a god-daughter of Prince William, is seen flashing a quite profound frown and covering her ears in disgust (see picture above).

We feel your pain Grace!

Alongside the quite breezy coverage of the Royal Wedding on the front of the Irish Independent is a headline that will dump us back down to reality straight away.

‘Tougher budgets on way’ doesn’t need much of an explanation, but it turns out that the Government will have to borrow over €25 billion over the next four years as the growth forecast in last December’s budget was, predictably, a tad more optimistic than it should have been.

Of course, it is the taxpayer that will have to pay the price with reports suggesting that future budgets in the years 2013-15, which were already expected to be arse-clenchingly tight, will be even more severe than first expected. Super.

Similar doom and gloom is reported in the Irish Times, alongside a report detailing how the Quinn Empire plans to strike back. According to the paper, the children of Sean Quinn, who endured a pretty dramatic fall from grace earlier this year, are planning to take legal action against Anglo Irish Bank, looking at the validity of Anglo’s decision to lend the family €2.3 billion to buy shares in the state-owned bank.

Sean Quinn himself is not thought to be involved in the proceedings, nor is his daughter Ciara, the only member of the family not caught up in the business. The rest of the clan are firmly involved, however, and are also thought to be considering taking action against the Financial Regulator Central Bank, a matter that is currently being considered by the family’s legal team.

The Sports Pages

‘Revenge mission’ is spelt out in big capital letters on the back of the Irish Independent this morning, clearly emphasising that there is more on Leinster’s agenda than simply defeating the most successful team in Europe when the Toulouse juggernaut rolls into the Aviva Stadium this afternoon.

Guy Noves’ side dumped Leinster out of the competition at the same stage last season, but with Leinster looking a lot fresher than they did 12 months ago added to a (virtually) clean bill of health and home advantage, the Blues are heavily fancied to make their second Heineken Cup Final in three years.

The Indo’s chief rugby scribe, Hugh Farrelly, thinks that the defensive prowess of the hosts, rather than the obvious talent in their back division, will see them overcome the French side in what should be a cracking afternoon’s entertainment in Donnybrook.

The other big event on these shores this weekend is the meeting of an inexperienced Dublin outfit against a hardy Kilkenny side well used to big days in Croke Park in the Division One National Hurling League final.

Controversial pundit Babs Keating feels that there can only be one outcome on the day. Writing in The Sun, he says that the competition for places in the Kilkenny team is so great that nobody in black and amber can afford not to be firing on all cylinders at headquarters.

Even without the great Tommy Walsh, Keating feels that the Cats’ greater experience of these occasions will be a massive factor and that Cody’s men will prevail by five or six points.