The Front Pages
Here are some of the main headlines on the front pages of some of the national broadsheets today:
‘Sunshine can’t lift Yvonne’s dark cloud’ – The Irish Independent.
‘Minor county footballer dies in crash hours after match’ – The Irish Examiner.
‘Eircom to cut broadband over illegal downloads’ – The Irish Times.
The close-knit community of Rathfeigh in County Meath are still coming to terms with the tragic death of a popular and talented teenager from the area.
Liam Tolan (17) received fatal injuries yesterday when he was a passenger in a car which crashed into a ditch. Liam had played for Meath in the Leinster Minor Football Championship just hours prior to the accident.
The Irish Examiner’s description of the teenager’s performance for his county and the potential which he had shown makes the tragedy all the more heart wrenching. “The corner forward had scored a point and provided the opening for Meath’s goal in the first half.
Revelations of the extent of Ronan Keating’s cheating on wife Yvonne over the weekend did not deter her from getting out in the sunshine.
The Irish Independent says that “she walked under a dark cloud†despite temperatures soaring to 26C yesterday. Yvonne was snapped out and about with a brave face on but as details of a second affair leaked, linking husband Ronan to a second dancer while on tour, there seems to be a darkness prevailing.
Yvonne’s best friend, Lisa Duffy, wife of Boyzone band member Keith Duffy, has said that she is hopeful that the split couple could patch things up “in the endâ€.
The Irish Times delivers the news that Eircom are set to introduce a new system which will clamp down on illegal music sharing online.
Customers will have their broadband service cut off if they are found repeatedly sharing copyrighted music and will have three chances before their connection is disabled.
Ireland will be the first country in the world to use the “integrated response†system which will detect offenders through their internet protocol (IP) address. The measures have been taken after a court proceeding by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) who represents industry giants EMI, Sony and Universal and Warner.
Tales from the Tabs
Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, left England over the weekend in floods of tears and apologised for her shameful betrayal of ex-husband Prince Andrew which was caught on camera and exposed by the News of the World.
Fergie, who was filmed agreeing to “butter up†Prince Andrew for the bogus businessman in exchange for half a million pounds, broke down in tears at Heathrow airport yesterday after jetting in from a party in the French Riviera with daughter Princess Beatrice.
The Sun tells us that red-eyed Fergie waited for a flight to Los Angeles and a close friend described her as “devastatedâ€.
An old boyfriend of Francine Cornell, the dancer who caught the attention of Ronan Keating, has said that he knew that “she was always going to get to the topâ€.
Dancer Bob Harns, 27, claims in The Daily Star that he dated Francine when they were teenagers and that she left him “gutted†after it ended.
Francine’s former fling said that he expects the whole story surrounding the affair between Francine and Boyzone star Ronan has been exaggerated.
“It might just be that she and Ronan are good friends who hang around a lot together. She doesn’t have a bad bone in her body. I expect it’s all been blown out of proportion.â€
The Sports Pages
The Sun describes how Republic of Ireland international footballer Shane Duffy feared he would die after an injury in a training match.
The 18-year-old Everton defender collided with goalkeeper Adrian Walsh at the training ground in Malahide last Friday and the youngster lost 3.6 litres of blood after rupturing his left hepatic artery in the incident.
Duffy had emergency surgery and team doctor Alan Byrne said that the youngster genuinely feared for his life. “”Shane thought he was going to die and had received over 20 units of blood.
“On Friday night, we weren’t talking about football, we were talking about would this young boy survive, would he live?”
Meanwhile, in football transfer news it is reported by The Daily Star that Jose Mourinho could make a £30 million bid for Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard when he takes hold of the reins at Real Madrid but the star midfielder may only be second in line for the double Champions League-winning manager.
Mourinho has reportedly made Roma’s Daniele De Rossi his number one target but Gerrard, who has cast doubts of his Liverpool future, will be second on the shopping list.
