LENTEN
PUBLISHED IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY, MARCH 7TH 2010

It’s Lent, I suddenly remembered, as I drained the last of a bottle of wine into a glass and ensconced myself in front of the TV the other evening. Once a Catholic…The thought occurred that I ought be abstaining from alcohol, and entertainment, and sitting here in penitential sacking knickers silently contemplating my own mortality in the scheme of bigger things…or something. Read more»

MONEY
PUBLISHED IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY, MARCH 14TH 2010

Money, money, money, must be funny…Well true to the song, it’s made hilarious headlines recently. In the context of on going credit crisis havoc, the following financial revelations are a hoot! Hear the one about RBS, 84% owned by the British taxpayer? They’ve set aside £1.7billion for bonuses despite reporting £3.6billion pre- tax losses for 2009. 100 of their investment bankers will receive over a million pounds each, tee hee. Or ‘ere’s a funny thing I read on the way to writing this article – Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs CEO, is only getting a $9 million bonus for 2009! There had been rumours it would be $100 million! He got $67.9 million in their last bumper year – 2007! Boom, boom. In between of course there was that emergency Federal Reserve bail-out – But hey, they paid it back! It’s billions under the bridge by now. Read more»