THE IRISHEXPRESS

COLLEGEMONDAY9 FERUARY 2015

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Blind bursts hammers

Valentines on the cheap

Paul Murphy Td & his three amigos banged to rights

By Mags McHugh

Socialist Party TD Paul Murphy has been arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment by gardaí investigat-ing an incident involving Tánaiste Joan Burton.The Dublin South-West TD is one of four people arrested over the incident, which happened three months ago. FULL STORY: PAGE 2

Hozier Hits the Red Carpet

Disaster struck on the Ballinmore to Swanlinbar Road yesterday evening in Co. Leitrim. A young man of 18 years old tragical-ly lost his life as his car collided with another at approximately 7pm. FULL STORY: PAGE 2 By Anthony Neville

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 News 2

Ms Burton was trapped in her car in Tallaght for more than two hours by water charge protesters.

She had been attending a gradua-tion ceremony at An Cosán College in Jobstown when her car was sur-rounded by protesters who banged on the car and chanted slogans.

Mr Murphy was arrested on sus-picion of false imprisonment.The four, aged between their 30s and 50s, are being detained at a number of south Dublin garda stations, including Tal-laght, Terenure and Crumlin.

Mr Murphy is being held at Ter-enure Garda Station, where he can be questioned for 24 hours.

Socialist Joe Higgins has this morn-ing been in the process of visiting the Garda stations where the pub-lic representatives are being held

He said, “The arrests of AAA TD Paul Murphy, councillors Kier-an Mahon and Mick Murphy

and a fourth person who remains to be identified to us as we go to press is a cheap attempt to deni-grate and weaken water charges movement as we approach make or break time - bills coming out and need for mass non-payment.

“This is the product of a ‘crim-inal’ investigation involving six Gardai and an ‘incident room’ in Tallaght since November. Numer-ous local people and activists have been interviewed over that time during which the investigating Gardaí have constantly enquired about Paul Murphy’s connection with the events of 15th November.

Ordinary people in Tallaght and everywhere else will see this as way over the top and a disgrace-ful and criminal waste of Garda time and resources. At the time of publication, two men have since been released from custo-dy in relation to the four arrests.

Mags Mchugh & Peter Hickey

TD in striped pyjamas arrested under the moonlight

Today at a press conference in Bushwells hotel, Joe Higgins gave a statement on the incident. Accord-ing to Joe Higgins who describes himself as an activist said “people like him and Paul Murphy had a restraining influence, where it not for them the situation would have got completely out of control”.

An activist by the name of Frank O’Donaghy said “while there were violent incidents they took place after the protest had ended. There are people living in a de-prived area like Jobstown who al-ready have issues with the Gardaí separate from “Water charges”.

The water charges were de-scribed as a Fine Gael Prod-uct which had been bought into by the Labour Party. “They have lost the plot” he declared.

Furthermore Joan Burton was no Joan of arc. People simply want to be heard. He went on to say that she should not come to Tallaght expecting to be treat-ed like a hero. Some of the peo-ple who attended the Gradu-ation took part in the protest.

At the time of publication, two men have been released from a Gardai in dublin. Paul Murphy has been released from custody.

2 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 News 3

Ex-counciller Pleads Guilty to Soliciting MurderRuairi O’ Hehir

Former Fianna Fail councillor, Gary O Flynn has pleaded guilty to soliciting three counts of mur-der at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. O’Flynn, 39, pleaded guilty to solic-iting a named person to murder Gar-da Mary Skehan, Revenue official, George Ross, and accountant, Patrick Sweeney at Mallow Road between October 2012 and Febuary 2013.

The court heard that O’Flynn was re-ceiving constant medical assistance for a range of psychological prob-lems. Free legal aid was granted to the 39 year old, who the court heard had no current payable employment.

He did however disclose that he received a settlement of €5,000 from a British newspaper over a defamation case but he had squan-dered this money on legal fees.

The disturbed politician is un-der constant care of a psychia-trist, the court was told. Judge Ó Donnabháin explained that exten-sive medical reports would have to be examined before sentencing.

The cold blooded councillor did not apply for bail before Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin who remand-ed the qualified solicitor in cus-tody until sentencing on April 22 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.The ‘wannabe’ killer served as a Cork City councillor from 2003 until 2008, taking his father’s former seat with his borther, Ken, replacing him.

Noel O’Flynn served as a back-bencher in the Dail and famously criticised Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen over party leadership. He was first elected as a TD in 1997 and served for 14 years. The fa-ther of murderous Gary O’Flynn

did however disclose that he re-ceived a settlement of €5,000 from a British newspaper over a def-amation case but he had squan-dered this money on legal fees.

The disturbed politician is un-der constant care of a psychia-trist, the court was told. Judge Ó Donnabháin explained that exten-sive medical reports would have to be examined before sentencing.

The cold blooded councillor did not apply for bail before Judge Sean Ó Donnabháin who remand-ed the qualified solicitor in cus-tody until sentencing on April 22 at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

The ‘wannabe’ killer served as a Cork City councillor from 2003 until 2008, taking his father’s former seat with his borther, Ken, replacing him. Noel O’Flynn served as a back-bencher in the Dail and famous-ly criticised Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen over party leader-ship. He was first elected as a TD in 1997 and served for 14 years.

The father of murderous Gary O’Flynn also spoke out against cur-rent party leader, Michael Martin, accusing him of not supporting his son Ken’s bid for the Seanad in 2011.

Putin Plays With PeaceFurther economic sanctions hang over Russia ahead of Peace talks on Wednesday.French, German, Ukrainian, and Russian delegates are to hold peace talks in Minsk on Wednes-day in a “last chance” that at-tempt to avoid a full scale war.

Following conferences in Moscow and Kiev on Thursday and Friday of last week, German and French leaders have made their decision to hold the talks. Francois Hollande explained to a French radio broad-caster that this was “one of the last chances” and that he and Merkel would be “proposing a demilitarised zone in the current conflict areas”.

Economic sanctions have been slapped on Russia over the last year following the crisis in Crimea. Both Putin and other Russian officials in-sist that there are no Russian troops occupying the Ukraine, but instead Crimea joined Russia “willingly.”

Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister retaliated at the laughter from other delegates in Munich regarding his plea about Crimea, he stated that, “You can laugh at this, if you find it funny ... I found many things [said here] funny as well, but I controlled myself.”France, Germany and the U.S have expressed a mutual feeling that the conflict in the Ukraine cannot be solved using military means, but instead threatened further damage to the Russian economy.“I cannot imagine any situation in which improved equipment for the Ukrainian army leads to presi-dent Putin being so impressed that he believes he will lose militari-ly” Merkel expressed in Munich.

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 News 4

Yanks celebrate Irish beef re-turn to US MarketAnthony Neville

Reports confirm that Irish beef is on sale in the US from today.

Celebrations are in order as Irish Exports will hold events in three major cities in the States this week following the re-turn of Irish beef to US shelves.

For over 15 years, US govern-ment had banned beef imports from the EU after the outbreak

of BSE ‘mad cow disease’. Starting from the 9th of Feb-ruary Irish beef is official-ly accepted for sale in the US.

Minister of Agriculture Simon Co-veney is leading a trade mission across New York, Washington D.C, and Boston, with a series of high public events planned for each city.

Coveney expresses “this vis-it to the US represents a huge opportunity to promote Irish beef in one of the most val-uable markets in the world”.

“Irish beef is the choice of some of the world’s leading chefs with over 80 Michelin star chefs in Bord Bia’s Chef’s club.

Their endorsement tonight will provide further evidence to the US audience that Irish beef is unique in terms of favour, taste, texture and tenderness”.

The mission of these visits was planned to “build on momen-tum generated by the US an-

nouncement last month that Ire-land is the only EU member state approved for access there.”

Along with Coveney and Bord Bia, Irish companies will set sail to the US to launch their cam-paign for swank trade buers and

US food publications in New York this evening. The event will see an enormous range of trendy inter-national chefs who will endorse the premium quality of Irish beef.

The other events that are planned for Washington DC and Boston are planned for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Better Internet To-getherTommy Joyce

Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien Eng-lish TD launched Safer Inter-net Day in Dublin Castle which will be celebrated tomorrow Tuesday 10th of February 2015.

This is an EU wide initiative to pro-mote a safer Internet for all users, especially young people. This will be the twelfth year of the event and this year’s call to action is, ‘Let’s Create a Better Internet Together’.

The Minister said “Children are go-ing online at an increasingly young age with much of this activity tak-ing place on personal devices and unsupervised. In this context, it is important that we implement educa-tional strategies in primary schools which promote empowerment, criti-cal thinking and respect for others.”

Minister English was nervous during his speech and at one stage he indicated that he is 36 year old and has a son in fifth class. He then corrected himself and then said that his son is five years old and the school he attends is try-ing to teach him to use a mobile phone. It is obvious that all par-ents are concerned about their children and the internet, but hopefully we all are more aware of what our children are up to.

4 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 News 5

Teen killed in Leitrim ClashAnthony Neville

The young man was the own-er of the car that struck tragedy about four miles from Swanlin-bar at the town land of Lissacairn.

He was swept away to Enniskillen Hospital following the horrific in-cident. He was pronounced dead in the early hours of this morning.

Two females were also pres-ent in the car with him but have been releases from Enniskillen Hospital with minor injuries. Gardaí have closed off the road for technical examination for fo-rensic collision investigators.

AA Roadwatch has is-sued the following statement through their Twitter page.

New Info Hub for Dublin TourismAnthony Power

Falite Ireland today officially opened a new cutting edge Tour-ism Information Office which will be the first port of call for visitors to Dublin.

The Minister for Transport, Tour-ism and Sport Paschal Dono-hoe T.D pointed out “Dublin is received well over 7 million in 2014, but could be better in the coming years”. He was at the Of-ficially Opening of new Tourism Information Office Located at 25 Suffolk Street Dublin 2.

The features of the information Hub include the inspiration wall –a spectacular large-scale video wall presenting especially com-prehensive photographs from around Dublin.

The Social Media Wall- another large digital display showing all the social media posts and tweets tagged with love Dublin and fill-ing the wall with the visitor’s own images and experience of Dublin.

The App Wall where key smart-phone apps are promoted and al-low visitors to download a range of great new apps, including the Wild Atlantic Way app, the tools they need to sample and explore.The other futures are what are On’ Area and Ireland Area whole rage Digital posters and vision images of Dublin.

Ms Carroll pointed out, new Visit Dublin website highlights a city where there is always something happening right now”. She also said the site will promote the

great value for money that is available out there through the addition of Special Offers for restaurants and tours.

Falite Ireland would also soon be launching a social media centred on real Dublin experiences.The Grow Dublin Tourism Alli-ance has been established under Falite Ireland

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 News/Courts 6

There was no record that Gra-ham Dwyer had left work early on August 22nd, 2012, the day of Elaine O’Hara’s disappearance.

A jury at The Central Crim-inal Court has been told.Siobhan McEvitt who is a man-ager at A&D Wejchert Archi-tects, Dublin, where Mr Dw-yer worked as an architect, continued to give evidence today.

Ms McEvitt agreed that records showed that he appeared to have worked a normal eight- hour day, which usually began at 8:30am.Ronan Kennedy BL for Mr Dw-yer asked if the record showed that his client had been in the of-fice on 22 nd August, 2012. “I have no means of verifying it…but it looks like he worked a nor-mal day,” said Ms McEvitt.She agreed that according to re-cords that Mr Dwyer had worked a 40-hour -week, in the week ending August 26th, 2012. She also said that he had worked an eight- hour day on August 23rd.

Mr Kennedy asked Ms McEvitt if she could vouch whether or not a person was in their office, and that there could be some errors with the records. Ms McEvitt said that she could not personally vouch for em-ployees unless she “saw them, spoke with them, or dealt with them.”

Mr Dwyer was on holidays for three days in the week ending March 23rd, 2012, and he also went on holidays for one week from April 1st 2012 until April 8th 2012. The case continues.

Kevin Gillespie

Motorist Fined €275 For Passing Garda Check-point With No Car Insurance

A motorist was fined €275 by Dub-lin Circuit Civil Court today after having passed a Garda check-point without any car insurance.

Afolabi Efua, aged 30, with an address at Simmonscourt Road just outside the RDS, pleaded guilty to having no evidence of an insurance certificate at Lans-downe Road on October 29, 2014.

Garda Neil Hannaway announced before the court that he stopped Efua on the above date. The de-fence, Efua, was not disqual-ified from driving as per Jus-tice Elliott Holohan’s decision.

Cathal Kelly BL, who was sup-plied as Efua’s counsel, declared that his client had gone to Donny-brook Garda Station to produce her documents following the events.

Justice Holohan, then asked if she had insurance, to which the defend-ant’s counsel responded: “We’re pleading guilty.” Justice Holohan continued: “So she has insurance

then.” Mr Kelly then stated that his defense had been insured two days prior on her own car. And that “she was driving her hus-bands car when she was stopped.”

Efua stated that it was her un-derstanding she was covered to drive her husband’s car. Gar-da Hannaway then stated that Efua did in fact turn back after having passed the checkpoint.

He added: “It was my belief she knew she wasn’t insured.” Mr Kelly pushed that Efua’s husband is a student in Paris. He added that Efua receives €380 weekly through social welfare payments for both herself and her two children.

Justice Holohan fined Efua €275 as a result of having no evi-dence of insurance though did not impose any driving ban.

Kim O’Leary

Graham Dwyer Tri-al: No record of leav-ing work early on day Elaine disappeared

6 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Entertainment 7

This Valentines DayCiaran Coffey

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching and the purse strings getting tighter and tighter it’s no surprise that people are looking for cheap but fun places to bring their significant others. So here at The Irish Express we have decided to bring you five of the best on the cheap!

1. Maybe you’ll feel like you’re living the plot of Grease, but drive ins are without a doubt a great idea. They are fun quirky original and above all memorable, even better you don’t have to worry about both-ering anyone else by talking too much or using your phone, bar your date of course. Prices start at €16 per person – the novelty costs extra.

2. Dublin Zoo is definitely a winner for me and my SO. There’s something you can’t get anywhere else watching the lions roar and the penguins play. You can get lost there for hours exploring all the different nooks and hidden places the zoo has to offer. It’s definitely one of the most fun places to go! Prices start at €14.30 for an adult.

3. Ok so this one’s my favourite, you hear people saying they will do pub crawls but what about a museum crawl? I know yes they are not everyone’s cup of tea but think about it, what’s better than a museum? It’s quiet, intimate, creates conversation (even if it is just I hate the museum!) and it lets you get to know a person bet-ter than anywhere else really, and the best part they are all free!

4. A great one and a classic too is dinner for two. Its intimate and it’s easy to make it customisable and unique! You can find out you Valentine’s favourite food and then play to your budget, there are plenty of budget restaurants out there they just need to be discovered! And if you want to really be cheap but incredibly romantic you can even make your own candle lit dinner, there are plenty of recipes to choose from just have fun!

5. And last but not least is the humble picnic, this is a great idea but only if you can catch the weather in a good mood. In my opin-ion this is more of an impromptu one as the weather is so fick-le but when done right it can be magical for both you and your SO.

Where to go...

Where not to go...1. The Cinema. Ok so I know what you’re thinking, it’s the cinema! It’s a classic! Yes I know it is but think about it, this is your first date, you don’t know this person you want them to like you, but how can that happen if you’re both just sitting there qui-etly not talking. To start a good relationship there needs to be communication and that won’t happen in the cinema.

2. 2. Your Own Home.This (I hope) is very self-explan-atory this is your first date and you want to make a good impres-sion. Dirty cloths lying around your house does not do that, this is a fine idea if you know the per-son but if you don’t know mat-ter how much you clean there is guaranteed to be at least one dirty sock you forgot about.

3. 3. A Sports Bar.This is one that should definite-ly not be done unless your know that your SO loves sports! No part of drunken, shouting, sweaty punters says romance. It’s not a good idea, just don’t do it. There are plenty of bars out there that are much nicer and more relaxed. The Mez in temple bar to name but one.

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Entertainment 8

The GrammysWhat Went Right...

Rania Sharif

Gwen Stefani is always a winner in the style stakes. She never fails to impress us with her edgy but glam-orous attire. This Versace jump-suit with an embellished eccentric design proved to be a winner how-ever we would have to see more of a pop of colour on the starlet.

Katy shone like a true star in this Zuhair Murad masterpiece. The singer was the main attrac-tion with her crystal embellished frock and her lilac locks com-plimented the look perfectly.

Jennifer Hudson showcased her stunning figure to the celebrity world by wearing a simple white Tom ford Dress. Although it was not show stopping enough for the Grammy’s, she proved to be a ‘Dreamgirl’ in this elegant design.

Taylor Swift does it again. Tay-lor is not doing so well in the love department at the moment, but she killed it last night in her Ellie Saab aqua blue gown.

8 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Entertainment 9

What Went Wrong...

Carla McEllone

Meghan Trainor was ‘all about that lace’ in a Galia Lahav num-ber. The 21 year old didn’t take the fashion prize home with this unflattering frock; the dress was way beyond her years. The goth-ic design did nothing to accentu-ate Meghan’s voluptuous curves.

Here at the Irish Express we aren’t too sure about this Giam-battista Valli Couture gown. Al-though we love the fun take on modern fashion, the cupcake like dress does nothing for Ri-hanna’s amazing figure. Rihan-na normally oozes sex appeal in her designs, but last night she de-cided to go to her prom instead.

Kim Kardashian arrived in what can be only described as nothing but a jazzed up bathrobe. Kim K certainly turned heads last night in this John Paul Gaultier frock with the extremely plunging neck line. Although she wasn’t a big hit with everybody, her husband Kanye could keep his hands off her all night.

Last night Madonna strut-ted the red carpet in this cus-tom made Givenchy outfit. Ma-donna never fails to shock the fashion world on the red car-pet with her eccentric style and last night was no exception with

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport 10

MERSEY SIDE BORE DRAWStephen Duffy

The 224th staging of the Mer-seyside Derby ended in Stale-mate at Goodison Park on Sat-urday evening. The game which in the build-up was dom-inated by it being Stephen Ger-rard¬’s 31st and potentially last derby overshadowed what was a very disappointing game

And it is Liverpool who will be more disappointed by the re-sult. Before the game Brendan Rodgers sprung a surprise with the inclusion of the young at-tacker Jordan Ibe making his first league start for the club. Liverpool in a good run of form coming in to the game extended their unbeaten run to eight games.

Both defences were largely on top in this forgettable encounter.

The game will certainly not go down as a classic in any way. Although with three of the previous four derbies ending in stalemate then a draw was the most likely outcome. Liverpool started the stronger and had plenty of the Ball, without creating many clear cut chances.

It was young winger Ibe who came close to breaking the dead-lock in the first half. The young forward took a ball wide on the right hand touchline , and with few options took on the Everton defence before smash-ing a 30 yard strike crashing off the left hand post with the Ever-ton keeper beaten all ends up

This was the closest ei-ther team came to breaking the deadlock in the first half.

The second half continued in much the same way as the first with Liverpool doing most of the pressing. Liverpool made numer-ous chances but unfortunately for Liverpool the chances of note fell to Raheem Sterling who looks like he left his shooting boots at home. Daniel Sturridge replaced Philippe Coutinho on 55 minutes but made little or no impact. It in fact took Everton until the 86th minute to register a shot on target. The game finished 0-0, with both managers claiming that they were happy with a point. Everton re-main in 12th position while Liver-pool, remain in 7th just 4 points off a coveted champions league place.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers: “Over the course of the game, we were clearly the better team. The balance in our game was very good. We switched off towards the end, in the last five minutes they had a counter-attack that led to their only shot on target.

“Apart from that, we defended very, very well and pressed the game well at the right moments and we looked exciting in terms of our threat going forward. We needed a bit of luck in the final third of the field, we had oppor-tunities both in the first half and the second half but just couldn’t quite take them. But it’s another clean sheet for us, a point away and we keep moving forward.”

Everton welcome local rivals Liverpool to Goodison Park in what could well be Steven Gerrard’s last Merseyside derby. Will he end his involvement in this rival-ry on a winning note?

10 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport 11

Irish’s Hopefuls in New Zealand and Australia Do - or dieShijan Monaiam

This year mega sport event means ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will be started from 19th Feb and final will be held on 29th march. In this mega event there will be at least fourteen teams that will compete with each oth-er. These teams are divided into two groups of seven each. 44 days of tournament across 14 venues, in two countries and 49 match-es altogether. Australia will play 26 matches in Brisbane, Canber-ra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The most the favourable team New Zealand will be held in Auckland, Christchurch, Dun-edin, Hamilton, Napier, Nelson and Wellington, according to ICC. The teams that are taking part in the ICC world cup 2015 are:

Ireland enters the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, as they improve their strategy in recent years, creat-ing their ability to play against the test nations. Ireland have a good chance to make history as they previously managed to beat Eng-land with a highest run chase in the last 2011 World cup in Bangalore.

Most of the teams will be on as the Irish team are highly capa-ble of beating the top teams. Irish teams are totally dependent on players like Porterfield, Ed Joyce, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, John Mooney, and Alex Cusack, who have previously performed in the world cup. The Irish also have the experience on what it takes to succeed in the world cup 2015.

On the other hand, next gener-ation Irish cricket star spinner George Dockers, who has an ex-tremely impressive bowling aver-age of 14.50, makes his debut in the one day international picked 5 wickets for 46 runs. Ireland made a dynamic start in the world cup journey 2007. They played against a trilling tie Zimbabwe at the Sabina Park in Kingston in Jamaica group D. In the next match they had defeated Pakistan by three wickets on the Irish St.Patrick day, putting the team into recognition by showing them it can also be an entertaining sport

Ireland is set to fire with a favour-able star Kevin O’ Brien. Ireland has experienced players such as William Porterfield and Ed Joyce.

The Irish bowlers are relatively in-experienced; can they put pressure on the Jamaican’s and defeat them in their opening match in February 16th against the West Indies? We find out in in Saxton Oval, Nelson which will be broadcasted live in 5th match of the World Cup 2015.

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport 12

Blind Burst’s Hammers BubbleJoseph Murphy

Danny Blind spared Manches-ter United’s blushes by scoring a last gasp equaliser yesterday. West Ham looked on course for victo-ry over the red devils yesterday as Cheikhou Kouyaté deservedly opened the scoring with a clinical finish in the 49th minute. The first half was totally dominated by the Hammers who time after time at-tacked the united defence without any luck and although Man Unit-ed looked dangerous on occasion they never really posed a threat.The game was turned upside down when Maroune Fellani was brought on to replace Ad-nan Janzuai in the 72nd minute which brought a more ‘direct’ ap-proach to the play of Man united which lead to Blind’s late goal. After the match West Ham manager Sam Allardyce slammed the Unit-ed’s style of play calling the reds a “long ball team’’Big Sam went on to say “You might criticise Louis van Gaal for playing long balls as much as ‘’fantastic’’

for dissent and later received a second yellow card after he impeded Stewart Downing as West Ham tried to catch Man united on the counter attack. Van Gaal’s team now lie fourth in the premier league and face Burn-ley at Old Trafford Wednesday.

second half display. However the Reds boss was critical of the first half performances and their lack of ability to win the second ball but claimed they were the better team after half time and could have snatched all three points. ‘’football along the floor and that we have done in the second half.”Another talking point at Upton Park yesterday was Luke Shaw’sred card. Shaw was booked in the 83rd minute

Ivory Coast beat Ghana on penalties and is African champions.Joel Muala

Boubacar Bary, keeper of the Ivory Coast was the hero of the final. Yesterday was the only match Bary had played during the African Cup of Nations as a sub of injured Sylvain Gbohouo.The Ivory Coast now hold the title of the champions of the African Cup of Nations. The “Elephants

“ were beaten in the final by Ghana 9-8 on penalty kicks after a nil all draw in 120 minutes of play. It is the sec-ond title of the Ivoirians, who won the tournament in 1992 against Ghana, also a mara-thon penalty (11-10 at the time) The final of the 30th edition of CAN put face to face two..

major of African powers in world football. Two selections signed with credits earned but not the competition for several years: 23 years for Ivory Coast, 33 to Ghana. The first and only vic-tory of Ivory Coast dated 1992,curiously, wins Ghana. Have the Ghanaian group, which boasts four African titles in the curriculum, not.

12 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport 13

won the competition since 1982. The “Black Stars” were still try-ing to untie the final in his fa-vour: in the previous final eight, had lost four and won four oth-ers.The Frenchman’s success as coach of the Elephants makes him the first man to win the title with two countries.If the first half had been few chances, the second part was a desert of ideas. Both teams were more concerned with not losing than in winning. Nevertheless, it was Ghana who had more in-itiative. Christian Atsu was one of the most informed. Extreme created the main danger bids Ghana in the second half, with its plucked the right. The stars of the Ivory Coast were very off, which did not allow the “Elephants “create danger.

In the next half hour to tune game has not changed. Ghana, always better, was trying to give some excitement to the final but the Ivorian defence was solving prob-lems. Already the Ivory Coast was more concerned with not losing than winning, it was nec-essary to appeal the penalties to meet the winner of the 30th edi-tion of the African Cup of NationsIt had looked like the Black Stars might end their 33-year

wait for a fifth Cup of Nations ti-tle when Ivory Coast missed their first two spot-kicks - Manchester City’s new signing Wilfred Bony hitting the crossbar and substi-tute Junior Tallo dragging wide with his first touch of the game.Boubacar Barry became the new hero of the Ivory Coast. Replaced the injured Gbohouo and on penalties,defended the shot colleague Razak Brimah and then scored the penalty that gave the title to

“Elephants “Kolo Toure says goodbye to international football with the coveted title of African champions.

HBO give green light to Mayweather/Pacquiao showdownJoseph Murphy

Although nothing has been officially finalised, the fight every boxing fan wants to see could be on the cards. Media gi-ants HBO and Showtime have ironed out all the details and have agreed on broadcasting rights.The much anticipated fight seems like it could happen on May 2nd. The owner of HBO seems con-fident that they can pull it off. Speaking to abcnews.go.com, top rank chief Bob Arum ex-plains the situation “We had four issues and we resolved two”.“Now we’re working on resolv-ing the other two. Unless some-thing else comes up at the last minute, that’s what my take is”.Both fighters have suggested they want the fight to happen after the pair met publically at a NBA game a couple of weeks ago. The two Pound for Pound gladiators met again shortly after when May-weather met up with the Pacman in his hotel to discuss further details.Many boxing pundits along with ex pros expect the fight to be announced in the near future.

Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport 14

DUBS RUMBLE PASSED DONEGALBy Aidan Crowley

The rival managers down-played the edginess of Saturday night’s Division 1 clash between Dublin and Donegal after a flash of brilliance decided the outcome.The stakes were higher than in last year’s meeting between the same two sides in the All-Ire-land semi-final, but there was still plenty of needle between the two sides which showed in the hard-edged exchanges. Mostly, these incidents didn’t amount to much but Dublin’s Kevin McManamon was red-carded for two bookable offences, while Don-egal captain Michael Murphy was fortunate to escape without even a booking for a late challenge on impressive Dublin centre-back, John Small, in the second half.

Referee, Maurice Deegan award-ed Dublin a free but didn’t issue a caution, meaning that Murphy is set to dodge retrospective ac-tion from the CCCC as the match official dealt with the incident there and then. Murphy never finished the game, however, re-ceiving a late black card, with the match out of Donegal’s grasp, thanks to a Jack McCaffrey wonder goal, minutes earlier.The game’s tetchy nature was underlined by the fact that four injury-enforced sub-stitutions were made in the opening twenty minutes. Murphy put Donegal in frontwith a well-taken point after19 seconds and by the time the first minute had elapsed, Dublin goalie, Sean Currie,

19 seconds and by the time the first minute had elapsed, Dub-lin goalie, Sean Currie, was the only player in his halfof the field as Donegal retreated. Dub-lin were forced to work hard for their scores but they didn’t leave much space for Donegal to pierce their defence, unlike last August.A nicely-worked goal from Cor-mac Costello in the fifth minute,

put the Dubs a point up and they kept their noses ahead from there on, going out at the break, ahead, on a 1-5 to 0-7 scoreline.When McManamon was sent off in the 45th minute, following a challenge on Mark McHugh, Dublin held a two-point lead and were struggling for scores from play. With 25 minutes remain-ing, and with the bonus of an ex-tra man, the game seemed to be there for Donegal’s taking but they failed to seize the initiative.

McCaffrey’s introduction in the 49th minute

, helped to spark Dublin into life. He scored a point within seven min-utes of coming on and after a fur-ther seven minutes, he showed his electrifying pace. leaving murphy trailing in his wake and applying a superb finish into the top corner.It extended Dublin’s lead to five points and they were never like-ly to be caught from there on.

14 Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport

IRISH GLADIATORS ROMP IN ROMEBy Aidan Crowley

Ireland kick-started their Six Na-tions campaign with a convincing win over a lacklustre Italian side in a crunching borefest, on Sat-urday, in Rome. The hero for Ire-land was outhalf, Ian Keatley, who racked-up an impressive nineteen of Ireland’s twenty-six points.Ireland head coach, Joe Schmidt acknowledged the importance of opening the Six Nations series with a win but he also admitted that the overall display fell somewhat short of the mark. Schmidt pointed out that new tournament favour-ites, England, had set the standard the previous night when they nar-rowly defeated original favour-ites, Wales, in a gripping clash, at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.

“I’d say between 20-30 per cent off. I don’t think we would have lived with them. I thought Wales were pretty good, so for us we certainly need to up our game”, said Schmidt, afterwards. Up next, for Ireland is a Valentine’s Day visit from France to the Avi-va, who also started this year’s campaign with a bang, defeat-ing Scotland 15-8 in Paris.

Ireland were minus four key players, with Johnny Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy all out of action and Sean O’ Brien also crashing out because of a bizarre pre-match warm-up inju-ry. The return of the high-profile quartet could help scratch the idea that the Irish challenge in Rome seemed somewhat below par. The tone was set in the first quarter, as the visitor’s

pack went into juggernaut mode. Keatley slotted a penalty af-ter seven minutes to set the tone

before he split the posts again on twenty-one minutes. He was on target again on thirty-seven minutes, giving Ireland a nine-point cushion. Just on halftime, Italy got off the mark, with their solitary score, when outhalf, Kelly Haimona posted a pen-alty, leaving it 3-9 at the break.

Ireland then lit the fuse, twenty-five minutes after the restart, with two well-taken tries in quick succes-sion, when, firstly, scrumhalf, Conor Murray crashed over and then openside flanker, Tommy O’ Donnell, breached the whitewashWith Italian hooker, Leone Ghi-raldini, in the sinbin, Keat-ley and sub outhalf, Ian Madi-gan added the extras, to ensure that Ireland’s Six Nations od-yssey has the perfect start.

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Irish Express 9 Feb 2015 Sport 16

Frost gets all clear after frightening fallJoe Murphy

Jump jockey Hayden Frost af-ter a horrific fall at Exeter yester-day which seen him airlifted to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

Frost who was riding Gris-som yesterday took a fall at the third last fence in the ‘National Hunt’ Novices’ Hurdle. bruising.

After the fall the jockey was knocked out for a small time and suffered a lot of

Frost senior, who trains the horse his son was riding on, was visibly shaken by the incident, he went on to say “It was a nasty fall, but he’s on his way home, everything’s clear, he had a pain in his thigh and they were worried it could be broken.

Once he got to hospital and they were able to do proper exami-nations, everything was fine’’.

When asked about his son’s possible return to the track he said, “Obviously he’ll have to take a little time off. He’s OK, that’s the main thing.”The meeting went ahead af-ter a 45 minute delay.

Goodbye ChampStephen Duffy

The racing world was left in shock on Saturday after record breaking champion jockey Tony Mc Coy, announced that he is to step down from the saddle in April.After notching up his 200th winner of the season on board the Paul Nicholls trained Mr Mole. The 19 time champion jockey with his 20th jump jock-eys title almost secure broke the news live on channel 4 racing. With over 4300 wins under his

professional in 1992 the champ decided it was time to hang up his saddle.After his win at Newbury on Satur-day Mc Coy ever the professional went to Leapordstown yesterday to ride 4/1 shot Carlingford Lough in a pulsating race the John Keighly trained runner under a typical mc coy drive stayed on well to beat the Ted Walsh trained Fox rock by 1 length to win the grade 1 contest.It was especially sweet for the champion jockey as the Hennessy was one of the only grade....

1 races to have eluded the mas-ter. It was extremely satisfying as it was the Jockeys final grade 1 ride at the Fox Rock track.An emotional Tony Mc Coy told Robert Powell after the Hennessy “This is a decision I have been thinking about for some time. It was something I told nobody about not even Chenelle. I called Dave Rodgers (agent) down for dinner and told him that this was my last season, and asked for his advice on breaking the story.

I always wanted to go out at the top and not be forced out by Inju-ry. The falls and injuries were be-coming harder to come back from. “I want to thank everybody for the mounts I was given and I promise I will ride all horses to the best of my ability until I hang up m

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