The Week Ahead

Monday
Daily Mail leads with headline ‘RIPD’

Louis le Broquy’s 92nd birthday – the artist unveils a simple computer programme that can reproduce his portrait style after he’s gone.



Second installment of RTE’s Bertie. Meticulously researched on wikipedia, with interviews of Drumcondra intimates for colour. The first episode took us from 1977 – 1989 and ‘revealed’ that Mr Ahern was ambitious from the get go, went with the anti-drugs semi-vigilante vibe in his constituency and cut his negotiating teeth as Minister for Labour. Music by Yann Tiersen adds depth and feeling to clips of Ireland before the boom.

Mr Ahern, who has reviewed books for the Irish Independent (on Man Utd) and the Irish Times (on Jack Lynch), and who has hosted Up for the Match, listens to supporters’ concerns that media bias may be a stumbling block to his bid for the Presidency.

Tuesday

Czech President Vaclav Klaus takes a break in his State visit to dine with Declan Ganley in the Shelbourne. John Drennan and Brendan O Connor hang around the bar, wondering what Aengus Fanning will make them write about next. The word ‘lurching’ is sure to be in there somewhere. Barry Egan drifts in.

Wednesday:
95 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer. Mary Harney reveals she never believed in the PDs.

Rupert Murdoch reveals headline of the year for 2011: ‘Shortchanged.’ It will lead a searing indictment of Barack Obama’s first two years as President.


Thursday: Articles ‘informing’ us that ‘Obama’s biggest is test yet to come’ continue to be published.

Gerald Kean is interviewed on Prime Time about comments he made in the Sunday Independent. The celebrity sollicitor feels the Government is ‘terrifyingly out of touch’ with the electorate and that the standard of hygiene in Irish hospitals is poor.

Kean also peddles Haughey nostalgia (CJH had creativity, you can’t knock that) – a bold contrast to the Ahern nostalgia (we wouln’t be in this mess if Bertie had a been here…the medical cards would never a happened for one) currently doing the rounds.

Mark Little earnestly lists the similarities and differences between Obamanomics, Cowenomics and ergonomics. The world financial crisis, according to Little, is ‘as complex as the Gordian knot.’

The Mullingar Accord launches an attempt to transfer Obama’s message of change to an Irish context.

Friday:
The indignation and solidarity that Roth, Rushdie, Coetzee, Marquez and Pamuk feel about the Kundera ‘affair’ peters out.



Sean Dunne annouces plans to build another 37-storey tower, this time in the Garden of Remembrance. Earnest debates begin – is a public park really the most appropriate place for such a development? Dunne assures locals that Remembrance Tower will bring 5,000 jobs to the north inner over the next six years. He admits to a personal wealth of € 477m, and to owing the banks €624m, but doesn’t ‘see that as a problem.’

Saturday & Sunday:



Tens more books are reviewed in all the newspapers. Topics include:

the struggle for liberty & justice at any time in human history
the messy birthplace of the modern intellectual world (place chosen by author)
the obscenification of everyday life
the fratious and febrile year of [choose year]
more ‘magisterial’ biographies
the Third Reich