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Blues show they are Derry City’s equals

The past seven days have been somewhat of a rollercoaster for Linfield. Their Setanta Cup campaign came to a painful end, their Irish Cup semi-final tie has been thrown into further doubt, while they also took another massive step closer to regaining their Irish League title.

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Breadheads spoil a day in the country

PICTURE in your mind an image of the average litter-bug and you’ll probably see a city smoker carelessly discarding a cigarette end or a cigarette box; a motorist emptying the litter from his car on to the road at traffic lights; some schoolkids tossing their lunchtime drinks bottles by the wayside.

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Gonna nae dae that, pal

CHANGED days indeed and most peculiar, mama, as John Lennon might have put it. Time was court reporting was one of the last bastions of old-fashioned, proper reporting. No lies, no bells, no whistles – all you could report was what was said and that was it because, well… because you’d get into a world of trouble if you did anything else

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Cider house rules

40P PER unit of alcohol seems to be the target Health Minister Edwin Poots is aiming for in his battle to beat the bingers. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on what side of the gable wall you’re standing on – the legislation probably won’t be in place until next year as it will take until the autumn at the earliest, according to the Minister, to draw up legislation that “can’t be challenged”.

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Testing the nuts and bolts of national mores

Do you miss David Trimble? Me neither. I interviewed him once a long time ago. As I waited, he moved around the UUP headquarters in that nervy way he had, softly whistling (no, not The Sash’, some classical piece, perhaps an aria from an opera, but definitely nothing common).

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Sporting invites make for a good start

Getting on the whirlimagig at City Hall has been much more geographically challenging than my first outing back in the late eighties.Then I represented West Belfast and I insisted on getting my passport stamped and nosebleed tablets delivered before I ventured into any other part of our great city.

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