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Taking the needle

THERE’S that drip again. It’s like a malfunctioning tap only the drops aren’t falling into a cold, hard sink – they’re falling into Squinter’s head. Again. Perhaps he should explain. For more years than he cares to remember, Squinter has been plagued with sinusitis, which we won’t go into too deeply here, except to say it is the blockage of a series of passages inside the head and surrounding the nose.

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Dad’s Army is to go back to billet

THEY’RE scandalised in England about the fact that the army wants to put surface-to-air missile units on blocks of flat near the Olympic Stadium in London in order to thwart any nasty Al-Qaeda types planning a spectacular attack on this summer’s Olympic Games.

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Sounding off about a fine state of affairs

JUST 14 fixed penalties were issued by Belfast City Council in the past year, even though they received over 6,000 complaints. Most people reading this would be able to identify 14 people within a hundred yards of their home deserving of a City Hall fine.

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Still holding out for a hero

YOU all know Diamond Dan, don’t you? He’s the child-friendly face of the Orange Order who appeared out of nowhere a few years back to herald the birth of Orangefest – a vision of the Twelfth without the tattoos and

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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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Lock us up and swallow the key!

I was in Donegal at the weekend and I asked a man how he planned to vote in the south’s up-coming referendum. “Well,” he told me, “ if Sinn Féin say no about something, I say yes”.

Big man of GAA celebrates in style

Veni, Vidi, Vinci . I came, I saw, I conquered, was the powerful message sent back to Rome by Julius Caesar when he won a war in Zela (currently known as Zile in Turkey. After spending two days with the Gaels of Glengormley, Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh might well have sent a similar message back to headquarters. Throughout the two days he won the hearts of all who met him as he demonstrated his love and passion for the Irish language and Gaelic games.

That’s not the way to do it as summer nears

THERE’S nothing funnier for children to watch than a long-suffering wife getting battered with a cudgel by a short-tempered violent husband – or so you’d think if you watched a seaside Punch and Judy show.

Blues make it a double

Linfield replicated their end of season celebrations from 12 months ago as they lifted their second trophy in the space of a week, defeating Crusaders 4-1 in Saturday’s Irish Cup final.

My marathon highs and lows

HIGHLIGHTS 1. Sheltering in City Hall with marathon veteran from New York Fr Brian Jordan — chaplain to the trade unions of the Big Apple — before the 9am start while thousands were getting drenched outside waiting for the Lord Mayor Niall Óg to sound the starting horn (gun for off apparently decommissioned).

Who calls the shots in Europe?

I enjoy elections. I enjoy them so much, I was delighted when the Fianna Fáil wheeze of introducing electronic voting machines backfired, leaving them (and the taxpayer, of course) with machinery that couldn’t be used and cost a packet to store.