Detective who played himself in "Love/Hate" forced to immigration job

Love/Hate detective forced into immigration job

The police detective who portrayed himself in the popular Irish TV drama "Love/Hate" has been forced to take a transfer to the gardaí's (Irish police) immigration department.

Garda Kieran O'Reilly, who played an undercover drugs officer in RTE's smash-hit "Love/Hate" – his actual position within the force prior to filming – must now take up a role within the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB).

The decision was reportedly made by Garda management after concluding that the detective's position as an undercover drugs agent had been rendered untenable given the fact that his identity was now known to effectively the entire country, including the organized crime gang members O'Reilly had been tasked with catching.

Members of the force are also reportedly unhappy that the detective may have leaked some of the force's real-life surveillance methods to boost the program's realism, although this is fiercely denied both by O'Reilly and the show's producers, who say that the script had been finalized before the Garda joined the cast.

O'Reilly, a plain-clothes officer formerly affiliated with the Garda National Drugs Unit (GNDU), believed that as the force's internal rulebook did not have any explicit guidelines outlawing portraying members' jobs on TV programs or other fictional works that he would be allowed to continue in his job after filming had concluded.

However, Garda management has taken a decidedly frosty attitude towards O'Reilly's burgeoning acting career from the outset and issued the detective a formal verbal warning last November.

The 35-year-old was told that if he did not seek a transfer from the unit within two weeks that he would be forcibly transferred to another department.

The garda's seniors were reportedly aggrieved that the role depicted by O'Reilly in the program was too similar to his real-life job and that some of the techniques shown in the program had not come into the public domain before.

Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, ordered an internal inquiry into the detective's role, although legal advice taken by O'Reilly had indicated that the force would not be able to force him into another department as explicit regulations prohibiting the acting were not in place.

O'Reilly had then expressed fear that he would be suspended from the force, which he said would be traumatic for him and his young family.

Friends have said that the former detective is "devastated" by the forced transfer.

Chinese 'trafficking victim' found dining on crab and red wine

Chinese trafficking victim spotted
dining on red wine and crab

A Chinese national who claimed he was the destitute son of a peasant farmer, and a victim of human trafficking, was spotted dining on expensive red wine and crab -- while clutching a pricey iPhone at an opulent Dublin function.

The unusual revelation made by prosecuting counsel to the High Court last week was another unexpected twist to the as-of-yet unnamed man's strange odyssey in Ireland, according to the Irish Independent.

The 36 year old was appearing in court on drug related charges after police raided a Dublin property where cannabis was being grown in volumes sufficient for supply.

The man's unusual line of defense to the charges began when he then told authorities that he was forcibly locked in the raided property as a victim of human trafficking and was completely unaware that the plants he had been supposed forced to water were, in fact, drugs.

He claimed that 'snakeheads' -- Chinese gangs often operating human trafficking cells in Europe -- had smuggled him into the country to force him to tend towards the growing of the cannabis stash at the bust Henrietta Street grow-house.

The man claims he became involved with the criminal operation after his father had taken out a loan a year prior which he became unable to pay back in time.

After physical and death threats to his family ensued the man became tempted to earn and remit abroad - he claims most of his earnings have been sent back to China to provide for his family and help discharge the debt.

Initial transport was arranged by the gang from Hong Kong to Ireland where after a brief period working in Chinese restaurants around the country the man became involved in organized drugs crime.

His lawyers have claimed that the State is  failing to provide its basic legal safeguards towards the alleged trafficking victim by prosecuting him for an offence carried out under duress of the gang -- a provision they claim is guaranteed at European legislative level.

However, Kieran Kelly SC, prosecuting the case for the State, admitted photographic evidence of the accused enjoying gourmet meals at hotel functions in Galway and Dublin, suggesting that the man's liberty of movement may not have been as curtailed as he claimed.

The evidence was found on the accused's iPhone photo bank which was seized by police during the raid.

The case has been adjourned until Wednesday.

Competitive eater Randy Santel eats his way around Ireland

Randy Santel, competitive eater.

One of the world's foremost competitive eaters, Missouri-born Randy Santel, capped off a tour of Ireland and Europe by demolishing one of the country's largest fry-ups yesterday morning.

Tony's Bistro's largest breakfast offering was no match for the former college football star who finished the mammoth meal in a new record of just 47 minutes - beating by well over an hour the previous record of over two hours and ten minutes.

The feat topped off a month spent travelling around Europe in which the professional eater participated in a huge variety of food challenges, including all of Ireland's most notoriously large fry-ups.

A previous outing in Cavan has seen the food star finish  10 rashers, 10 burgers, 10 eggs, 5 white puddings, 5 hash browns, and 10 slices of toast.

The 27 year old drew coverage in the Irish Times for his unusual competitive techniques at a food challenge in Kildare, which saw him mashing french fries into a paste to aid the digestion process.

Other luminaries in the world of competitive eating sport their own idiosyncratic techniques: the Japanese-born Takeru Kobayashi is famous for his trademark wiggle, which he claims frees up space in the stomach to help him cram down more food.

Randy's European odyssey, the 'Atlas vs Europe' tour, is believed to be one of the first times the American-dominated 'sport' has come to European, and Irish, shores.

In addition to the successful Cork outing, Randy successfully finished mammoth quantities in of food in Athlone, Waterford, Dublin, and Campile, failing a challenge only once in Belgium, where two burgers got the better of him. The other twenty European fixtures were, without fail, successes.

American professional eating is noted for its relative professionalism, with a tiered ranking system, high profile contests, and increasing number of 'professional', full-time, eaters, but the sport has been less enthusiastically adopted in Europe.

Randy is one of the sport's poster boys: a frequent fixture on the Food Network's Man vs Food, he has won over 140 food challenges, and maintains the domineering figure of a professional athlete through a rigorous exercise regime, something which undoubtedly fuels the prodigious metabolism needed to match his astronomical calorie intake.

Despite the glamour and glitz of a life lived in the public eye, Randy gave a candid insight into the ups and occasional downs of his alternative lifestyle.

Commenting on his Facebook page, Randy told of how one challenge in Waterford had gone less well than planned:

"The restaurant apparently has a Facebook wall of fame but nobody even watched or took photos."

"Tonight was the first time I have had to take a selfir for the after-pic," the eater lamented.

Limerick men caught red-handed digging drug money from field

Men caught digging drugs up from field.

A convicted drug dealer was caught red-handed by police as he flicked through money he had just removed from a field.

Elite gardai found the 53 year-old trying to dry the notes in a tumble dryer after using a mechanical digger to take them out from their hiding place six feet below a field near Castleconnell in Limerick.

The cabin the man was found operating in had drying and packaging equipment, although police are unsure how long the sum of money – which amounted to €1.25m ($1.72m) – had remained under the soil.

The sting followed a major drugs surveillance operation which resulted in the arrest of another accomplice, who was found close to the site of the heist.

The two, who are in their 40s and 50s, were being held under money laundering and terrorism legislation at Henry Street garda station in Limerick; one has since been released.

A garda source told the Belfast Telegraph that police believed the operation was long premeditated adding that the field was probably "the most valuable" in the country for a long time.

Police spent two days trying to count the cash, some of which was also found in a container on the farmland.  Much of the money was saturated as a result of being under the ground for such a long time.

The find was the culmination of a major five-month police operation into the drug supply in the Limerick area that saw cooperation between a major drug-fighting unit and local drugs police.

The criminal had previously been sentenced to six years in prison after being caught with 14 kilograms of marijuana in Limerick city in 2000.

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), which is charged with investigating and seizing the proceeds of crime, has said that it will attempt to claim the sum if enough evidence can be gathered to prove the case.

Prominent Irish politician in social media slip with "MILFS of the Day"

Fianna Fail TD Michael McGrath makes risque Facebook gaffe.

Prominent Irish politician and opposition finance spokesperson Michael McGrath was lighting up Twitter over the weekend after a status update announced his fondness for an adult Facebook page was inadvertently posted through his own official social networking account.

McGrath's Facebook page posted an update announcing his like of the 'MILFS of the Day' account shortly.

The page has over 83,000 likes on the social networking platform and features softcore pictures of older women in erotic poses.

The story was covered on popular Irish news website Broadsheet.ie shortly after it was broad to their attention.

The news also prompted a thread on popular political discussion forum Politics.ie where one user speculated whether the Cork TD would blame the mishap on "a passing comet interfering with his computer."

Reaction on Twitter ranged from amusement at McGrath's extra-political interests to outrage that the status had been posted through a Facebook page he reserves for dealing with constituent matters and other political affairs.

McGrath is particularly active on Facebook and other forms of social networking, but the only remaining evidence of that presence this afternoon was a saved cache after the page was hastily pulled down following the slip.

No reaction has been forthcoming from the senior Fianna Fáil spokesperson this afternoon.

The embarrassing ordeal will likely give other Irish politicians pause for thought about their engagement with constituents through the ever-growing social media channels, where minute changes to privacy settings can mean the difference between broadcasting an update to tens of thousands of 'fans' or keeping it quietly to yourself.

Research published this summer showed that 146 of the parliament's deputies were active on Twitter to varying extents, with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams emerging as the surprise top-dog, commanding a following of over 37,000 users on the network.

The research also found that the incumbent Fine Gael party was the leading user of the platform, with 100 percent of its TDs maintaining an active account.

Half of Irish 30 somethings have tried marijuana but disapprove of drunk driving

Half of all respondents used
soft drugs

Almost half of Irish thirty somethings have tried marijuana and other soft drugs, a new survey has revealed, although numbers were far lower for harder illicit substances such as heroin and cocaine.

The 'Ireland's Thirty Somethings - Living on the Edge' poll also surveyed approval ratings for a number of traditionally frowned-upon behaviors such as drunk driving and pre-marital sex, as well as current issues such as same sex marriage and gay rights to adoption.

In a sign of changed times, drunk driving was found to provoke the strongest moral disapproval rating, with an average disapproval rating of 9.1 (out of a maximum ten), while pre-marital sex was the least offensive to those surveyed.

While almost half of all respondents said that they had 'dabbled' in soft drugs, such as marijuana, only 14% had experimented with harder substances, such as heroin and cocaine.

There was little support for the decriminalization of all drugs, a proposition which just 18% of those polled said they would support.

Strong support was also evident for gay marriage with three quarters of respondents responding affirmatively when asked if the institution of marriage should be extended to same sex couples. However, only 66% of respondents were supportive of affording such couples the right to adopt children.

More than 40% of respondents believed that there were currently too many immigrants coming into the country.

On religion, only 55% of those surveyed said that there were members of the Catholic Church and two thirds of those asked would have their children baptized. However, almost one third of respondents - 28% - said that they had never attended a religious ceremony in their lives.

Despite soaring rents, 84% of those polled said that they expected to own their own house or apartment if they didn't already do so.

The poll was carried out by market research firm Behavious and Attitudes on behalf of the national radio station Today FM and the Sunday and Irish Independents and surveyed approximately 1,000 randomly sampled individuals between the ages of 30 and 39, according to a report in the Kildare Nationalist.

Further installments of results from the survey will be published during the week.

Dublin Web Summit puts Ireland at center of the tech map

Fourth Dublin Web Summit sees throngs of tech glitterati and power
brokers in Ireland's capital

Few events, or glossy Enterprise Ireland brochures, could have sold Ireland as well as last week's Dublin Web Summit.

This year's show was amazingly only the fourth installation of the event – now regarded as among Europe's leading technology conferences – but that would have been almost impossible to tell judging by the throngs of tech glitterati and power brokers dotting the floors of the RDS.

The project is the brainchild of the dynamic Paddy Cosgrave, who at 27 has achieved what others can probably only dream of doing in a life-time.

Cosgrave took center stage to join Prime Minister Enda Kenny on stage Wednesday to open the NASDAQ stock exchange from Ireland for the first time in history, but otherwise remained fairly well-hidden during the event, orchestrating a massive operation that involved dozens of paid workers and volunteers.

The speakers' list read like a "Who's Who" of the tech and investment worlds, and was the perfect opportunity for Kenny to wax lyrical about the massive potential of Ireland's vaunted startup scene, which now stands up to comparison with other major tech clusters such as London, Silicon Valley and Israel.

The fitting conclusions to the event saw Kenny discussing with billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk -- one in a business suit, the other, tellingly in leather jacket and jeans -- which saw the young Musk advise Kenny that the time for third levels feels, at least in certain disciplines, had drawn to a close.

"For technological companies, you need engineers," Musk said, articulating as pithily as possible the crux of Ireland's knowledge economy problem.

"[So] maybe engineering could be tuition free or something like that," he proposed.

Beyond the center stage, hundreds gathered to see the vast array of startup companies that had traveled from the four corners of the world just to get a glimpse of the action in Dublin.

Multimillionaire investors rubbed shoulders with young startup founders barely finished their time in college, with an untold amount of investment deals (and free coffee drinking) going on everywhere. The atmosphere was electrifying.

Never ones to miss a chance to plug the Emerald Isle, Bord Bía, the primary financial power behind Good Food Ireland, an industry group representing Irish food producers, wowed attendees with a vast tarpaulin-full of free, local delights, with the best of local cheeses, hams and other delicacies on offer for attendees hungry for a free lunch.

For three to four days in Dublin (depending on how many pre and post Summit festivities attendees deigned to cram in to their trip), all notions of a recession or brain drain were cast out of the equation.

Buoyant positivity – the inevitable follow-on from hours spent listening to inspirational speakers and tech-geeks delighted to share their next game-changing idea – was the order of the day, with a healthy dose of belief in all things Ireland and Irish thrown in there for good mix.

What started as a "crazy" idea in a young techie's mind four years ago blossomed into something extraordinary.

Perhaps the same process of self-belief coupled with hard work can rub off the tech industry's glittering wings on to the broader economy.