Page 11 - John Downing News Today

Recent events in the Middle East were front of mind for some.

“Hey, the Pope is visiting your country,” the elderly Dutchman called across the bar, in English spoken with that distinctive American burr many people in the Netherlands learn via American television soaps, which are subtitled and never dubbed. “I know – that’s why I’m over here, smoking dope,” was my smart aleck reply.

It’s long forgotten that Mary Harney once advised the Green Party that “your worst day in government is better than your best day in opposition”.

Ursula von der Leyen has taken up residence in the firing line amid the European Union’s messy and divided response to 10 days of murder and mayhem in Israel and Palestine.

In a bar on a side street in Vienna the other night, I met the first person I had ever personally encountered who was ready to unabashedly say: “I support Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.”

NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT – Get Free Report) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Monday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $0.60-0.62 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $0.54. The company issued revenue guidance of $195-197 million, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $223.56 million. NetScout […]

The Polish people vote tomorrow in the most important general election since they ended those dreaded decades of Soviet dominance in 1989. The ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) is chasing an unprecedented third consecutive term, but many EU leaders will hope their popular former European summit chairman, Donald Tusk, can close the 5pc gap shown in polls and return to the prime minister’s office he last occupied in 2014.

In my first year in Dublin, I paid €800 a month to rent a tiny box room. I had found it so hard to find somewhere that in the beginning I even felt lucky to pay that amount.

For his first full Budget, Michael McGrath got to wear the metaphorical Santa Claus suit as he lashed out money in tax cuts and welfare increases, including an impressive series of once-off giveaways. It prompted a question about the Cork Fianna Fáil TD – could this also be his last Budget? I mean, this Government could cut and run for an election before the next one.

If he is ever mentioned at all these days, one of Ireland’s longest-serving finance ministers, Dr James Ryan, is likely to be cited as great-grandfather of the current star Irish rugby lock of the same name.