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CELEBRITIES WERE BACK in the Royal Box today as Wimbledon bounced back from a rainy midweek spell with sunshine and a packed schedule on day four.
Blue skies and 24C temperatures returned to the All England Club after a soggy Wednesday, with fans quick to swap ponchos for sunhats and take advantage of ideal conditions on court.
Among the guests in the Royal Box today were adventurer and TV host Bear Grylls and actor Rory Kinnear, who starred in the Netflix series The Diplomat.
Former Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden and comedian Clive Anderson were also spotted taking in the action on Centre Court.
Musician-turned-environmentalist Feargal Sharkey was seated alongside Dutch tennis legend Betty Stove, who turned 80 in April and famously reached three Wimbledon finals in 1977.
They were joined by a host of sporting figures including former England rugby coach Clive Woodward and English Olympic sprinter Donna Fraser.
Today, the stars were there to see Novak Djokovic face off against British Dan Evans on Centre Court, before Iga Swiatek takes on American qualifier Caty McNally.
Top seed Jannik Sinner took on Aleksandar Vukic of Australia on No 1 Court, followed by Mirra Andreeva’s match against Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti.
Later in the day, Maria Sakkari is scheduled to play 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, and British hope Jack Draper will face former US Open winner Marin Cilic.
Since the tournament kicked off on Monday, Wimbledon has been visited by a host of famous faces.
On the opening day, former England footballer David Beckham sat alongside former England manager Gareth Southgate.
Also in the stands were English actor Eddie Redmayne and Jason Isaacs.
And yesterday, Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl appeared to be having a great time as he watched the action.
Oh and of course there have been plenty of sightings of members of the British royal family.
With reporting from David Mac Redmond
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If only customs could put as much effort into stopping unvetted illegal migrants, it would be a great country
@Brian Molloy: my thoughts exactly but might be asking too much for that to happen.
@Brian Molloy: They can’t be ‘illegal’ until they’re vetted. They can’t be vetted until they’re here. Deportations were up in 2024 on the previous year. Laws and compassion are not always mutually exclusive.
@Brian Molloy: You lot had your chance during the election. “People are waking up”, we were told. “People have had enough”, we were told. “We speak for the silent majority”, we were told. In the end, the only people that were actually told anything were those spreading hate – they were told where to go.
@Maire Hicks: Unfortunately, these unvetted migrants (85% destroyed docunentation before arriving at Dublin Airport in 2023) will keep flooding in when we have our multi billion euro taxpayer funded woke NGOs like the Irish Refugee Council with stuff like this on their website:
”You can collect your PPS Number 4 working days after you applied for asylum at the IPO.
When you collect your PPSN, you can apply for a weekly payment of 113 euro.
You should also be able to apply for an additional needs payment of 100 euro”
3 months later after processing, when they are granted refugee status or leave to remain, they’re entitled to council housing/HAP and family reunification to bring the rest of the family, all paid for from start to finish by the Irish taxpayer.
@Staker Wallace: Ah, that good old ‘destroy documentation’ myth!! Their names, addresses, passport details, etc. are all on passenger manifest.
@Brian Molloy: There are 10s of 1000s of ‘unvetted’ Irish people living and working all over the EU. Is there a problem with this?
@Me Me: notice the working bit in your sentence. Well the ones coming here are not working , that’s the difference.
@tony hilton: They are all trying to work- unlike a lot of “natives”
@tony hilton: So then people should drop the ‘unvetted’ bit. Irrelevant?
@Sean Hayes: are you having a laugh? All trying to work my eye. We are a dumping ground in Ireland
Now that revenue from cigarettes has fallen sharply, we need to find a way to recoup that money. Slap tax and excise duty fees on vapes and E-liquid and make sure the only vapes and E-liquid sold in the state are the ones we get a massive cut out of. Never mind the health benefits for smokers who switch to vapes, we need to spin this as vapes that do not include warnings “as gaeilge” are dangerous and only sold by crime gangs.
@Paul Bannon: Exactly. Imagine trying to get the off cancer sticks, and you’re now being told you’re as good as dead anyway. With no science to back it up. Mad Ted..
@Harry Paisley: Work today Harry?
@James T.Kirk: didn’t you know he’s out skiing…told us that yesterday lol
Meanwhile, a million tonnes of cigarettes have gotten through …
@Paul Gorry: Not to mention all the hard drugs getting in to the country but then what does one expect from a country that puts the Irish version of a navy out to sea to patrol our waters with their guns not working.
@Leonard Barry: Who are you expecting them to shoot?
@Jason Memail: It’s hard to believe that you’ve managed to survive for so long without a brain!
@Jason Memail: you with any luck!
@Jason Memail: What a ridiculous response!
Undercover vape investigation by The Journal… LOL!
@Daniel Skelton: yeah, they dressed up as sherlock to blend in
@Daniel Skelton: went to the shop, bought vape, smoked it, took picture, case closed.
@Tory Soprano: Can’t wait to see the Netflix documentary on that.
All vapes should be illegal, nicotine producers are laughing all the way to the bank while a new generation of addicts gets bigger and bigger.
@Harry Paisley: No profit for you in vapes so. They don’t contain tobacco.
@normally go through toll twice a day (M50), that will stop!!: the producers of ineffective nicotine patches and gums certainly are. HSE wastes a ton of tax payer money on them.
The Journal’s manic anti vape campaign continues. Inadvertently keeping smokers smoking. Shameful. (PS to sub Ed- you can’t “smoke an “e cigarette” but you probably know that already.) Vaping saves lives. Anyone involved in this campaign should be ashamed.
Just ban all vapes
@Thomas Brophy: ya I’ll just go back on cigarettes and end my life and bank account quicker
Ban all everything, put your hand up if you want to leave the house.
If they stopped that amount of vapes it usually means twice that amount got true
I’m not a huge fan of vapes myself but these boneheaded regulations are only going to make the situation worse. Multiple studies have shown that vaping 95% safer than smoking. Strict regulations make it harder for smokers to switch, keeping more people addicted to combustible cigarettes, which are far more harmful. Countries with relaxed vaping laws have seen declines in smoking rates, while places with bans or heavy restrictions have seen increases in cigarette sales. When legal products are banned or overregulated, black markets thrive. Bootleg vapes and unregulated e-liquids are more dangerous than legal, quality-controlled products. Adults should have the right to choose less harmful alternatives to smoking without excessive government interference. Let’s lift these restrictions now.
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