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Rolling News/Leah Farrell

Dublin's Wax Museum is probably not the place to honour someone like Sinéad O'Connor

The model of O’Connor was unveiled in the museum’s Star Wars section.

DUBLIN’S NATIONAL WAX Museum Plus on Thursday unveiled a commemorative waxwork of legendary Irish musician Sinéad O’Connor, marking a year since the singer’s untimely passing. 

The response to the sculpture has been mixed so far, with many online commentators critiquing the quality of the likeness. Others questioned the propriety of the sculpture’s unveiling, which took place in the Star Wars section of the museum and saw the model of O’Connor flanked by the likes of Darth Vader and Yoda.

Those who took issue with the accuracy of the sculpture made comparisons to Thunderbird figurines. If there is a defence to be made on that front, surely, it’s that that is the nature of waxwork sculptures. If you’re making something out of wax, obviously it’s going to look a little bit uncanny, no matter how much work goes into it. The question isn’t really: “Is this waxwork sculpture accurate?” It’s a bit more like: “Why do we do this in the first place?”

It’s not that the rendition itself is an egregiously insulting likeness. No, it doesn’t quite look like Sinéad O’Connor, but it looks like it looks like Sinéad O’Connor. It’s more that that wax museums, by their nature, are probably not the correct venue to honour to such an icon of Irish culture – particular one so recently passed, and one whose relationship with fame was so cruel. 

Wax Museum-012_90710325 Leah Farrell Leah Farrell

The National Wax Museum Plus on Westmoreland Street is like walking through a dream. Not necessarily a bad dream, but quite obviously not a good dream either. Just… a dream. At the end of the haunted hotel section of the museum, for example, one turns a corner immediately into the waxwork signing of the Good Friday Agreement, replete with waxwork John Hume and the Reverend Ian Paisley (also waxwork) – an assemblage ripped clean from the darkest depths of the subconscious. 

Elsewhere in the History of Ireland section, a waxwork James Connolly lies wounded, tended to by Patrick Pearse (who, and I cannot stress this enough, is also a waxwork sculpture). All of these waxworks – which include Robert Emmett, Daniel O’Connell and Constance Markiewicz – are accompanied by explanatory panels, as they would be in any non-wax-based museum. It is not uneducational. Look, if this is what we need to do to get children and Americans to learn about Irish history, then that’s how it is.

On another floor, there is a small Christmas section that has Santa Claus in behind the window of a small cottage, on a bed with his eyes closed, giving the unmistakeable impression of a man lying in repose. Yards away from Santa, there is a deeply unsettling approximation of Homer and Marge Simpson – each of their faces carved into a sinister rictus, with Marge looking more like Moe Szyslak in a blue wig than anything else.  

With the best will in the world, there are questions to be asked as to whether someone like Sinéad O’Connor truly fits in against this backdrop either figuratively or, in the case of the Star Wars characters surrounding her, literally. 

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The tour ended with a pack of attendees huddled around a velvet curtain, around two metres away from statues of Darth Vader, Yoda, a young Anakin Skywalker and Jedward (who are not part of the Star Wars universe. They were also sufficiently lifelike that upon bumping into John and/or Edward I was moved to apologise as if to a living, breathing human).

After a suspense-building countdown, the curtain was drawn back to reveal the sculpture of O’Connor. Because of O’Connor’s placement, the removal of the curtain also revealed Liam Neeson as Jedi Master Qui Gon Jin, standing with his lightsaber drawn, ready for battle.

“I think she would be happy with it. I think it’s put her forward as a serious artist. We didn’t have her with this great big smile,” said Paddy Dunning, the managing director of the National Wax Museum. Asked by a journalist whether O’Connor would appreciate the placement of the model alongside Star Wars villain Darth Vader, Dunning said that he thought that she would.

“We didn’t want to do the ripping up of the Pope,” Dunning said, alluding to the controversial incident in which Sinéad O’Connor condemned child abuse endemic to the Catholic Church while tearing apart a photograph of Pope John Paul II during a performance on Saturday Night Live. O’Connor’s career suffered greatly in the aftermath of the protest and, in the years that followed, the singer was frank about her struggles with mental health. 

Instead, Dunning and the museum opted for O’Connor in a iconic black turtleneck based on the outfit she wore in the music video for Nothing Compares 2 U.

“We found that this was where she was poignant, where she was brilliant, where she was fabulous, where she was unique,” Dunning said. “That was the focus of the setting of the figure.” The figure was created by PJ Heraty, who has been making waxworks for 40 years. Heraty said that this O’Connor sculpture took him nine months, and that it will be his final work.

Dunning further explained that the intention is to move the statue between the waxwork museum and the Irish Rock N’ Roll Museum in Temple Bar, which Dunning also manages. 

While much of the online criticism of the sculpture has been humorous in nature, others have taken the matter more seriously and queried whether or not an artist with O’Connor’s integrity would appreciate the spectacle. Dunning says that the singer gave the project her blessing.  

“We had discussed it down at Grouse Lodge,” said Dunning, referring to the Westmeath recording studio where O’Connor had recorded in the past, which he owns. “I always wanted to do a waxwork figure of her, but it wasn’t until the last time she was down at Grouse Lodge that she said ‘Go ahead.’”

Any debate around whether or not O’Connor would have appreciated her likeness on display in the Wax Museum is doomed to go around in circles without Sinéad here to tell us how she feels about it. 

But regardless of the likeness, O’Connor’s fans will surely remember the singer very differently than the wax figure now on display in Dublin. And not just because she never hung out with Darth Vader.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Mar 4th 2019, 3:47 PM

    The meteorologists give colour coded warnings and they’re criticised for being alarmist. Then when its percieved thay didn’t give a warning they’re at fault.

    They may have slightly underestimated the amounts yesterday, but they did forecast snow in the afternoon. Weather is unpredictable, it’s not possible to be 100% right all the time.

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    Mute ed w
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:03 PM

    @James Wallace: colour coded warnings are useless basically yellow or orange go to work. red go to work if your workplace is open.

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    Mute Mick Morrissey
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:36 PM

    @James Wallace: they forecast snow in the afternoon….when it was already snowing. Ya good work guys. I got caught and it took close on two hours to get from Naas to Newbridge

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    Mute Link
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    Mar 4th 2019, 5:26 PM

    @ed w: Actually, a red warning advises that nobody travel and to stay safe, even if it’s to go to work. Retail/office staff who are disciplined for missing work during a red warning will have a slam dunk winning case, also, businesses leave themselves open to cases for risking staffs safety and wellbeing for operating during these events.
    Warning systems save lives, and undoubtedly they have during the 2 we’ve had in the last 2 years.

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    Mute Ian Breathnach
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    Mar 4th 2019, 9:06 PM

    @Mick Morrissey: They forecast snow the day before. I follow the weather regularly. They issued the warning and well.

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    Mute Rachel
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    Mar 4th 2019, 3:15 PM

    I was caught in the M7 delays yesterday, 7.5hrs on a bus from Cork to Dublin with no water and no food. It was horrendous.

    AA Roadwatch was poorly updated and updated far too late – they should have put out a do not travel unless necessary notice at 2pm but failed to do so (because it was Sunday I’m sure) and caused thousands and thousands of people to be stranded on dark motorways. The whole thing was a farce and put vulnerable people in an impossible position (there were elderly people and a pregnant woman on our coach who were very stressed).

    They knew the snow was coming and did absolutely nothing to mitigate the effects. Embarrassing, incompetent Irish as usual.

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    Mute Jim
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:49 PM

    @Rachel: what exactly do you expect them to do? Turn off the weather to suit you?

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    Mute pat seery
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:54 PM

    @Rachel: AA is not our weather forecasters where were they with there forecast Excuse the pun They were asleep at the wheel
    The BBC HAD IN ON SATURDAY NIGHT THAT SNOW WAS ARRIVING IN THE UK SUNDAY Did our people think none would fall here

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    Mute Michael Mulcahy
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    Mar 4th 2019, 5:49 PM

    @Rachel: to the people commenting do ye not have any lives of your own that you have to put pathetic comments on here she was only passing a comment which she is in titled to do.

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    Mute David Weston
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:02 PM

    @Rachel: S

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    Mute David Weston
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:25 PM

    @Rachel: So Rachel it their fault you didn’t bring any food or drinks with you !! And probably cause there was no toilet on board either

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    Mute Reuben Gray
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    Mar 4th 2019, 2:53 PM

    So if someone travelling from Cork to Dublin had seen a sign that said it was snowing and to expect long delays, that they would what… turn around and go back?

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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    Mar 4th 2019, 2:55 PM

    @Reuben Gray: no. They would find something else to complain about

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    Mute Reuben Gray
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    Mar 4th 2019, 2:59 PM

    @Shaun Gallagher: Maybe the overhead signs could just say “Brexit, discuss”.

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Mar 4th 2019, 3:15 PM

    @Reuben Gray: if they were near enough to Cork they might have, and likewise someone travelling South have have turned around and headed home to Dublin

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    Mute Patrick Swan
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    Mar 4th 2019, 9:48 PM

    @Reuben Gray: yes or if they had a child, come off at the next exit and find somewhere to stop and wait it out. We were stuck in our car with 2 hungry kids for hours and it was no joke.

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    Mute TechBuzz Ireland
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    Mar 4th 2019, 3:20 PM

    We got the warnings. Mother nature is unpredictable

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    Mute KJmadra.
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    Mar 4th 2019, 3:42 PM

    Weather forecast said rain turning to light snow fall would not stick because of wet ground and going back to rain. Not what happened.

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    Mute Billy McNamara
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    Mar 4th 2019, 5:14 PM

    @KJmadra.: In life never believe all you read.Especially about the weather in March in Ireland.

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    Mute KJmadra.
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:26 PM

    @Billy McNamara: I don’t not much can be believed from met eireann. Usually opposite.

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    Mute Fergus
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    Mar 4th 2019, 7:18 PM

    @KJmadra.: Your comment is telling of lack of understanding of complex global weather system, local climates and other variables needed to attempt to forecast weather.

    It’s a bleedin forecast, not a prediction

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    Mute Shayne O'Donoghue
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    Mar 4th 2019, 3:22 PM

    It was the worst I’ve ever experienced yesterday. 3:30 mins from kildare shopping village to the ball in Naas. 4 hrs total to get to work.
    There were reports of congestion going into Newbridge and Naas so I have another half hour early, but the back roads were also reported to be dangerous & trees down in area.
    Im not sure what could of been done to fix it but it would of been a nice touch to have a least one emergency service out with a few cans of fuel as a good few ran out and caused further blockages.
    Maybe hand out bottles of water given it was so many hours stuck between 2 exits for hours.
    I’ll always keep at least a third of a tank and water in car in future!

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    Mute Link
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    Mar 4th 2019, 5:29 PM

    @Shayne O’Donoghue: So during sever weather events, you want people to come to your car and offer you a bottle of water and fill your car? Why not instruct your chauffeur to keep a jerry can and a water cooler accessible at all times?

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    Mute joe
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:37 PM

    @Shayne O’Donoghue: what planet do you live on. FFS!!

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    Mute Jonathan Kerr
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    Mar 4th 2019, 7:11 PM

    @Shayne O’Donoghue: being prepared always seems to be the last option.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Mar 4th 2019, 2:59 PM

    AA Roadwatch = waste of space. Totally useless.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:08 PM

    @Cathal Flood: not only are they a private company, they are a self proclaimed political lobby group and as such should not be getting any free air time, especially on RTE which is supposed to be an impartial public service broadcaster. By getting into bed with the AA, RTE is breaching it’s own guidelines. Yet every time we discuss congestion, bus corridors, cycle lanes etc, up pops AA to give their self serving input.

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    Mute Cathal Flood
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:40 PM

    @James Wallace: and we have to look at that crooked mouth acting like a government spokesperson or self appointed voice of the driver.

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    Mute Ollie Conroy
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    Mar 4th 2019, 9:43 PM

    @James Wallace: I’m afraid the AA have always been a political body… they were founded in the UK in the early part of the last century to warn motorists that police were carrying out speed checks ahead . They only started repairing cars later on !

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Mar 4th 2019, 11:06 PM

    @Ollie Conroy: exactly, they have always been a political body so why are they allowed free reign on the airwaves? RTE are not allowed to promote or favour one political body over another

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    Mute GClare
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:54 PM

    @In my opinion: she obviously does not remember when that was normal journey time!!

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    Mute Louise O'Connor
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:02 PM

    Thanks for name calling – I shouldn’t even rely to trolls… Especially anonymous ones…. But the status yellow warning was for rain not snow.

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    Mute joe
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:39 PM

    @Louise O’Connor: it was for snow as well. There were numerous warnings yesterday. Wind rain and snow!

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    Mute Louise O'Connor
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    Mar 4th 2019, 7:32 PM

    @joe: snow was forecast for high ground only.

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    Mute john paul crowley
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    Mar 4th 2019, 10:39 PM

    @Louise O’Connor: agreed Louise I was in the same situation yesterday checked the weather before I left a warning against rain with snow on high ground. Plus the toll plaza was a joke only two lanes open causing huge back logs

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    Mute Louise O'Connor
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    Mar 5th 2019, 8:55 AM

    @john paul crowley: thanks. And yes toll plaza was something medieval. If guards were onsite, they could have managed the flow much more quickly. There were 6km tailbacks on both sides.

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    Mute Albert Brennerman
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    Mar 4th 2019, 7:17 PM

    TII is the key to the chaos, you cannot believe how under qualified these people are. Like cervical check, HSE, ran by people not from shop floor, so if you see a cool logo your usually dealing with BS. Another logo the RSA no sign of them condemning because if you saw the number of tips,crashes it is amazing someone wasn’t seriously hurt.
    If there is to be snow you hedge, have your gritter ready supporting the motorways the preparation is not to send out a Suit to give positive soundbites. Fact is if you had of supported the road networks with gritters prior then the shutdown would not of happened.
    Rem . Nothing works here because of bluffers in suits.

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    Mute Louise O'Connor
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    Mar 5th 2019, 8:57 AM

    @Albert Brennerman: totally agree.

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    Mute Shakka1244
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    Mar 4th 2019, 5:23 PM

    TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IRELAND (TII)

    And another quango surfaces.

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Mar 4th 2019, 5:53 PM

    Traveling back from Kilkenny to Dublin when the snow hit. Added an hour or so into the journey. The biggest issue, by a country mile, were the absolute idiots, no, that’s too mild a word, that put their lives and mine in danger as they rushed to get home faster, jumping lanes, creating “3rd” lanes, speeding through drifts. If you are reading lads, F@#K YOU

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    Mute Ann Bourke
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:55 PM

    That what happens when Irish retailer’s told met office to quit the weather warning as it was affecting their business. It was only one afternoon get over it – and now realise who dictates what information is released to the public.

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    Mute Peter Buchanan
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    Mar 5th 2019, 6:38 AM

    1) Had they ‘salted’ the roads in advance?
    2) Was this caused because there were not enough staff on duty because it was a Sunday?

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    Mute Eamonn O Connell
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    Mar 4th 2019, 7:02 PM

    Forecast was for wintery showers turning to sleet and snow for the midlands and that’s what happened the motorways were closed in sections due to accidents leading to Sunday night traffic being diverted through towns and inevitably delays. The ploughs and gritters were out but the volume of snow was horrendous so not much more could be done to prevent the delays

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    Mute john paul crowley
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    Mar 4th 2019, 10:42 PM

    @Eamonn O Connell: was four hours on the motorway never saw one snow plough or gritter

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    Mute Louise O'Connor
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:02 PM

    @GClare: I do.

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    Mute Rachel Didleu
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    Mar 4th 2019, 7:28 PM

    Always a worrying sign when swans can be seen flying @ night??

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    Mute Earl of Daventry
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    Mar 4th 2019, 4:57 PM

    You’d be sorted in a Kia Sorrento AWD

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Mar 5th 2019, 1:32 AM

    ” … If all the girls in this college were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

    Dorothy Parker

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    Mute Louise O'Connor
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    Mar 4th 2019, 6:06 PM

    @GClare: I do. Not that it has anything to do with yesterday’s events.

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Mar 5th 2019, 1:30 AM

    “..She’s as pure as the driven slush. …”
    Dorothy Parker

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    Mute Patrick Swan
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    Mar 4th 2019, 9:52 PM

    @In my opinion: there were no warnings.

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    Mute Hugh Gallagher
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    Mar 4th 2019, 10:11 PM

    BBC had it on Saturday night…

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