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Apparently, the horse-faced one will be in the VIP section of the Hogan Stand for Ireland v Scotland in the Six Nations, the first official visit to GAA HQ by a member of the british parasite (sorry) royal family

While she has been to Lansdowne Road on a few occasions in the past, this is the first time such a high ranking member of the buckingham palace inbred germans has visited Croker... with six of our 32 counties still under occupation, this depresses me no end

Heading for five nights next month.  Anybody know the city or can recommend the best places to   go?

A British team has designed a hypersonic passenger aeroplane that could one day fly passengers between Europe and Australia in less than five hours.

The A2 was designed by Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines and would carry 300 passengers at a top speed of almost 4,000mph.

The company says the aircraft could be operating within 25 years and ticket prices would be comparable with an existing business class ticket, currently about £3,500.

The LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project is being funded by the European Space Agency.

The ESA wants to encourage companies to push the boundaries of commercial air travel using technology more commonly associated with space travel.

Reaction Engines says the A2 is capable of sustained travel at Mach 5 - or 3,800mph - which is more than twice the speed of Concorde.

At 143-metres long, it is roughly twice the size of the biggest current jumbo jets.

It runs on a liquid hydrogen Scimitar engine still being developed that is based on existing technology.

The ESA's website says hypersonic flight is generally considered to begin at Mach 5.

This is when aerodynamic heating becomes important in aircraft design, with temperatures in the boundary layer and on the surface of an object reaching 1,000C.

Hypersonic flight is not new. The first man-made object to reach hypersonic speeds was the two-stage US "Bumper" rocket, assembled from a captured German V-2 rocket in 1949.

Astronauts and cosmonauts have all reached hypersonic speeds while passing through the atmosphere on their way to or from orbit.

Current research, however, focuses on sustained hypersonic flight within the Earth's atmosphere.

'Arsonists today attacked a GAA club in Armagh.
Smoke damage was caused after flammable liquid was poured into College Lands
GAA club, Charlemont, shortly before 8am and set alight.'

Will the smarmy ballix hold on?

He seemed almost untouchable when he was Proconsul over here despite being reprimaned (I think twice) for acting illegally re NIO quango appointments.

Any odds from our betting fraternity?

Nuala, hang your head in shame...

POLICE are reportedly investigating whether one or more of  the young men mauled by a tiger
at the San Francisco Zoo may  have taunted the animal.

The father of one of the victims said he hoped the reports are not true.

"I don't think my son would do something like taunt animals," Carlos Sousa told ABC's Good Morning America.
"It's unbelievable, but only the evidence can prove that. And right now I can't say much."

His son, Carlos Sousa Jr, 17,  was one of three men attacked by a Siberian tiger around closing
time on Tuesday. Police shot the 300lb animal to death after it killed Sousa and severely mauled
two brothers who also were visiting the zoo. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police found
a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the animal's moat, prompting the
possibility that one of the victims dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat.

Police could not confirm the Chronicle's report. "I don't think this deserves to happen to anybody
- taunting or  not taunting," Mr Sousa said.  "Animals should be protected  from the people and the
people should be protected from the animals."  Police Chief Heather Fong said  on Wednesday the
department  opened a criminal investigation  to "determine if there was human involvement in the
tiger getting out or if the tiger was able to get out on its own".

The zoo was to closed yesterday.  One zoo official insisted the  tiger did not get out through an
open door and must have climbed or leaped out. But Jack  Hanna, former director of the
Columbus Zoo, said such a leap would be an unbelievable feat and "virtually impossible".

Instead, he speculated that visitors could have been fooling around and might have taunted
the animal and perhaps even helped it get out by putting a board in the moat, for example.

Ron Magill, a spokesman at the Miami Metro Zoo, said it was unlikely a zoo tiger could make
such a leap, even with a running start. 

"Captive tigers aren't nearly in the kind of shape that wild tigers have to be in to survive," he said.
He said taunting can definitely make an animal more aggressive, but "whether it makes it more
likely to get out of an exhibit is purely speculative".

The tiger, a four-year-old female named Tatiana, ripped the  flesh off a zookeeper's arm just
before Christmas a year ago while the woman was feeding the animal through the bars. A state
investigation blamed the zoo, which installed better equipment at the Lion House, where the big
cats are kept.

Zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said on Wednesday he did not think of destroying Tatiana after
the 2006 incident, because "the tiger was acting as a normal tiger does". As for whether Tatiana
showed any warning signs before Tuesday's attack, he said: "She seemed to be very well-adjusted
into that exhibit."

It was unclear how long the tiger had been loose before it was killed. The three visitors were
attacked around closing time on the 125-acre zoo grounds. Four officers hunted down and shot
the animal after police got an emergency call from a zoo employee.  The zoo has a response team
that can shoot animals but officials and police described the initial moments after the escape
as chaotic.

The first attack happened right outside the tiger's enclosure — Sousa died at the scene. Another
was about 800ft away, in front of the zoo cafe. The police chief said the animal was mauling one of
the survivors, and when officers yelled at it to stop, it turned toward them and they opened fire.
Only then did they see the third victim, police said.  The two injured men, 19 and 23-year-old brothers from San
Jose, were in stable condition on Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital. They suffered deep bites and claw
wounds on their heads, necks, arms and hands, said Dr Rochelle Dicker, a surgeon. She said they were expected to
recover fully.

Sousa's parents said they did  not know why their son went to the zoo on Tuesday, but it should have been a fun
Christmas Day  activity.

After fights on planes, roastings and balls-ups over eligibility ... Johnny Evans has been arrested by cops in England probing the alleged rape of a woman at the hotel where Man Utd were having their Xmas party .... makes you fell proud

Sunday World reporter Hugh Jordan exposed   ... by himself (how stupid is that?)

Chapter and verse at www.amiexposed.blogspot.com

According to the News Letter, McCrea is to be called to the Billy Wright inquiry to give - under oath - a public account of his relationship with the notorious loyalist serial killer.  We all remember his platform appearance with the mass murderer, but apparently he is to be questioned about at least one secret meeting he held with the LVF boss in Portadown... 

I see yon blade from Kilrea who climbed Everest apparently planted a Derry flag on the rooftop of the world ... nice

They've still only one All- Ireland, mind