
21 minute read
Marianne Heron

AS I SEE IT
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MARIANNE HERON
Question: if two men appeared in a high- pro le court case would there be coverage abut how much they had spent on their out ts or comparing their hairstyles? No, of course not. But that is exactly what happened in the libel trial of Rebekah Vardy versus Coleen Rooney, because women get trivialised in the media in a way that men don’t. (In case you wondered, Rooney spent something like £14,000 and Vardy £15,000 on their fashion statements during the trial which ended last week in London.)
Men have battles, women have cat ghts, especially if they are WAGs, famous only through marriage to-football stars. e trouble with this kind of insubstantial fame is that, when exposed to legal scrutiny, it can easily turn to infamy, causing loss of face and a great deal of money. In this instance, more €3 million where Vardy took the libel case against Rooney who accused Vardy of being behind kiss-and- sell and leaked stories about her.
It’s the kind of story which has the merit of o ering a bit of light relief in crisis-ridden times. But it can also provoke an exasperated reaction where you ask yourself why the pair of them can’t get sense, go for a latte together and agree do something worthwhile like giving all that money to help Ukrainian refugees instead.
But, despite the above I nd myself coming to the defence of Coleen Rooney. Suppose you had a false friend, who rang you when you were in trouble, pretending sympathy but actually shing for information. A rival who used an agent to get embarrassing pictures of the car you crashed and ran a tabloid newspaper column gaslighting you.
It would be upsetting to put it mildly and hard to know how to put a stop to it. But Coleen Rooney set the Wagatha Christy sting to expose the way Vardy was leaking information from Rooney’s private Instagram to undermine her. I think Rooney is owed a vote of thanks for outing that kind of treacherous use of the Press and social media and hopefully deterring others from similar behaviour. e trail has had elements of farce: the way Vardy’s agent Caroline Watt’s phone was dropped overboard from a boat on the North Sea ( really?); the way Watt’s computer was mysteriously unavailable as evidence; and reminders about Vardy’s fondness of bitchy kiss- andtell revelations like the time she described Peter Andre’s penis as being the size of a chipolata. is, incidentally, caused Andre to attempt to set the record or rather the size of his manhood straight on Instagram, (it’s the size of a Sky remote apparently.)
But, ultimately, the trial has laid bare a sorry tale of jealousy and of dirty tricks by an individual desperate to score in the publicity game. ere’s a passage written by one of the main characters in Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World Where Are You, which sums up Vardy’s toxic addiction to celebrity perfectly.
“People who intentionally become famous — I mean people who after a little taste of fame want more and more of it are, and I honestly believe it, deeply psychologically ill. e fact that we are exposed to these people everywhere in our culture, as if they are not only normal but attractive and enviable, indicates the extent of our dis guring social disease.”
Now few would envy Rebekah Vardy following unfavourable exposure during the case she so ill- advisedly took.
Marriage to a football star may have all the trappings of a modern fairy tale, where a beautiful girl wins the heart of a valiant prince and is carried o to a multi- million pound mansion and a life of unimaginable luxury.
Some lucky princesses may count their blessings and become role models. But endings aren’t always the happy ever after kind, some princesses can be bewitched and fall under the evil spell of envy.
Never was to be a happy ending for Wagatha trial
Pro-peptase complex IRC a proteolytic enzyme
CLAIR WHITTY
At Natural Health Store we often get asked why we choose certain brands, or what is the di erence between the brands we select, in particular with the supplements.
One brand we love is Terranova. Terranova promises never to use in-active additives such as llers, binders or sweeteners. ey also prefer capsules to hard tablets because they can be di cult to swallow and digest. All their products are suitable for vegans.
You will see in their products a complex called Magnifood which contains highly active plant ingredients that support function and activity of the nutrients. No nutrients work independently in the body- Magnifood is designed to enhance the absorption of the vitamins and minerals, making sure you get the maximum bene t from your product. eir top selling supplement Terranova Life Drink comes in powder form. is is a perfect mix for anyone looking to support their overall health. You’ll have digestive support with a mixture of digestive enzymes and probiotics. You have protein from pea and rice, and a lovely mixture of super foods like chlorella and spirulina. You even have a selection of antioxidant rich berries, an omega oil blend and medicinal mushrooms- all organic and fresh freeze dried. It has proven to be one of our top supplements to improve energy after illness, providing a broad range of nutrients in one formula. e Astragalus Garlic and Elderberry formula is a lovely combination. It may be helpful for those who su er with sinus congestion, sinusitis, hayfever, or respiratory problems, additionally providing a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Serrapeptase, a proteolytic enzyme which is currently not available in Ireland. Terranova have the perfect alternative. Pro-Peptase IRC Complex, which has the same bene ts as Serrapeptase but is a vegan option. It may t the bill for you. Research shows this enzyme is useful for in ammation, scar tissue and sinus problems.
Terranova also have a loyalty reward scheme. You collect a sticker every time you buy a product, two stickers if the product is over 25 euro. When you collect 5 stickers, they reward you with a free product. A brilliant incentive!
I think you’ll agree, Terranova is a lovely brand, we love it and our customers do too.

Shop online at www.naturalhealthstore.ie where you’ll be able to take a look at these brands. Natural Health Store, Market Cross Shopping Centre Phone: 056 7764538 Email: info@naturalhealthstore.ie
Avoiding toothache needn’t be a pain in the... mouth!
ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST
Of all body pains, there’s nothing quite like a toothache. Maybe it’s that your mouth is so close to your brain that an oral abscess is excruciating. e throbbing doesn’t have far to travel, so it makes its presence known very quickly.
You’re programmed to be particularly sensitive to your head, a vulnerable spot for all animals, including humans. Although a toothache is unlikely to be fatal, at least in the short term, anything going wrong so close to your uppermost organ puts your body on high alert.
Believe it or not, there are cases of lethal tooth infections. at these instances make the headlines, for example, the death of Californian trucker Vadim Anatoliyevich Kondratyuk in 2017, means they are fortunately rare. A reason to get checked out if you feel dental pain, absolutely. Justi cation for over-panicking, probably not. at said, most of us scream for the dentist when we feel a toothache.
Once a tooth is so damaged it starts hurting, bacteria has built up, meaning drastic action is usually necessary. An extraction or root canal treatment are the likely cures. e key is trying to prevent teeth going rotten in the rst place.
Regular dental check-ups help by reducing plaque build-up. Frequent visits to a dentist also mean dental caries, tooth decay in layman’s terms, can be caught and easily treated, for example, with a lling, before it gets nastier. Diet also has a role to play. Reducing sugar intake, particularly zzy drinks, is a good start.
Another tip is to use an electric, rather than a manual, toothbrush. Power brushes remove up to twice as much plaque, making a big di erence to gum health.
Another plus of electric toothbrushes is that many of them come with timers. According to dentists, we should be brushing our teeth for a minimum of two minutes. Given most of us clean for an average of only 43 seconds, we need all the help we can get!
Flossing is important too. Look at your toothbrush for a moment. How do you imagine it brushes the tight gaps between your teeth? If you said ‘it can’t’, you’d be bang on. e problem is food and residue from drinks de nitely can nd their way in there. Water picks are popular lately, and they are fantastic for people with bridge work or orthodontic braces. For people who’ve had less dental work done, good old oss tape works just as well, as do interdental brushes.
As for toothpaste, at least 1,350–1,500pm uoride is essential. Despite what some people think, herbal pastes aren’t necessarily better for you. Some don’t have any uoride at all!
After all those to-dos, what about something you can skip? Wetting your toothbrush before use is unnecessary nowadays, unless you’re using a yard broom. e reason? Dampening prior to cleaning harks back to the days when bristles were much tougher than they are now and needed water to soften them.


When she appeared at Kilkenny District Court recently the sports icon Catriona Carey was in a somewhat apologetic mood but outside the courthouse when asked if she had anything to say to the many, many people who allege she scammed them out of €500,000, the former Ireland international hockey and camogie player remained silent.
In court pleaded guilty to four road traffic offences, and, through her barrister, apologised for failing to appear in court the previous week, and was “especially” sorry to a female garda for her “totally out of control” behaviour after she was stopped for doing 70kmh in a 50kmh zone.
Carey (44) was banned from driving for four years, but she walked out of court after Judge Geraldine Carthy handed down a suspended sentence.
She has now had four convictions before the Irish courts and is currently being investigated for alleged fraud after 39 people came forward with claims she conned them out of hundreds of thousands of euro as part of an alleged mortgage scam.
It came to light earlier this year that the mother-of-two has a previous conviction for fraud. In February 2020, she received an eight-month suspended sentence after altering a cheque she received from a client who had hired her as his accountant.
She changed a cheque for €6,948, which had been made out to the Revenue’s collector general, instead making it payable to herself, and cashed it at a Bank of Ireland branch on Parliament Street, just a street away from the courthouse where she recently appeared.
Carey, who had her BMW car seized by Gardaí in March, was driven to court by a relative and arrived nearly two hours early.
Dressed in a pair of jeans, white top and black blazer, with a silver pair of heels, she seemed calm and reserved throughout the short hearing.
However, that was not how Garda Julie Chapman described her demeanour on the day she pulled her over for speeding.
In her evidence, Garda Chapman told how Carey was “roaring and screaming” after she stopped her travelling along the Castlecomer Road in Kilkenny on November 21 last year. When asked for her licence, she said she didn’t have it on her and only had a picture on her phone.
Garda Chapman discovered she was banned from driving at the time after receiving a number of penalty points and when informed of this, Carey “disagreed”.
“There was no talking to her,” and “she was totally out of control,” Garda Chapman said.
Another garda who pulled her over just a month later, again driving her BMW on the Castlecomer Road, told the court Carey said she felt she was being picked on, and asked him: “Do you expect me to get taxis?”
Carey’s barrister, Kevin Roche BL, said there was a “certain confusion” about the penalty points which led to her disqualification.
Under cross-examination, Garda Thomas Loughnane accepted that she had never received a road ban from the courts.
Judge Geraldine Carthy said that, in relation to having no insurance or licence in the first incident, she was taking into account the early guilty plea and the apology offered.
She fined Carey €300 and disqualified her from driving for two years.
However, Judge Carthy said it was difficult to offer an excuse when stopped a month later after getting into a car “knowing full well she was disqualified”.
In relation to the second instance of driving without a licence or insurance, Judge Carthy sentenced her to three months’ imprisonment, which was fully suspended for 12 months. She was also disqualified from driving for four years.
Catriona Carey has been keeping a low-profile ever since RTÉ Investigates broadcast an inquiry into the activities of an asset management company she runs called Careysfort Asset Estates.
Carey received thousands of euro from people across the country through a mortgage scheme that offered to buy debt from their lenders at a discount.
As part of the arrangement, they paid her a deposit up front. Some paid in cash, while others wired the money to bank accounts in the name of Careysfort Asset Estates.
However, after receiving up to €500,000 from dozens of people, the deals never materialised.
It is alleged the deposits were not returned, despite her providing terms and conditions stating they would receive their money back if the deal did not happen, and that the money instead went towards skiing trips, a new BMW, expensive clothes and lavish weekends away.
A number of complaints have since been made to the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) regarding Careysfort Asset Estates, which is registered in the UK.
It is understood about 39 people have come forward, but not all those affected are expected to make statements.
After her recent court appearance, Carey’s barrister said the subsequent media attention Carey had received had been difficult for her two children.
As she left the court, Carey kept her head down and declined to answer questions; including whether she had any comment to make on the court outcome or if she had anything to say regarding the multiple allegations of fraud.
While Carey’s day in court has concluded, there are a number of people currently appearing before the courts on a regular basis in a bid to keep their homes after finding themselves in financial difficulty.
The Irish Independent has reported speaking to two people who said they paid Catriona Carey a large sum of money after she promised she could help them secure a new mortgage deal that would allow them to keep their family home.
One woman and her husband, who paid Carey €10,000, said Carey told them the RTÉ investigation was a “misunderstanding” when they asked her about the reports in the newspapers.
The couple met Carey two years ago after falling into financial difficulties. During the recession, they got into financial difficulty after the man lost his business and they were struggling to make mortgage repayments.
Carey said her company would buy their loans at a discount from their bank and provide a new rate for the mortgage holder for 10% to 30% of the value of the loan.
“We had hit rock bottom and we were trying to keep our home,” the woman said.
Those affected now fear their chances of getting anything back are slim to none after it was revealed by RTÉ how some of the money was spent on personal items, and by last February just €488.10 remained in the account.
The biggest spend using funds from the company account came on July 21, 2020, when Carey bought a BMW for €55,226.
It has also emerged that Carey has been encountering her own financial difficulties.
A house she owned was sold for €365,000 in March after receivers were appointed to the property.
The house is not her family home and was being rented out for €9,600 a year.
It was up for public auction on property site Bidx1, and only one bid was made.
Interested parties had to pay a deposit of €7,000 to take part in the auction.
Detectives raided Carey’s home in Kilkenny in March, seizing documents and records.
Also in March, members of the GNECB seized her car at a property in Co Wexford.
The Sunday Independent reported that Gardaí have now asked British police for help in tracking bank accounts and potential assets.
Detectives with the GNECB have submitted a formal “mutual legal assistance” request to the British police forces to trace any bank accounts or other assets she may have in that country.


SPECIAL REPORT Carey remains silent over scam charges
Latest court appearance for camogie sport star sees her apologetic

In the three months Putin’s raggedy army has even Ukraine, it’s now more than a month since the Russian dictator, having failed to take Kyiv, launched an o ensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to salvage some glimmer of victory from his unprovoked war of aggression.
So how is it all going for him? Well, Russia did nally take the southern city of Mariupol after the last defenders surrendered — not that there is much left of the city after the Russian bombardment. But Ukrainian troops have pushed the invaders out of artillery range of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s secondlargest city, located only about 20 miles from the Russian border. e Russian o ensive is now focused on Severodonetsk, one of the last remaining Ukrainian strongholds in the Luhansk region, which the Russians are trying to turn into the ‘new Mariupol’.
Overall, the Pentagon assesses Russian progress as “uneven” and “incremental”. To achieve such small gains, the Russians have su ered heavy losses, with the British government estimating last week that the invaders had lost a third of the 190,000-strong force that initially attacked Ukraine.
One particularly spectacular Russian setback occurred during an attempted crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River in Donbas. Ukrainian artillery zeroed in on the Russian troops, leading to the loss of an estimated 485 soldiers and 80 pieces of equipment.
Even Putin is implicitly conceding that things have not been going according to plan by reportedly ring the general in command of the 1st Guards Tank Army, after its failure to capture Kharkiv, and the admiral in charge of the Black Sea eet after its agship, the Moskva, was sunk by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles. e Kremlin is so strapped for manpower that is lifting age restrictions for new recruits.
How long before they send a brigade of babushkas into Ukraine? e Russian o ensive appears to be petering out, and a major Ukrainian countero ensive is still to come. Retired Lt Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of the US Army Europe, predicts that the Russian army will collapse by the end of the summer and that Ukraine will reclaim all of the territory it has lost since the invasion began on February 24. While that scenario may be overoptimistic, it is more likely than any kind of Russian victory.
But instead of celebrating the Ukrainians’ progress, many in the West are reacting with trepidation. French President Emmanuel Macron is warning that Russia must not be humiliated. Italy is circulating its own four-point peace plan. e New York Times editorial board is tut-tutting that “a decisive military victory for Ukraine ... is not a realistic goal” and advising President Volodymyr Zelensky to give up land for peace. is is faux-realism. Given that the world widely expected Kyiv to fall within three days of a Russian invasion, it is the height of hubris to say what Ukraine can or cannot achieve on the battle eld.
Given the horrors that Russia has in icted on the areas it has conquered — which include rape, murder and deportation — it is the height of inhumanity to insist that Ukraine turn over any of its people to inde nite Russian occupation.
And given that Russia has shown no sign of stopping the war or entering into serious negotiations, it is the height of wishful thinking to imagine that Ukrainian concessions now would bring the war to an end. More likely, Putin would view any preemptive concessions as a sign of faltering resolve and simply redouble his determination to outlast his enemies.
It is time to stop worrying about sparing Putin’s feelings. at is the mind-set that led to the invasion of Ukraine in the rst place. Russia transgressed before — the invasion of Georgia in 2008, the seizure of Crimea in 2014, the bombing of Syria beginning in 2015, the attack on the 2016 U. presidential election, the poisoning of dissidents in the West — and the West never really cracked down because of the assumption that we had to do business with Moscow. Enough mollycoddling. Russia must su er such a devastating defeat that it will be many decades before another Russian leader thinks of attacking a peaceful neighbour.
What is everyone afraid of anyway? ere is no conventional escalation that Putin can now undertake as a practical matter; his air force is being held back not by Russian restraint but by Ukrainian air defences. e concern — let’s be honest — is that, if Putin is humiliated, he will go nuclear.
But the chances of Putin nuking a NATO country and initiating World War III are in nitesimally small. If Putin uses a nuclear weapon it would be against Ukraine. e Ukrainians are willing to run that small risk to defend their country — and the entire civilised world — from an evil war of aggression.
We who sit safely and watch the war from the sidelines have no right to tell the Ukrainians what their war aims should be. We have a moral and strategic obligation to simply support them. e Ukrainians need more weapons from the West, including HIMARS rocket artillery and F-16 ghter planes. ey don’t need lectures from second-guessers who claim to know better than they do what is in their own self-interest.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know e latest: President Biden signed a $40 billion package of new military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine on Saturday while visiting South Korea, amid signs that the United States and its allies are preparing for a drawn-out con ict.

A delegation of US. diplomats is set to travel to e Hague for talks with allies “regarding our responses to atrocities committed in Ukraine” and in other condicts, and on eeorts to “bring the perpetrators of atrocities to justice,” the State Department said in a news release. e ght: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but under-equipped Ukrainian forces. e United States and its allies are racing to deliver the enormous quantities of weaponry the Ukrainians urgently need if they are to hold the Russians at bay. e weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade ‘kamikaze’ drones.
Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman, who had not previously been cited by Russian authorities, has now been accused by Moscow of having recorded a video in 2017 in which he claimed Russia was plotting against the United States.
Morgan is among a list published by Russia has of 963 American government o cials and leading people who are banned from entering the country in retaliation for similar moves by Washington since the o ensive in Ukraine. e list, published on May 21, includes President Joe Biden, business leaders such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Jamie Fly, President of RFE/RL, along with several current or former members of the board that oversees RFE/RL.
e largely symbolic move names several top o cials from the Biden Administration, including Vice- President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. e list also includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat-New York), and the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
Moscow had already announced sanctions targeting many of those on the list.
Russia also banned three former senators who are deceased: John McCain (Republican-Arizona) Harry Reid (Democrat-Nevada) and Orrin Hatch (RepublicanUtah). e Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the move was in response to “the constantly imposed anti-Russian sanctions” and said it aimed “to constrain the US which is trying to impose a neocolonial ‘world order’ on the rest of the planet... to change its position and recognise new geopolitical realities.”
It added that Moscow remained open to “honest dialogue” and drew a distinction between the people of the United States and authorities who it said have been “inciting Russophobia”. e ministry also said it also banned 26 more Canadians, including Sophie Trudeau, the wife of the Canadian prime minister.

Retired general predicts that their army will collapse by the end of the summer
