| Birmingham chief paid protection
money
BIRMINGHAM City Football Club co-owner David Sullivan has admitted he
paid protection money to paramilitary groups in the North of Ireland.
Sullivan whose wealth is estimated at £600million paid paramilitaries
to prevent his shops and warehouses in Ulster being blown up or fire-bombed.
Sullivan made the revelations during the filming of Britain’s Rich
List where the Cardiff-born businessman, whose wealth was based on sex
shops and pornography, ranked 127th.
The remarks were not used in the TV programme as they were thought to
be out of context with the show.
Mr Sullivan has since been contacted and is not prepared to give further
details.
An ITV1 spokeswoman said: “During his interview for Britain’s
Rich List, David Sullivan did talk about payments to paramilitaries.
“It wasn’t included in the version which was broadcast because
it didn’t fit with the main purpose of the programme.”
Dervish go for it
DERVISH — Ireland’s entry into this year’s Eurovision
Song Contest — jetted off to Finland last weekend in a bid to extend
the country’s record wins to eight.
Dervish — who are made up of lead singer Cathy Jordan and bandmates
Michael Holmes, Shane Mitchell, Brian McDonagh, Liam Kelly and Tom Morrow
— were selected to represent Ireland at the Eurovision after a public
vote on The Late Late Show.
But if the bookmakers are anything to go on, it seems the traditional
Irish band may have a battle on their hands to win the annual song contest.
Paddy Power is offering odds of 25-1 that Ireland will win in Helsinki
this weekend while hot favourites are Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Dervish however are upbeat about their chances, particularly after Brian
Kennedy’s top-10 finish last year in Athens brought them straight
into the live final, fast-tracking through the knock-out stages. |
