A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Poor musician tops iTunes chart with 'Wasn't Expecting That'
An unknown 28-year-old musician who's behind in his rent and couldn't even afford to pay the baggage fee to bring his guitar to Ireland found himself at the top of the Irish iTunes singles charts yesterday outselling heavy hitters such as Rihanna and Bruno Mars, writes Brian Boyd.
Jamie Lawson, from Cornwall, first came to the attention of the Irish public when a producer at Today FM was flicking through YouTube videos and came across his song Wasn’t Expecting That. Today FM were bombarded with phone calls after they first played the track two weeks ago.
Very much a "story" song, Wasn't Expecting Thatis a love song with a surprise twist at the end. People were ringing the station saying they were stuck in traffic and in floods of tears such was the song's emotional impact.
Lawson would be number one in the ordinary Irish singles charts this week but for the fact that, due to the sudden demand for his song, he was only able to make it available last Monday. The Irish singles charts count a week’s sales from Thursday to Thursday – thus Lawson missed out on the lucrative weekend spend.
Lawson is currently in talks with Irish record companies about a long-term recording deal and will play a series of gigs here in March.
Anglo chief's stolen laptop inquiry
Gardaí are investigating the theft of a laptop belonging to Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mike Aynsley just over two months ago.
The machine, which it is understood contained his personal information, was taken along with a number of other items in the incident last November.
A spokeswoman for the bank said: “A senior executive’s home was burgled last November when a small number of personal items were taken, including a laptop. The gardaí were alerted and are continuing to investigate.”
Three hooded males were captured on CCTV breaking into Mr Aynsley’s home. They have not yet been traced.
Doctors concerned about workload
A series of emergency meetings to discuss the shortage of junior doctors at hospitals across the State as well as the impact this is having on the workload of other doctors in training are to be convened in coming days.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which represents the bulk of junior doctors working in the system, said they were utterly demoralised. Shirley Coulter, assistant director of industrial relations with the organisation, said the new contracts agreed with junior doctors or non-consultant hospital doctors were not being implemented to varying degrees and the doctors were disillusioned.