A glance at the week that was
Pole Position
Mark Pollock (right) has become the first blind person to reach the South Pole. Irishman Pollock, along with team-mates Simon O’Donnell and Inge Solheim, reached the pole on Tuesday. The team trekked for 22 days, covering a distance of 770km, without the aid of dog teams or skidoos. O’Donnell suffered frostbite on his ear and fingers, while Solheim lost a filling from his tooth. This is not Pollock’s first endurance test. He has won Commonwealth Games medals in rowing, completed six marathons in a week in China’s Gobi desert and raced a marathon at the North Pole and on Everest.
The numbers
51 % - The mark-up on goods in Ireland compared to the UK, according to a National Consumer Agency survey
80,000 - The number of jobs lost or put under threat in the UK, Europe and US on Monday
200,000 - The number of publicly owned oil paintings in the UK that the BBC is planning to put online
In the bag
A shop in Dublin’s Temple Bar is experimenting with an alcohol-bagging pilot scheme.
The Centra shop seals alcohol bought in its off-licence in bags, much like airport duty-free shops, with customers warned that if they open the bag before they get home, the alcohol may be confiscated. The scheme is part of a Garda-supported initiative to stop drinking on the streets in Temple Bar.
Reports that gardaí are planning to seal up entire hen and stag parties in gigantic sealed bags are unfortunately wide of the mark.
We know now
Sebastian Barry is the winner of this year’s Costa Book of the Year award for The Secret Scripture
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is receiving 5,000 redundancy notifications every month
Life expectancy at birth for Irish men is 76.8 years and 81.6 years for Irish women