D'Grand Marshall Brendan may not be everyone's choice

Brendan O'Carroll has been selected as this years Grand Marshal of the 2015 St. Patricks Festival Parade

qI guess for many, Brendan O Carroll being named the grand marshall for the St Patrick's Day Parade is a reason to go, while for others it's a reason not to. Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie was clearly made with a lot of passion and love for Dublin city. The cinematography showed the city in its glorious best. But the series, the movie and Brendan himself are not to everyone's taste. It's a risky call. No doubt, Brendan will deem those who think he's not a good choice as a begrudger. They're not. They're just not that gone on his particular brand of humour.

iI'm still very sceptical as to whether or not the Mars One mission will ever go ahead. The issue isn't the fact that the participants will never see their families again (Hundreds of thousands of emigrants from previous generations suffered the same fate). It's ethically deeply unsound to televise such a venture. Even in the cut throat world of today's ratings, this is surely a reality show too far.

bprelfies? (priest selfies) are a thing now? They're all over social media this week because of the week that's in it. Novena devotees are embracing social media like never before and are uploading pictures at shrines in churches all over the country. It's Pope Francis who started the trend of clerical selfies. The tech-savvy pontiff has more re-tweets than Barack Obama. It's the Francis effect.