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It's like living in a hotel', says Ireland AM host Muireann O'Connell after first night in new pad is ‘stuff of dreams'

It's like living in a hotel', says Ireland AM host Muireann O'Connell after first night in new pad is ‘stuff of dreams'

The Irish Sun07-07-2025
IRELAND AM star Muireann O'Connell has said goodbye to renting and hello to her first-ever family pad.
The
Dublin
home yesterday and has claimed "it's like living in a hotel".
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Muireann O'Connell purchased her first home back in May
Credit: Instagram
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Muireann said goodbye to her rented cottage yesterday
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Muireann spent the first night in her family home yesterday
for four years.
However, the
But after a tirelessly search, the popular presenter finally secured a set of keys to her very own house.
Yesterday, the happy couple were more than delighted to say their final goodbye to the cottage which they had rented in Harold's Cross since 2017.
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After weeks of packing, the Irish host posted a picture of herself holding up a duster in an empty living room, and wrote: "The GOAT of cleaning this house.
"Bye Harold's Cross, I loved it here."
In the
next
snap, the 41-year-old showed off a large blow-up bed which was placed inside a bedroom in the new home.
She joked in her caption: "Hello lover."
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After a day of organising the new pad, Muireann treated herself to a relaxing shower in her newly revamped bathroom.
The
TV
star
snapped a photo of the gorgeous forest green tiles inside the shower and a unique shelf inset.
'This won't be for everyone', says Muireann O'Connell as she steps out on air in unusual look
The host gushed after her pamper evening as she penned: "First shower here and sweet divine Jesus, it was the stuff of dreams."
She then tagged the company which had renovated the bathroom and said: "You absolute babes @eco_scene."
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The excited star told fans that her new "combi-boiler life" was "elite" and exclaimed: "It's like living in a hotel."
TOUGH JOURNEY
Muireann has been
She recently told
housing crisis
and that is not lost on me, but for someone who has a good job I've been very bad at this house
business
and the disappointment of going sale agreed on a house and losing out has been real.
"I think during that time, personally for me, the old adage, 'What's for you won't pass you by' was said a lot, and every time I heard it, I wanted to stick pins in my eyes."
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Muireann then laughed as she added: "I was like, 'Surely lads, there has to be something for me out there'. Now it just feels like this is where I was meant to be. I'm delighted."
However, after finding her dream home the TV star revealed it's a place she's "very happy in".
She said: "It's making me calmer knowing I'm moving towards something that I've wanted and worked for, for a very long time. It's also a place I feel genuinely very happy in, it's lovely, it's chill."
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Muireann swooned over her newly revamped bathroom
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‘The first thing they did was put a pint in my hand': Cork fans relive Oasis memories ahead of Dublin gigs
‘The first thing they did was put a pint in my hand': Cork fans relive Oasis memories ahead of Dublin gigs

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

‘The first thing they did was put a pint in my hand': Cork fans relive Oasis memories ahead of Dublin gigs

A Cork man who was among the first people to interview Oasis as part of an assignment for his college newspaper says he is 'buzzing' to be attending their Dublin concerts this weekend. Michael Fitzgerald was just 17 years old when he met with the group at Manchester University's student bar in the early 1990s. At the time, they had yet to release their first single and were playing pubs and clubs around England. He said the first thing they did was place a pint in his hand to put him at ease for their interview. The Killeagh native, who was studying aerospace engineering, had been writing for the Mancunion at the time in return for free gig tickets. The now 49-year-old recalled the excitement in the air on the night he first heard Oasis play live. Now, three decades later, he is hoping to relive that same magic at both Croke Park gigs on Saturday and Sunday. The band's 2025 reunion tour was announced in August last year, with tickets selling out in less than a day. 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Rarity and celebrity add value in the memorabilia market
Rarity and celebrity add value in the memorabilia market

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Rarity and celebrity add value in the memorabilia market

A Fry's Five Boys c1900 advertisement at Victor Mee's next auction underlines how rarity and celebrity add value in a memorabilia market which continues to grow strongly in Ireland. This particular enamel sign is rare. It harks back to days when chocolate — taken in moderation and highly prized — was a special treat for children. The enamel sign, which depicts five boys expressing desperation, pacification, expectation, acclamation and finally realisation that it's Fry's chocolate, leads the online August sale of 930 lots by Victor Mee next Tuesday and Wednesday. The estimate is €4,000-€6,000. A framed advertising mirror for Bendigo Tobaccos. Copper figures of musicians on painted boards from Slattery's of Capel St. in Dublin are of interest. This pub venue and early house licensed since 1821, steeped in music, history and character, has long been a gathering place for market traders, musicians and storytellers. Slattery's is a much-loved hub of Irish culture and traditional music known for performances by everyone from Christy Moore, Donal Lunny and Seamus Ennis to the Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Kate Nash and Townes van Zandt. The unique embossed figures of a fiddle player, a button accordionist, a bodhrán player, a pip player and a tin whistler, a banjo player and a flute player are estimated at €300-€600 each. With hand-drawn illustration by Brian McCormack and copper work by John A Brennan they are redolent of the cultural atmosphere which Slattery's is renowned for. A Youghal Choral Society poster from 1952. An Old Irish Reindeer Whisky Kiloh and Co Cork framed showcard is estimated at €1,200-€1,800 and the auction kicks off with an Allman's of Bandon Old Irish Whisky advertising sign (€50-€80). A Beamish Stout light-up box for a counter dating to the 1970's has an estimate of €50-€100. A framed advertising mirror for Bendigo Tobaccos produced for W & M Taylor Ltd., Dublin and manufactured by A & H Pemberton of Liverpool has an estimate of €3,000-€5,000. In Art Nouveau style, it features hand gilded and reverse painted lettering in rich red, gold and cobalt blue and few examples survive in such well preserved condition. An original Will's Woodbine Cigarettes enamel sign, 150 cm x 92 cm, in well-preserved condition is the sort of lot that is sought after by collectors. The estimate is €300-€500. An embossed copper figure of a fiddle player from Slattery's. Sales like this serve to remind us of how quickly things move on and can stir many memories. Lot 159, for instance, is a framed February 1952 poster for A Royal Jester by Youghal Choral Society at the Town Hall (€40-€80). The catalogue is online.

Esther McCarthy: Signing up to the We Do Not Care Club
Esther McCarthy: Signing up to the We Do Not Care Club

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Esther McCarthy: Signing up to the We Do Not Care Club

I would not have thought I'd have much in common with a black lady from Florida, but one of the many wonders of the internet is you can find communion in the most unlikely of places. Melani Sanders is a 45-year-old wife and mother and the founding member of the 'We Do Not Care' Club (we know this because she has it written on a bit of paper and paper-clipped onto her t-shirt). She posts videos aimed at women of a certain age who are sick to the back teeth of... well, everything. I remember seeing the first video she posted back in May. I was like, 'Yes! This gal gets it'. In a few short months, Melani's amassed 1.6m followers on Instagram, 1.3m on TikTok and 475,000 on Facebook, along with sponsorship deals, merch, and a global fan club. Turns out us mad bitches with startling mood swings and malfunctioning body thermostats just can't get enough of her. Melani sits there in her car, or kitchen, or sideways on her bed, with a travel pillow around her neck, multiple pairs of glasses perched on her person, ready to call to order another meeting of the WDNCC. She sometimes has a sleep mask slung around her neck, and often wears a robe and a satin sleep turban. (If you don't like it, she does not care.) She then uncaps her yellow highlighter, with a hint of menace, it has to be said, and proceeds to name out all the things we do not care about, as shared by her followers in the comments. All her videos start with her explaining the very simple premise. 'I started the club for all the women going through perimenopause and menopause. We are putting the world on notice that we simply do not care much anymore.' She calls out the first item, declares that we do not care, then scratches it off her list. She has this earnest look about her, like she is on serious business. And she is. One of the things on her list in a video I watched recently is: 'We do not care if the tag says hand wash. It's getting washed how it's getting washed. It's in the Lord's hands now.' Another one: 'We do not care if something is 'dishwasher safe'. It is now.' One more for the laugh: 'We do not care if you want us to go somewhere last minute. Once the bra comes off, forget about it.' Her slow, deadpan delivery is just brilliant. And to be honest, that club makes me feel a little better. Because, although I'm at the batshit-crazy (medical term) stage of my hormonal journey, I haven't quite mastered the fully not caring part yet. The other day, I started crying over the position of a fruit bowl on the table, and made the cat run into the sliding glass door in confusion. Then I had to add 'worry about cat concussion' to my checklist. I like knowing the WDNCC is there for consolation. There was one recently about not caring if a partner has had a long day. 'So did we,' drawls Melani. 'Our day included brain fog, night sweats, insomnia, frozen shoulder, and rage.' One thing that's stoking my rage at the moment is the pair of underpants strewn on the stairs. (Sidenote: Why is it called a pair?) I'm 67% sure it's clean and simply fell out of the laundry basket on the way up the stairs. Two things I'm 100% sure about, though. 1. It's not mine. 2. I am not, I repeat, NOT going to sniff it to confirm said cleanliness. It's a gamble though. It's been there a while now, no one else seems to notice it. Sometimes, on my dark days, I wonder… is it an illusion? Am I the only one who sees it — a figment of my fragile, foggy brain? Is it a metaphorical manifestation representing the mess in my mind? But then I remember that empty shopping bag on the kitchen floor. I decided I'd use it as a barometer of how much notice my fellow house inhabitants take of random things left around the house. And wasn't I was stepping over that bag every time I went to the fridge? It would have gone on until infinity so on day four, I folded it up with a martyred sigh, put it back in the boot of the car, and went and had a cry by the fruit bowl for myself. The ridiculous thing is, I'm a messy person anyway, I love a bit of creative shite thrown around the place. My office could be used for carbon dating. The kids' rooms are way tidier than mine. It's just things left in communal areas start my left eye twitching. But I'm going to work on it. The wonderful thing about Sanders' club is that it's fast becoming a movement. She's giving voice to all the women out there who can identify with these changes and challenges and who raise their hands and their voices up and say, OMG, me too! There's a real power — and comfort — in that. Sanders posted recently about the effect her club is having. 'You are not crazy. You are not alone,' she writes. 'You are surrounded by a tribe that sees you, loves you, and refuses to whisper about what we were taught to hide. We're just getting started.' On an unrelated matter, does anyone know the best way to glue a fruit bowl back together and the name of a good feline vet?

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