RELAXING into the ritual of a soft-boiled egg on Sunday morning I was astonished, actually envious, to read in several newspapers that RTÉ paid out €85,000 to named people ostensibly libelled when called homophobic by Rory O’Neill aka the drag-artist Panti Bliss on the Saturday Night Show.

Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics for hit Broadway musicals including Chicago and Cabaret, as well as the big-city anthem, New York, New York, has died of a heart attack.