Hand that rocks cradle does not rule the courts

ONE could have forgiven Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan for breaking into song.

Emerging from the High Court yesterday after a nine-day trial, nobody could have begrudged the diminutive rock star if she'd treated onlookers to a verse of "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee" - the eponymous title of one of the group's albums.

However, the 32-year-old Limerick mother-of-two was not ready to perform any appropriately-titled encore for the media, even though Mr Justice John Quirke had found overwhelmingly in favour of her and husband Don Burton in a case taken against the celebrity pair by their son's former nanny, Joy Fahy.