Leinster hero Gordon left holding the Cup in his pub 

LEINSTER legend Gordon D'Arcy was left holding the Heineken Cup after the team celebrated their historic win.

The rugby centre, who is planning a wedding to long-term fiancee Aoife Cogan this summer, arrived bruised and battered at a city pub this weekend.

Gordon 'The Darce' is one of the Exchequer's major investors and was deemed to be the most "responsible" as the team celebrated their spoils at the weekend in the capital.

Marketing manager Gordon Campbell said that they were delighted that Gordon took time out of his training schedule to pay a visit to the Exchequer Street bar.

"He came in pretty battered and bruised for lunch on Sunday," he told the Herald. "He managed to take home the Heineken Cup on Saturday night as he took it easy and left early. He was probably the most responsible at the time.

"Gordon brought the trophy into us on Monday and we were delighted to get a few shots with him."

Fans of the game crowded the pub over the weekend and Mr Campbell said that the place will be decked in blue for this weekend's clash at the RaboDirect Pro12 Final.

And the European trophy will be taking up a brief residence in the central bar over the coming weeks.

"We will have an official trophy visit in the coming weeks where customers will get the chance to meet Gordon and lift the trophy too," he said.

CCTV footage viewed in hunt for tragic Phyllis' killer

THE NET was closing in today on a blonde reveller suspected of killing cancer survivor Phyllis Black.

Gardai have vital CCTV footage they believe will identify the woman who attacked Phyllis in the early hours of Sunday morning outside a takeaway on Parnell Street.

Phyllis (51) was out socialising with family and friends when she was assaulted and knocked to the ground. She was taken to Mater Hospital but left of her own accord and died at her home a few hours later.

Gardai were today continuing to track down the woman responsible, who later fled from the scene on foot.

The news comes as her devastated family prepares for Phyllis's body to be brought home today for a wake.

Her sister Emily (54), who was also assaulted, said: "It still hasn't hit home that Phyllis is going to be brought home dead. We are pleading with the woman responsible to hand herself in."

Phyllis had been battling breast cancer for three and a half years.

Alert as US conman tricks Irish J1 students out of €4k

A STUDENT has warned her fellow J1 travellers to beware of a scam in the US that cost her and her friends almost ¤4,000.

Leah Hughes (21) from Clonskeagh in Dublin, had been planning the trip of a lifetime -- a summer in Los Angeles with four of her pals. The group wired $4,750 (€3,710) to a man claiming to own a property in Santa Monica on a reputable rental website, but he pocketed the money and left them with nothing.

According to the FBI, this scam is widespread in the US. Fraudsters use details and photographs of genuine rental properties and pretend they are the owners.

Once they find an interested party, they ask for money to be wired or transferred to a bank account and then disappear.

Celine Kennelly of the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Centre in San Francisco said Irish students fall foul of the scam every year. Ms Kennelly added: "Our advice is, if someone asks you to wire money ahead of arriving here, don't do it. We've had this situation before and many students get scammed this way every year.

"We want to get the message out there to people that wiring money over to someone you don't know just isn't safe."

Instead, students should find a cheap hostel and use that as a base to look for accommodation when they arrive.

Ms Hughes, a journalism student from Dublin Business School, said: "Half of our accommodation money is gone. We've lost ¤750 each, which is half of what we were able to spend so we've decided we don't want to go to LA. I don't want to even think that I'm living in the same area as this guy who did this.

"But we still want to go because we've paid for our flights and for our J1 visa but we're going to go to San Francisco instead. We don't have a house yet to stay in because we haven't been able to find anywhere that we can afford."

Leah found the property on an established site that is used by people all over the world.

She said: "He sent me all the photographs of the place by email. According to the website it existed and it was legitimate."

The first payment of $4,750 was to cover their rent for five weeks, plus a $500 security. Leah first became concerned when the man came back looking for more money once she had wired the first load of cash.

She has since contacted the real agents for the property and they told her they had never heard of the man who had emailed h er.

 

Aine makes her return after cancer battle

RTE presenter Aine Lawlor is set to make a return to television after her battle with cancer.

She will report from the Bloom 2012 gardening and food event in Dublin next week.

And she is looking forward to returning to her high-profile presenting slot on the Morning Ireland radio show later this year.

Ms Lawlor has been making a steady recovery from breast cancer since undergoing treatment last October.

She will be teaming up with Claire Byrne for the half-hour RTE television programme being broadcast on June 1 from the Phoenix Park.

Claire, who will present the Friday evening programme, has been working alongside Aine's old colleagues on the top audience-puller Morning Ireland.

Mother-of-four Aine will report on some of the 27 show gardens to be featured in the exhibition of leading designs in a 70-acre site.

Aine is easing back into broadcasting. Her first foray before the microphones was a Morning Ireland report on the Irish diaspora on St Patrick's Day.

The garden show will be another "interim" undertaking as she prepares to return to full-time broadcasting "later this year", said an RTE spokeswoman.

family

Ms Lawlor told the Marian Finucane Show last month that she always thought cancer would hit her and was only surprised it had not happened sooner.

She said that her family had been hit with cancer several times, with her mother, grandmother and cousin all being diagnosed. Her mother died at just 47.

Ms Lawlor said she was 50 when she was told she had cancer and was surprised it hadn't happened sooner. "It was always something I thought was going to get me."

In an interview in April, she told listeners she hoped to be back on Morning Ireland as soon as she could over the summer.

"I have been told I am better now," Ms Lawlor said.

She underwent surgery and went on to participate in a drug trial for the disease.

She spoke about being nauseous at night when she was undergoing chemotherapy.

Ms Lawlor said everyone reacted differently to chemotherapy, but recalled a bright and cheerful place with "a lot of laughter" as people were treated in the clinic.

"But not everyone is going to get better and there is a whole sensitivity you have to be aware of," she said.