The winners may feel like shouting "Thank you, big fella" when they receive the 1998 Irish Almanac & Yearbook of Facts from Artcam Publishing. This, as nobody could forget, was Charlie Haughey's reported response to Ben Dunne when the businessman handed over a couple of bank drafts. It's one of the "quotes of the year" in the almanac.
Winners of the almanac's essay competition might also shriek "What the heck has the man got?" on sight of the packages being delievered to their schools. This, the almanac tells us, was the question posed by the newspaper when it heard that over 8,000 people had flocked to Daniel O'Donnell's tea party in Donegal.
The annually produced almanac has zillions of facts, statistics and lists. It has a county-by-county guide - all 32 of them - dealing with history, geography, demography, industry, administration, newspapers and radio stations. It retains updated versions of favourites such as the top news stories of the year and the chronology of the year. There are road accident figures from 1986 to 1996 and a sports diary of the year. The almanac is now available from bookshops at £6.95.
The 10 winners of the competition run by earlier this year each get 50 free copies of the Irish Almanac & Yearbook of Facts 1997. They are: Anna McIntyre, Balla Secondary School, Castlebar, Co Mayo; Orna McDonald, Loreto Primary School, Gorey, Co Wexford; Miriam Fitzgerald, St Brigid's Primary School, Youghal Road, Midleton, Co Cork; Emma Hughes, Holy Family Senior School, Ennis, Co Clare; Danielle Coyle, St Baithin's School, St Johnston, Co Donegal; Michael Nolan, St Kieran's College, Kilkenny; Alice Anne McKay, Mill Strand Integrated School, Portrush, Co Antrim; Mark Phelan, St Kieran's College, Kilkenny; Shane Sibbel, St Joseph's Boys' School, Rathkeale, Co Limerick and Lorcan O'Neill, St Mary's National School, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick.
