Little things . . .

HE MIGHT have blown up in the closing stages of his last two big golf tournaments in the US recently, but it’s nice to see that Pádraig Harrington hasn’t lost his sense of humour.

Harrington was the “special honoree” on Monday night at the Wall Street 50 Awards in the New York Yacht Club, co-sponsored by Irish America magazine and consulting group FTI, which sponsors the Irish golfer.

Harrington told the 300 Irish- American business leaders that his family helped to keep his spirits up when his game was off.

When he arrived back home after the British Open in July he found the theme tune to Jaws had been left on his voicemail by a family member. Last week, he found a scooper for getting golf balls out of water in his golf bag.

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IRISH LIFE & Permanent (IL*P) is to regain its place in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 European benchmark index.

The move takes effect on September 21st and sees ILP return to the index, having been excluded in May.

The change is the result of a quarterly review and should lead to ILP being supported by fund managers who follow the index.

It’s a small crumb of comfort for shareholders, who have seen the value of their investments plummet in the past 12 months.