title: Tyagaraja

text: In addition to nearly 700 compositions (kritis), Tyagaraja composed two musical plays in Telugu, the "Prahalada Bhakti Vijayam" and the "Nauka Charitam". "Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam" is in five acts with 45 "kritis" set in 28 ragas and 138 verses, in different metres in Telugu. "Nauka Charitam" is a shorter play in one act with 21 "kritis" set in 13 "ragas" and 43 verses. The latter is the most popular of Tyagaraja's operas, and is a creation of the composer's own imagination and has no basis in the Bhagavata Purana. Tyagaraja also composed a number of simple devotional pieces appropriate for choral singing.


title: Tyagaraja

text: The 20th-century Indian music critic K. V. Ramachandran wrote: "Tyagaraja is an indefatigable interpreter of the past... but if with one eye he looks backward, with the other he looks forward as well. Like Prajapati, he creates his own media and adores his Rama not alone with jewel-words newly fashioned, but also with jewel-[like]-music newly created. It is this facet of Tyagaraja that distinguishes him from his illustrious contemporaries." In other words, while Tyagaraja's contemporaries were primarily concerned with bringing to audiences the music of the past, Tyagaraja also pioneered new musical concepts at the same time.


title: Tyagaraja

text: "Tyagaraja Aradhana", the commemorative music festival is held every year in Thiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu, during the months of January to February in Tyagaraja's honor. This is a week-long festival of music where various Carnatic musicians from all over the world converge at his resting place. On the Pushya Bahula Panchami, thousands of people and hundreds of Carnatic musicians sing the five Pancharatna Kritis in unison, with the accompaniment of a large bank of accompanists on veenas, violins, flutes, nadasvarams, mridangams and ghatams.


title: Tyagaraja

text: A sports complex in New Delhi, Thyagaraj Sports Complex, was named after him. A crater on the planet Mercury was named after Tyagaraja in 1976.


title: Tyagaraja

text: Apart from references to his works, using the "kirtanas" as songs, two films were made on his life. V. Nagayya made a biographical epic on Tyagaraja titled "Tyagayya" in 1946 which is still treated as a masterpiece of Telugu cinema. In 1981, Bapu–Ramana made "Tyagayya" with J. V. Somayajulu in the lead role. Another attempt is being made by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao to picturise Tyagaraja's life. Apart from these, "Bombay Gnanam" made a short film known as "Endaro Mahanubavulu" on Tyagaraja. The short film was released on 27 February 2021, on the 174th Tyagaraja Aradhana festival.


title: Tyagaraja

text: The term "Pancharatna" in Sanskrit means "five gems": The Pancharatnas are known as the five finest gems of Carnatic music. All of the Pancharatnas are set to Adi Talam. So far as Pancharatnas are concerned, a stable text has been handed over by the earlier musicians to the present day. Several musicians have brought out editions of Pancharatnas. However, Veenai Sundaram Iyer's edition is the most detailed and comprehensive. All the compositions of Tyagaraja show the way for the systematic development of the respective ragas. However, in the Pancharatnas, Tyagaraja has given exhaustive treatment as to how to systematically and scientifically develop a raga. The two fundamental conditions that must be satisfied for the systematic development of a raga are the arrangement of the solfa swaras in the natural order of Arohanam and Avarohanam of the Ragas so as to satisfy the sound principles of harmony and continuity. Pancharatnas satisfy these scientific principles. The Pancharatnas are composed in perfect sarvalaghu swaras.


title: Tyagaraja

text: Other compositions by Tyagaraja include Saamajavaragamana in Hindolam raagam, Aadamodigaladhe in Chaarukesi raagam, Raaju vedale in Hanumatodi raagam, Ninne nammi naanura in Todi raagam, Kamalapthakula in Brindavana saranga raagam, Ksheera saagara shayana in Devagaandhaari raagam, Maarubalka kunna vemira ma manoramana in Sriranjani raagam, and Nagumomu kanaleni in Aabheri raagam.


title: General insurance

text: General insurance or non-life insurance policy, including automobile and homeowners policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determined to be life insurance. It is called property and casualty insurance in the United States and Canada and non-life insurance in Continental Europe.


title: General insurance

text: In the United Kingdom, insurance is broadly divided into three areas: personal lines, commercial lines and London market.


title: General insurance

text: The London market insures large commercial risks such as supermarkets, football players, corporation risks, and other very specific risks. It consists of a number of insurers, reinsurers, P&I Clubs, brokers and other companies that are typically physically located in the City of London. Lloyd's of London is a big participant in this market. The London market also participates in personal lines and commercial lines, domestic and foreign, through reinsurance.


title: General insurance

text: Commercial lines products are usually designed for relatively small legal entities. These would include workers' compensation (employers liability), public liability, product liability, commercial fleet and other general insurance products sold in a relatively standard fashion to many organisations. There are many companies that supply comprehensive commercial insurance packages for a wide range of different industries, including shops, restaurants and hotels.


title: General insurance

text: Personal lines products are designed to be sold in large quantities. This would include autos (private car), homeowners (household), pet insurance, creditor insurance and others.


title: General insurance

text: ACORD, which is the insurance industry global standards organization, has standards for personal and commercial lines and has been working with the Australian General Insurers to develop those XML standards, standard applications for insurance, and certificates of currency.


title: General insurance

text: The United States was the largest market for non-life insurance premiums written in 2005 followed by the European Union and Japan.


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: Jonathan Freeman (born February 5, 1950) is an American actor and puppeteer. He is known for puppeteering and voicing Tito Swing in "Shining Time Station" and for voicing Jafar in Disney's "Aladdin" franchise, as well as the "Kingdom Hearts" franchise and the 2011 "Aladdin" musical.


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: As well as being the voice of Jafar in "Aladdin", a role he once said he's called in to reprise every 3 to 6 months, Freeman is also known for being the puppeteer for Tito Swing of the Jukebox Band (Flexitoon Puppets) on the PBS series "Shining Time Station". Freeman reprised his role as Jafar in the direct-to-video sequel to "Aladdin", "The Return of Jafar".


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: In 1994, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in "She Loves Me". Additionally, he appeared in the Broadway revival productions of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", "The Producers", "On the Town", and "42nd Street", during which his caricature was drawn for "Sardi's" restaurant in 2002.


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: Freeman can be heard on the 1997 Varèse Sarabande studio recording of the flop 1965 musical "Drat! The Cat!".


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: He was also seen on stage as Cogsworth in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", and originated the role of Grimsby in Disney's Broadway production of "The Little Mermaid".


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: Freeman began his run starring as Admiral Boom and the Bank Chairman in the Broadway production of "Mary Poppins" on December 12, 2009.


title: Jonathan Freeman (actor)

text: Freeman also reprised his role as Jafar on stage in the new musical adaptation of "Aladdin", which played at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre from July 7–31, 2011. He reprised the role in the Broadway production, which opened in March 2014 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, and he is the only actor from the original cast of the animated film to do so. Also, he reprised the role in the special West End performance was filmed shot on location at the London's Prince Edward Theatre on August 31, 2019. After nearly eight years with the show, Freeman played his final performance with the company on January 23, 2022.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack () is a village located primarily in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retains a very small western section in Clarkstown. It is a suburb of New York City lying approximately north of the Manhattan boundary near the west bank of the Hudson River, situated north of South Nyack, east of Central Nyack, south of Upper Nyack, and southeast of Valley Cottage.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack is one of five southeastern Rockland County villages and hamlets that constitute "The Nyacks" – Nyack, Central Nyack, South Nyack, Upper Nyack and West Nyack. Named after the Native Americans who resided there before European colonization, the village consists mostly of low-rise buildings lying on the hilly terrain that meets the western shore of the Hudson River. Adjacent South Nyack is the western terminus of the Tappan Zee Bridge, connected across the Hudson River to Tarrytown in Westchester County by U.S. Interstate 87, an important commuter artery.


title: Nyack, New York

text: The village is approximately in area, over 50% of which falls within the Hudson River. It is in the Nyack Public Schools.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Native American stone relics and oyster middens found along the shore of the Hudson indicate today's Nyack was a favorite pre-Colonial fishing spot. The first Europeans settled in there in 1675, calling the general area "Tappan".


title: Nyack, New York

text: Harman Douwenszen is thought to be the first white settler. He came to America as a toddler and grew up in Bergen, New Jersey. In the State Archives in Albany there is a 1687 letter on file petitioning Governor Dongan to buy a strip of land in the west hills of Tappan (today Nyack), in which he had lived on for 12 years. His petition was granted and he bought the land from the Native Americans. He called his farm New Orania ("Oranje" in Dutch). This section of Nyack became known as Orangetown in 1683. The Tappan Register of 1707 claimed it was pronounced Nay-ack. Nyack became part of Rockland County in 1798. Harman's younger brother Theius changed the family name from Douwse (Frisian for first son) to Talma (Dutch for first son). His children became Talman and eventually Tallmans. The New Orania farm became the Tallman homestead, at the northeast corner of what is now Broadway and Tallman Place. The building was demolished in 1914.


title: Nyack, New York

text: The humble Peticon of Harman Dowse of Tappan Neare Ye River Side, Alias New Orania farm ... your peticonr is a farmer that hath nothing wot comes by his hard labour but by God's Blessing out ye Produce and ye ground, and hath a family to provide for.


title: Nyack, New York

text: On the north wall of the Key Bank building at South Broadway and Burd Street in Nyack is a plaque installed in 1938 that reads:


title: Nyack, New York

text: The Tappan Indians, from time immemorial, occupied these lands fronting the river shore. Here, in summer they lived upon fish and oysters. In Algonkian dialect spoken by them they called this location NAY-ACK which means the fishing place. The first settlement of white people within the limits of the present Rockland County, New York, took place in 1675 when Harmen Dowesen (Tallman), a young Dutchman of Bergen, New Jersey relocated here.


title: Nyack, New York

text: The Tallmans erected a mill upon a stream which still is known as Mill Brook. Abraham Lydecker purchased land from the Tallmans when there were but seven homes in Nyack in 1813. Nyack became an incorporated village in 1872 according to the same plaque on the Midland Trust Building.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Three major industries once thrived in Nyack: sandstone quarrying for New York City buildings (–1840); boat building—sloops, steamboats, then pleasure craft and World War I and II submarine chasers (ca. 1915–1948); and shoe manufacturing (ca. 1828–1900).


title: Nyack, New York

text: Following the extension of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey into the community in the mid-19th century, rapid growth ensued. Because town government was no longer seen as an effective way to deal with the community's needs, village incorporation was discussed. Fearing higher taxes, those in what would have become the northern part of Nyack village formed their own municipal corporation first, named Upper Nyack. Nyack village was incorporated, although without this northern portion. Residents in the southern part of Nyack village, however, soon became dissatisfied with the notion of paying taxes that more heavily benefited the rest of the village. After succeeding in dissolving Nyack's corporation, the southern portion of the former village incorporated as the village of South Nyack. The area between Upper Nyack and South Nyack was reincorporated thereafter, again as Nyack.


title: Nyack, New York

text: The Nyack Rocklands were a minor league baseball team based in Nyack, New York. The Rocklands were unofficially nicknamed the "Rockies" and played as members of the Class D level North Atlantic League from 1946 to 1948. The Nyack Rocklands were an affiliate of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1947.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Nyack was known for its shipbuilding and was the commercial center of Rockland County. In the 19th century, a number of factories manufactured shoes. The Erie Railroad connected with Jersey City, New Jersey, where ferries took passengers to Chambers Street, New York City, until it was discontinued in 1966. With the completion of the Tappan Zee Bridge in December 1955, connecting South Nyack with Tarrytown in Westchester County, the population increased and Nyack's commercial sector expanded.


title: Nyack, New York

text: In the 1980s, the village underwent a major urban revitalization project to commercialize the downtown area and to expand its economy. The Helen Hayes Theatre was built, and the downtown area became home to many new business establishments.


title: Nyack, New York

text: In 1991 the landmark court case "Stambovsky v. Ackley" ruled that a house at 1 LaVeta Place on the Hudson River was legally haunted and that the owner (but not the real estate agent) was required to disclose that to prospective buyers. The owner, Helen Ackley, earlier had organized haunted house tours and was party to an article about it in "Reader's Digest". After Ackley sold the house to another buyer there were no subsequent reports of hauntings.


title: Nyack, New York

text: On August 10, 2010, Highland Hose Company No. 5, a two-story brick firehouse located at 288 Main Street, celebrated 100 years at the firehouse. The firehouse was built in 1910 – fifteen years after Highland Hose was founded. The company's 1949 Ahrens-Fox fire engine was polished to bright, gleaming red and is still in use after more than 50 years.


title: Nyack, New York

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , of which is land and (51.88%) is water.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack is on the west bank of the Hudson River, north of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The village is also home to Hook Mountain and has hilly terrain, especially along the shore of the river.


title: Nyack, New York

text: 63.8% White, 26.3% African American, 0.2% Native American, 2.4% Asian, 2.7% from other races, and 4.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race


title: Nyack, New York

text: There were 3,188 households, out of which 20.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.0% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 52.6% were non-families. 42.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10 and the average family size was 2.93.


title: Nyack, New York

text: In the village, the population was spread out, with 19.0% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 36.2% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.2 males.


title: Nyack, New York

text: The median income for a household in the village was $54,890, and the median income for a family was $69,146. Men had a median income of $50,043 versus $35,202 for women. The per capita income for the village was $32,699. About 2.2% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 8.6% of those age 65 or over.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack is located along the New York State Thruway, in its concurrent section with Interstate 87 and Interstate 287, just to the north of the Tappan Zee Bridge, now officially named the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Other important arterial roadways include U.S. Route 9W and New York State Route 59.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack was formerly served by the Northern Branch of the Erie Railroad, with service to Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City. (The southern terminus was shifted to Hoboken in 1958 and the Erie Lackawanna operated the train after 1960.) Passenger service was discontinued in 1966, and the rail line has been converted into a walking path. As a result, Nyack no longer has direct passenger rail service. The nearest railroad stations with current passenger service are Tarrytown 8 miles away and Nanuet 5.8 miles away.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack is served by the Lower Hudson Transit Link (known colloquially as Hudson Link), which connects Nyack with rail stations in Tarrytown and White Plains. The bus station is located adjacent to the municipal parking lot on Artopee Way. Nyack is also served by Rockland Coaches 9T buses to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and 9A buses to the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal in New York City. The Rockland Coaches main bus stop is located at the intersection of South Broadway and Cedar Hill Avenue. A secondary stop is located at the intersection of Midland Avenue and Castle Heights Avenue. Local bus transit is provided by Transport of Rockland.


title: Nyack, New York

text: Nyack Public Schools serves Nyack. Nyack High School is the village's high school. Nyack was also home to Nyack College, a Christian liberal arts college and one of the four colleges in the United States affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance church.


title: Nyack, New York

text: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York operates Catholic schools in Rockland County. St. Ann Parish School in Nyack closed in 2003. staffed by the Sisters of St. Dominic.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: The Downtown Line (DTL) is a medium-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore operated by SBS Transit. It runs from Bukit Panjang station in the north-west to Expo station in the east via the Central Area. Coloured blue on the rail map, the line serves 34 stations, all of which are underground. The DTL is the fifth MRT line on the network to be opened and the third line to be entirely underground. It is the second MRT line to be operated by SBS Transit, after the North East Line.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: Originally planned as three separate lines, the lines merged into the Downtown Line in 2007 and construction began in three stages. The first section, from Bugis to Chinatown station (formerly the Downtown Extension of the Circle Line), opened in December 2013, followed by the second section from Bukit Panjang to Rochor station (formerly the Bukit Timah Line) opening in December 2015. The third and final stage, from Fort Canning to Expo station (formerly the northern part of the East Coast Line), opened in October 2017. At , the DTL is the longest underground and automated rapid transit line in Singapore . The train utilises the Bombardier Movia C951 which runs in a three-car formation on the line.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: The line is set to be further extended in the 2020s. Stage 3e, an extension of the line to Sungei Bedok, is under construction and is scheduled to begin operations in 2024, while a new infill station, Hume station, is planned to open in 2025. An extension to connect with the North South line at Sungei Kadut station is also being planned and set to open in the 2030s. When fully completed in 2025, the line will be about long with 37 stations, and will serve more than half a million commuters daily.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: At the official opening of the Dover station on 23 October 2001, then-Minister for Communications and Information Technology Yeo Cheow Tong announced three MRT lines, two of which―the Bukit Timah Line and the northern part of the Eastern Region Line―are part of today's DTL. The Bukit Timah Line aimed to alleviate the traffic problems along the Bukit Timah and Dunearn Road corridor, and provide a direct link to the city area for residents in Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang. The proposed Eastern Region Line, slated to be a loop in the eastern regions, aimed to relieve the passenger load on the often-congested East West line and benefiting those living in Tampines, Bedok and Marine Parade.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: On 14 June 2005, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the Downtown Extension (renamed to "Downtown Line Stage 1"), which would serve the New Downtown at Marina Bay area, where an integrated resort (Marina Bay Sands) and Singapore's second botanical garden (Gardens by the Bay) were to be located. The extension, estimated to cost S$1.4 billion, was initially announced to be part of the Circle line. On 27 April 2007, then Transport Minister Raymond Lim announced that the Downtown Line would be built in three stages stretching with 33 stations.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: Stage 1 of the Downtown line, stretching , started construction in January 2008 at Chinatown station, where platform provisions were built to facilitate an interchange station during the construction of the North East line. It began service on 22 December 2013, with its official inauguration made on the day before by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: Stage 2, first conceptualized and announced as the Bukit Timah line on 23 October 2001, is long with 12 stations connecting Bukit Panjang and Rochor stations, including four interchange stations. Construction for Stage 2 began on 3 July 2009 with a groundbreaking ceremony at Beauty World station. The line inaugurated on 27 December 2015, with free travel for all 18 stations from 27 December 2015 to 1 January 2016.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: Stage 3 goes from Chinatown to Expo. The station locations and finalised route were unveiled on 20 August 2010. Stage 3 of the Downtown line is long and serve 16 stations. The route opened on 21 October 2017, with free travel for all DTL stations on the first two days of the line completion.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: The line, with an estimated cost of S$12 billion, was considered the government's most ambitious rail project. The cost exceeded those of the Circle Line (at $6.7 billion) and the North East Line (at $4.6 billion). Final costs of building the line may reach an estimated about S$20.7 billion, up more than 70% from the initial estimation, due to sharp rises in construction costs and a number of changes in plans.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: In October 2014, it was announced that Stage 2's opening would be pushed back to the first quarter of 2016. This was because one of the main contractors for the DTL2, Alpine Bau (which was building King Albert Park, Sixth Avenue and Tan Kah Kee), went bankrupt in mid-2013. On 28 June 2015, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew announced that the delay was "completely resolved" by the authorities and Stage 2's opening date was brought forward to 27 December 2015. The DTL 3 started operations on 21 October 2017, officially opened by Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: To serve the line, the Gali Batu Depot was opened in December 2015 to stable 42 trains. It is situated at part of the former Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery off Woodlands Road. Also in February that year, the Land Transport Authority announced that the capacity of the depot will be expanded to stable 81 trains by 2019.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: On 17 January 2013, plans were announced for a southern extension extending from Expo to connect with the Eastern Region line (ERL); the ERL has since been subsumed into the Thomson-East Coast line. The extension was to provide more travel options and enhance connectivity for the residents along the East Coast. The Downtown Line 3 extension (DTL3e) was finalised and announced on 15 August 2014, in conjunction with the announcement of the Thomson–East Coast line. Two stations, Xilin MRT station and Sungei Bedok MRT station, will be added to the Downtown Line, with Sungei Bedok as an interchange station with the Thomson–East Coast line. It will lengthen the line by . Expected to be completed in 2024, Stage 3e will connect the current East West line at Expo station and the future TEL at Sungei Bedok station.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: On 7 March 2019, Hume station was announced to be opened by 2025 to better serve Hillview residents. An additional extension to the Downtown Line to Sungei Kadut station from Bukit Panjang station was announced on 25 May 2019 by the LTA. The extension is set to cut down travel time to the downtown area by up to 30 minutes for those living in the northwestern area of Singapore. The extension is expected to be completed by the mid-2030s. A study will also be conducted to determine the stops to be added between the Sungei Kadut and the existing Bukit Panjang stations.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: A malfunction in the platform screen doors at Botanic Gardens station resulted in trains bypassing the station and a seven-hour disruption on 3 May 2017. Downtown line operator SBS Transit said that the doors malfunctioned at 5:45am due to a signalling-related fault, and could not open automatically. The fault was rectified at 12:54pm and the platform reopened for passenger service, with the affected door remaining closed for repairs.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: The Downtown line generally goes in an east–west direction from Bukit Panjang in the northwestern side of Singapore, through the downtown area of Singapore, to Tampines and the Singapore Expo in the east. It is long and is entirely underground. Before Bukit Panjang station, there exists a brief northwards extension to the line's depot Gali Batu Depot. The line begins at the Bukit Panjang station and then goes in the southeast direction, running parallel to Upper Bukit Timah Road and along the Bukit Timah Canal through Bukit Timah. The line then enters the central area, passing through Little India station before reaching the Central Business District via Bugis station. The Downtown line runs parallel to the Circle line at the Promenade and Bayfront stations. Passing through the Downtown Core, the line interchanges with the North East line at Chinatown station.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: After Chinatown station, the line goes in a northeast direction and under the Singapore River. Between the Bencoolen and Jalan Besar stations, the line intersects itself, the first MRT line to do so. After Geylang Bahru station, the line continues in a general eastwards direction, through the industrial areas of Kampong Ubi and Kaki Bukit (briefly paralleling Ubi Avenue 2 and Kaki Bukit Avenue 1), before continuing towards the Tampines Regional Centre and goes southwards, ending at Changi Business Park. The DTL3 extension (DTL3e) from Expo station will extend the line further towards the Thomson–East Coast line at Sungei Bedok station.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: , the Downtown line has one type of rolling stock, the Bombardier MOVIA C951(A) cars, running in a three-car formation. They have been stabled at Gali Batu Depot since it opened with Stage 2 of the downtown line on 27 December 2015. For the period between the opening of Stage 1 and that of Stage 2, trains were stabled at a maintenance facility that was built at Marina Bay as part of the Circle line project. Kim Chuan Depot housed the Operations Control Centre for the Downtown Line Stage 1 until Gali Batu Depot was ready.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: On 12 October 2012, the first of 11 trains for the line arrived at Jurong Port. It was transported to Kim Chuan Depot to undergo testing by the LTA before it was handed over to SBS Transit. , Bombardier had delivered five of the 11 trains for Downtown line stage 1. LTA together with the operator, SBS Transit, conducted the necessary tests to ensure safety standards, functional performance and systems compatibility requirements were met before revenue service began on 22 December 2013.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: Testing for Stage 2 began on 25 October 2015 and rolling stock that was delivered to Gali Batu Depot commenced service in Stage 1 on 21 October 2015, while SBS Transit slowly moved the equipment managing the DTL trains to Gali Batu Depot during non-revenue hours. Kim Chuan Depot, together with the adjacent Tai Seng Facility Building, operated in a minor capacity until Stage 3 opened. A new depot, named the East Coast Integrated Depot, is planned to provide additional stabling capacity to the line in 2024. Testing on the integration of systems of Stage 3 and the rest of the line started from 14 May 2017 till 27 August 2017.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: The Downtown line is equipped with Siemens (previously Invensys before Siemens acquisition) Trainguard Sirius Communications-based train control (CBTC) moving block signalling system with Automatic train control (ATC) under Automatic train operation (ATO) GoA 4 (UTO). The subsystems consist of Automatic train protection (ATP) to govern train speed, Controlguide Rail 9000 Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) to track and schedule trains and Trackguard Westrace MK2 Computer-based interlocking (CBI) system that prevents incorrect signal and track points to be set.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: A fall-back signalling system, relying on conventional track-circuit occupancy detection, is included to ensure fully automatic operation and train protection independent of the radio system.


title: Downtown MRT line

text: Platform screen doors (PSDs) along the line were installed by Westinghouse Signal (Invensys Rail Group), supplied by Faiveley. The PSDs provide safety for passengers, offering protection from arriving and departing trains.


title: Grace Van Dien

text: Grace Van Dien (born ) is an American actress and Twitch streamer. She is known for playing Brooke Osmond in the Netflix teen drama series "Greenhouse Academy" (2017) and Katie Campbell in NBC drama series " The Village" (2019). She also portrayed Sharon Tate in the Mary Harron-directed film "Charlie Says" (2018).


title: Grace Van Dien

text: Van Dien was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of actors Casper Van Dien and Carrie Mitchum, and the great-granddaughter of Hollywood Golden Age star Robert Mitchum. Her former stepmother is actress Catherine Oxenberg. Van Dien has one older brother, and two half-sisters. On her father's side, Van Dien has Dutch, Swedish, French, and English ancestry.


title: Grace Van Dien

text: In 2005, Van Dien appeared with her family in the reality series, "I Married a Princess", which aired on the Lifetime Television channel in the United States. Van Dien played several small roles in her father's films throughout her childhood. Prior to formally beginning her acting career, Van Dien intended to become a writer, before discovering a passion for acting while filming "Sleeping Beauty" (2014). Between 2015 and 2017, she appeared in several television films, independent films and had guest starring roles in the television series "Code Black" and "White Famous".


title: Grace Van Dien

text: Van Dien's first major television role was as Brooke Osmond in the Netflix teen drama series "Greenhouse Academy", a role she played in the series' first two seasons (2017–2019). In 2018, she starred as Sharon Tate in the biographical film "Charlie Says", which had its world premiere at the 75th Venice International Film Festival. In 2019, Van Dien was cast in the starring role of Katie Campbell in the NBC drama series " The Village", which was cancelled after one season.


title: Grace Van Dien

text: In 2022, Van Dien guest starred in the fourth season of the Netflix series "Stranger Things", playing Chrissy Cunningham, a popular but troubled cheerleader at Hawkins High School. The same year, Van Dien began streaming on video game live streaming service Twitch, reaching over 200,000 followers within three months of starting her channel. She signed with United Talent Agency for representation in August 2022.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Anthony Philip Harford (born 19 April 1957), better known by his stage name Tony Martin, is an English heavy metal vocalist, best known for his time fronting Black Sabbath, initially from 1987 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1997. Martin was the band's second-longest-serving vocalist after Ozzy Osbourne. He has since been involved in many other projects (such as M3, Misha Calvin, The Cage, Giuntini Project, and Phenomena).


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Despite performing almost exclusively as a vocalist, Martin is a multi-instrumentalist, stating in an interview that he plays guitar, bass, drums, violin, keyboards, harmonica, bagpipes, and pan pipes. On his 2005 solo album "Scream", Martin performed vocals, bass, drums, violin and additional guitar parts.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: During the recording of "The Eternal Idol" (1987), Martin was brought in to re-record Ray Gillen's tracks, alongside former Electric Light Orchestra drummer Bev Bevan who had previously been in Black Sabbath during 1983–84 on the Born Again tour.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Martin had been contacted by Black Sabbath to replace Glenn Hughes the year previous. He secured his place in the band after a successful audition singing the track "The Shining". Before the release of the new album, Black Sabbath accepted an offer to play six shows at Sun City, South Africa during the apartheid era. During this period Geezer Butler was coerced into rejoining the band with Bev Bevan remaining on drums. The band was supposed to play a music festival in Plymouth on 18 July, but Butler backed out at the last minute but Martin and Sabbath had been in rehearsals on 14–16 July in preparation.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: The band drew criticism from activists and artists involved with Artists United Against Apartheid, who had been boycotting South Africa since 1985. Bev Bevan refused to play the shows, and was replaced by Terry Chimes, formerly of The Clash. After nearly a year in production, Martin's debut with Sabbath "The Eternal Idol" was released on 8 December 1987 and ignored by contemporary reviewers. On-line internet era reviews were mixed. AllMusic said that "Martin's powerful voice added new fire" to the band, and the album contained "some of Iommi's heaviest riffs in years".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: The album would stall at No. 66 in the UK, peaking at 168 in the US. Sabbath toured in support of "Eternal Idol" in Germany, Italy and for the first time, Greece. Unfortunately, in part because of a backlash from promoters over the South Africa incident, other European shows were cancelled. Bassist Dave Spitz left the band shortly before the tour, and was replaced by Jo Burt, formerly of Virginia Wolf.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Following the poor commercial performance of "The Eternal Idol", Black Sabbath were dropped by Vertigo Records and Warner Bros. Records, and signed with I.R.S. Records. The band took time off in 1988, returning in August to begin work on their next album. As a result of the recording troubles with "Eternal Idol", Tony Iommi opted to produce the band's next album himself. "It was a completely new start", Iommi said. "I had to rethink the whole thing, and decided that we needed to build up some credibility again". Iommi enlisted ex-Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell, long-time keyboardist Geoff Nicholls and session bassist Laurence Cottle, and rented a "very cheap studio in England".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Black Sabbath released "Headless Cross" in April 1989, and this album was again ignored by contemporary reviewers. Eventually, AllMusic would give the album four stars, calling "Headless Cross" "the finest non-Ozzy or Dio Black Sabbath album". Anchored by the number 62 charting single "Headless Cross", the album reached number 31 on the UK charts, and number 115 in the US. Queen guitarist Brian May, a good friend of Iommi's, played a guest solo on the song "When Death Calls". Black Sabbath were told by Gloria Butler that Geezer was going to join the band again. The band waited until April 1989 for Butler, but Geezer instead went and joined Ozzy Osbourne's band. Following the album's release, the band added touring bassist Neil Murray, formerly of Whitesnake, Gary Moore's backing band, and Vow Wow.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: The ill-fated "Headless Cross" U.S. tour began in May 1989 with openers Kingdom Come and Silent Rage, but because of poor ticket sales, the tour was cancelled after just eight shows. The European leg of the tour began in September, where the band were enjoying chart success. After a string of Japanese shows, the band embarked on a 23 date Russian tour with Girlschool. Black Sabbath was one of the first bands to tour Russia, after Mikhail Gorbachev opened the country to western acts for the first time in 1989.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin returned to the studio with Black Sabbath in February 1990 to record "Tyr", the follow-up to "Headless Cross". While not technically a concept album, some of the album's lyrical themes are loosely based on Norse mythology. "Tyr" was released on 6 August 1990, and reached number 24 on the UK albums chart, but was the first Black Sabbath release not to break the "Billboard 200" in the US. The album would receive mixed internet-era reviews, with AllMusic noting that the band "mix myth with metal in a crushing display of musical synthesis", while "Blender" gave the album just one star, claiming that "Iommi continues to besmirch the Sabbath name with this unremarkable collection".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: The band toured in support of "Tyr" with Circus of Power in Europe, but the final seven UK dates were cancelled because of poor ticket sales. For the first time in their career, the band's touring cycle did not include US dates. The tour had a few surprises, that being that Ian Gillan, Geezer Butler, & Brian May made appearances during a few of the shows.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Butler officially rejoined the band after the end of the Tyr tour ahead of the "Dehumanizer" (1992) album with the intention of putting something back together with Tony Iommi and Cozy Powell. In an interview with Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi in Kerrang in mid-1991 they talked about having to "get rid of" Tony Martin. This effectively ended Martin's first spell with the band.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin recorded his first solo album "Back Where I Belong" (1992) while Black Sabbath had reunited with Ronnie James Dio for the "Dehumanizer" (1992) album.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: At the demo level for "Back Where I Belong", Tony Martin played all the instruments and the album itself featured former Black Sabbath members bassist Neil Murray and drummer Cozy Powell, as well as Brian May on guitar, among others. Cozy Powell also joined the band for the subsequent tour after leaving Black Sabbath himself. There were two singles released for the album. The first was "If There Is a Heaven", and the second was "Angel in the Bed". This album includes a version of "Jerusalem" from the Black Sabbath album "Tyr" (1990).


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin stated that "Back Where I Belong is an album of songs that were written over the period between 1990 and 1991. The title reflects my feelings at having this opportunity to write, record, and perform my own material. The recording of this album has been made possible due to the contributions of the following people who have all given their individual and very special talents to this project, for which I would like to express my eternal thanks!"


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin returned briefly to Black Sabbath to work on "Dehumanizer" (1992) when things were not working out with Ronnie James Dio. He, Geoff Nicholls and Cozy Powell worked on a song called "Raising Hell" during these sessions which subsequently ended up on Martins second solo album "Scream" (2005).


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Martin said: "I had already started my first solo album Back Where I Belong so when I got the call to go back I was committed by that point. And in fact it was just a couple of months after they had started the thing with Ronnie James Dio. I was determined to finish my solo thing and so turned them down at that point. We did keep in touch though and I went to some shows. Ronnie wasn’t too pleased, but eventually they had enough and asked me to rejoin again later so it felt like I hadn’t actually left. In fact, I was never formally fired, the phone just stopped ringing. Ian Gillan [Deep Purple singer, also another ex-Black Sabbath lead singer] asked me once if I had actually been fired and I said, "No." He said, "Neither have I." We should just turn up one day and walk on stage!"


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Martin's return to Sabbath at this stage was again short lived as Warner Bros had paid a huge amount of advance money for "Dehumanizer", and again, record company pressure forced another change, they wanted either Ozzy Osbourne or Dio. Tony Martin was again forced out from the band in favour of Dio.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin famously met Dio on the "Dehumanizer" tour after being invited to the show by Iommi & Butler. Martin would be flown in to replace Dio (who had left the band over the Ozzy Osbourne retirement show) on the last show of the tour but after visa problems Rob Halford was asked to do the show instead.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Drummer Vinny Appice left the band following the reunion show to join Ronnie James Dio's solo band, later appearing on Dio's "Strange Highways" and "Angry Machines". After Iommi & Butler realised that the Ozzy Osbourne reunion talks were breaking down they enlisted former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli, and reinstated Martin.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Martins 4th album with Sabbath, "Cross Purposes", was released on 8 February 1994. The album received mixed reviews, with "Blender" giving the album two stars, calling Soundgarden's 1994 album "Superunknown" "a far better Sabbath album than this by-the-numbers potboiler". AllMusic's Bradley Torreano called "Cross Purposes" "the first album since "Born Again" that actually sounds like a real Sabbath record".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: The album just missed the Top 40 in the UK reaching number 41, and also reached 122 on the "Billboard 200" in the US. "Cross Purposes" contained the song "Evil Eye", which was co-written by Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen, although uncredited because of record label restrictions. Touring in support of "Cross Purposes" began in February 1994 with Morbid Angel and Motörhead in the US. The band filmed a live performance at the Hammersmith Apollo on 13 April 1994, which was released on VHS accompanied by a CD, entitled "Cross Purposes Live". After the European tour with Cathedral and Godspeed in June 1994, drummer Bobby Rondinelli quit the band and was replaced by original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward for five shows in South America. Following the touring cycle for "Cross Purposes", bassist Geezer Butler quit the band for the second time.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Iommi would criticize Martin during this period in his book, to which Martin responded; "It surprises me. I mean, they never said anything to me. Surely, if you've got a problem, the first person you should say something to is the person that's in the band with you... You don't wait ten years. It sounds like a really stupid thing to say, as they didn't say anything to my face – and, if that's the case, then more fool them for not saying anything, because, you know, we could have fixed it. I said to them, endlessly, that if there was anything they wanted changed, done differently, just to say and we could fix it, but clearly they didn't, they hadn't got the guts to, obviously, and to write about it in a book afterwards seems a bit daft to me. I'm not bitter about it, but it is surprising… it seems a bit stupid to say that after the event".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Following Butler's departure, newly returned drummer Bill Ward once again left the band. Butler and Ward were meant to have recorded "Forbidden" (1995). In the wake of their departure Iommi then reinstated former members Neil Murray on bass and Cozy Powell on drums, effectively reuniting the "TYR" line-up. The band enlisted Body Count guitarist Ernie C to produce the new album, which was recorded in London in the fall of 1994. The album featured a guest vocal on "Illusion of Power" by Body Count vocalist Ice-T. The resulting "Forbidden" was released on 8 June 1995, but failed to chart in the US or the UK. The album was widely panned by critics; AllMusic's Bradley Torreano said "with boring songs, awful production, and uninspired performances, this is easily avoidable for all but the most enthusiastic fan"; while "Blender" magazine called "Forbidden" "an embarrassment ... the band's worst album".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Black Sabbath embarked on a world tour in July 1995 with openers Motörhead and Tiamat, but two months into the tour, drummer Cozy Powell left the band, citing health issues, and was replaced by former drummer Bobby Rondinelli. This would be Martin's final tour with the band.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: In December 1996, both Tony Martin (via a letter to Sam Naugler) and Iommi (via an interview with Pete Scott) both confirmed that Martin was not "out" of Sabbath, so as late as December 1996, it would appear that Iommi intended on going forward with the band as it last existed at the end of 1995. As for the rest of the band, Neil Murray was working with Cozy Powell in Peter Green's (founder of Fleetwood Mac) 'Splinter Group'.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: In 1997, Tony Iommi disbanded the contemporary line-up to officially reunite with Ozzy Osbourne and the original Black Sabbath line-up. Vocalist Tony Martin claimed that an original line-up reunion had been in the works since the band's brief reunion at Ozzy Osbourne's 1992 Costa Mesa show, and that the band released subsequent albums to fulfill their record contract with I.R.S. Records. Martin later recalled "Forbidden" as a "filler album that got the band out of the label deal, rid of the singer, and into the reunion. However I wasn't privy to that information at the time". I.R.S. Records released a compilation album in 1996 to fulfil the band's contract, entitled "The Sabbath Stones", which featured songs from "Born Again" (1983) to "Forbidden" (1995).


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Martin would also later hit out on Sabbath for being deleted from the band's history; "It seems a bit of a waste of ten years of the band's history. To cut that out, they're not just cutting me out, they're cutting themselves out. It seems like cutting your own nose off to spite your face. Why would you want to delete ten years of your history? It seems to me that they've got their minds elsewhere, and whatever brings them the most money seems to be what they go for. I mean, the Ozzy reunion. How many times do you want to go and pay to see them do the same stuff? OK, people argue that those old songs are people's favourites. Well; it's probably that way because you keep ramming it down people's throats and don't give them a chance to buy anything else. It seems disjointed and disconnected to me, and I don't understand why they would want to even cut themselves out of that history".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: After leaving Sabbath, Martin worked with a variety of projects, including Aldo Giuntini. With Dario Mollo, he released two further albums; "The Cage" in 1999 and "The Cage 2". Martin also worked with Empire for their 2003 record "Trading Souls".


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Late in 2004, Tony let it be known that there would be a new solo album by him out in 2005. The album was recorded at Tony Martin's house, which is in Headless Cross in Redditch, Worcestershire England. The album featured again former Sabbath member Geoff Nicholls and some drum tracks from the late Cozy Powell. Martin explained; "I have recorded 2 tracks featuring the legendary drumming of Cozy Powell. How? well, when I fronted Cozy Powell's Hammer, he gave me 20 drumming tracks to write some songs with, I forgot I had them until I found them recently in the move to my new house."


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin established Headless Cross in 2005 and would go on to tour Europe in 2006. The band also toured Brazil in 2008.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: After Dio's passing in 2010, there was some speculation that he would either return to Black Sabbath or join the renamed Black Sabbath Heaven & Hell. Martin however ruled out ever working with Sabbath again stating: "Sabbath hasn’t talked to me in 15 years. All of the albums that I was on were removed from sale completely by them and it would take unbelievable changes to get it all back together". Black Sabbath were rejoined by Ozzy Osbourne in 2011 with the band's legal disputes apparently concluded.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: Tony Martin's Headless Cross last performed at the Asylum in Birmingham, UK on 27 July 2012. This marked Martin's first ever UK show as a solo artist and first show with his new Headless Cross line-up. Martin stated in interviews that this will be his only live show of the year.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: In January 2013 Martin signed to a new music publishing deal by Alan Bambrough of Sony/ATV Music Publishing Limited. Martin's would be working on the fourth album "Giuntini Project IV" (2013) from Giuntini Project, the Italian people heavy metal band started in 1988 by guitarist Aldo Giuntini as a solo project. This will be the third album Martin has appeared on. Martin will also appear on releases with Layla Milou and with Veronica Freeman, vocalist with Benedictum.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: In 2019, it was announced that Martin would front Kingdom of Madness, a band featuring former Magnum members Mark Stanway, Micky Barker and Richard Bailey performing material from Magnum's classic period. The COVID-19 crisis prevented the band from touring in 2020, with dates postponed till 2021.


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: In January 2016 Martin announced on his Facebook page that he "was greeted by Tony Iommi VERY warmly" at the unveiling of the Cozy Powell memorial (also attended by Neil Murray) and that they may work together again. Shortly after Iommi himself announced his intention to work with Tony Martin again. Iommi said: "We've held back on the reissues because of the current Sabbath thing with Ozzy, but they will certainly be happening. I'd like to do a couple of new tracks for those releases ["Headless Cross" and "Tyr"] with Tony Martin. I'll also be looking at working on "Cross Purposes" and "Forbidden"."


title: Tony Martin (British singer)

text: On a religious level, Martin has claimed to be a non-believer. In a Myspace blogpost, he calls his choice to release a Christmas single "a kind of strange thing considering i dont believe there's a Christ", but goes on to explain that the song - titled "Who Put the Devil in Santa" - says that none of the Christmas message works, and in the first few lines writes that the promise of a man called Jesus "No ones seen and doesn't seem to exist".


title: Nigel Slater

text: Nigel Slater (born 9 April 1956) is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for "The Observer Magazine" for over a decade and is the principal writer for the "Observer Food Monthly" supplement. Prior to this, Slater was a food writer for "Marie Claire" for five years.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Nigel Slater was born on 9 April 1956, in Wolverhampton, then in Staffordshire. He was the youngest of two sons born to factory owner Cyril "Tony" Slater and housewife Kathleen Slater ("née" Galleymore). This was his father's second marriage. His mother died of asthma in 1965. In 1971, his father remarried to Dorothy Perrens, dying in 1973.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater attended Woodfield Avenue School in Penn, Staffordshire. He moved to Worcestershire as a teenager and attended Chantry High School where he enjoyed writing essays and was one of only two boys to take cookery as an O-Level subject.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater claims in his autobiography that he used food to compete with his stepmother for his father's attention. Their biggest battle was over lemon meringue pie – his father's favourite. She refused to divulge her recipe, so Slater resorted to subterfuge to turn out his own version. "I'd count the egg-shells in the bin, to see how many eggs she'd used and write them down. I'd come in at different times, when I knew she was making it. I'd just catch her when she was doing some meringue, building up that recipe slowly over a matter of months, if not years."


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater gained an OND in catering at Worcester Technical College in 1976, and worked in restaurants and hotels across the UK before becoming a food writer for "Marie Claire" magazine in 1988. He became known for uncomplicated, comfort food recipes which he presented in early books such as "The 30-Minute Cook" (1994) and "Real Cooking", as well as his memoir-like columns for "The Observer" which he began in 1993.


title: Nigel Slater

text: In 1998, Slater hosted the Channel 4 series "Nigel Slater's Real Food Show". He returned to TV in 2006 to host the chat/food show "A Taste of My Life" for BBC One and BBC Two. In 2009, he presented the six-part series "Simple Suppers" on BBC One, and a second series the following year.


title: Nigel Slater

text: In November 2013 he appeared alongside farmer Adam Henson on BBC's 'Nigel and Adam's Farm Kitchen', which was set on a working farm in the Cotswolds and covered various aspects of food production and preparation.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater's book, "Eating for England: The Delights & Eccentricities of the British at Table" (Fourth Estate), is devoted to British food and cookery. It was published in October 2007 and was described in "The Sunday Times" as "the sort of ragbag of choice culinary morsels that would pass the time nicely on a train journey". His book "Tender" is the story of his vegetable garden, how it came to be, and what grows in it. The book was published in two volumes; the first is on vegetables, which was released late in 2009 and the second is on fruit, which was released in 2010. "Tender" is described as a memoir, a study of fifty of our favourite vegetables, fruits and nuts and a collection of over five hundred recipes.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater became known to a wider audience with the publication of "Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger", a moving and award-winning autobiography focused on his love of food, his childhood, his family relationships (his mother died of asthma when he was nine) and his burgeoning homosexuality. Slater has called it "the most intimate memoir that any food person has ever written". "Toast" was published in Britain in October 2004 and became a best-seller after it was featured on the Richard & Judy Book Club.


title: Nigel Slater

text: As he told "The Observer", "The last bit of the book is very foody. But that is how it was. Towards the end I finally get rid of these two people in my life I did not like [his father and stepmother, who had been the family's cleaning lady]—and to be honest I was really very jubilant—and thereafter all I wanted to do was cook."


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater's autobiographical work was adapted into 2010's "Toast", starring Freddie Highmore as the 15-year-old Slater and Helena Bonham Carter as his stepmother. It has been broadcast on BBC One.


title: Nigel Slater

text: In 2018, The Lowry commissioned a stage adaptation of "Toast" written by Henry Filloux-Bennett and directed by Jonnie Riordan with Sam Newton as Nigel Slater. After a sell-out run at the Week 53 Festival, it was announced that it would transfer to the Traverse Theatre at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Both productions of the show received rave reviews with critics praising it for its charm and glowing nostalgia.


title: Nigel Slater

text: In 2018, it was announced that "Toast" would transfer to The Other Palace in London, premiering on 9 April 2019. In March 2019, it was announced that Giles Cooper would play the role of Nigel.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater has two older brothers, Adrian (born 1944) and John. Slater's parents adopted John, a neighbour's child, before Slater was born. He also has two stepsisters, from whom he is estranged.


title: Nigel Slater

text: Slater lives in the Highbury area of north London, where he maintains a kitchen garden which is often featured in his column. He was open about his homosexuality in his autobiography "Toast" which is based upon his early life; the book spawned both a film and a play to which he has contributed and collaborated.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: Kilroy Was Here is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band Styx, released on February 22, 1983. A concept album and rock opera about a world where rock music is outlawed, it is named after a famous World War II graffiti tag, "Kilroy was here". It was the last album of original material to be released by the "classic" lineup of Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James "J.Y." Young, John Panozzo, and Chuck Panozzo.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: The album spawned two hit singles, the synth-pop "Mr. Roboto" which later became one of their signature songs, and the power ballad "Don't Let It End". Both of them were major hits in 1983, peaking at No. 3 and No. 6 respectively, on the US Billboard Hot 100.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: The album is certified platinum by the RIAA. It is the most recent studio album by the band to be certified platinum.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: The band created the album "Kilroy Was Here" partly to mockingly respond to Christian groups and other anti-rock-music activists who had previously influenced the Arkansas State Senate to pass a bill requiring that all records containing backmasking be labeled as such by the manufacturer. Cited in the legislation were albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Electric Light Orchestra, Queen, and Styx. ELO similarly responded with its own 1983 album "Secret Messages".


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: The hard rocker "Heavy Metal Poisoning", the fifth track on the album, begins with the backmasked Latin words "annuit cœptis, novus ordo seclorum". Translated from the Latin, these words mean "[he] has favored our undertakings, a new order of the ages". These are the two mottoes from the Great Seal of the United States on the reverse side of the United States one-dollar bill.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: The album's somewhat rock-operatic story tells of a future in which a fascist and theocratic government and the "MMM (the Majority for Musical Morality)" have outlawed rock music. The story's protagonist, Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (DeYoung), is a former rock star who has been imprisoned by MMM leader Dr. Everett Righteous (Young). He escapes using a disguise (according to the album's famous song "Mr. Roboto") when he becomes aware that a young musician, Jonathan Chance (Shaw), is on a mission to bring rock music back.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: Vocalist and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung conceived "Kilroy Was Here" as an album and accompanying stage show, which opened with a short film of the same name. According to the episode of "Behind the Music" featuring Styx, the early part of the supporting tour was a financial disaster, due to the fact that Styx had booked small, theater-sized venues for a more intimate experience, while later tour dates saw the group performing in large arenas to sold-out crowds. The album debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 in its first week and sold over 1 million copies (although some sources say 2.5 million copies) and peaked at No. 3 on the US charts; however, it broke the streak of multi-platinum albums for Styx, and ushered in a more keyboard-oriented, theatrical direction.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: In an interview with the "Chicago Tribune", James Young talked about the creative differences in the band, and what led to their breakup: "Dennis really wanted to do these soft, intimate love ballads, and that was against the grain for me and Tommy Shaw, so our differences got magnified, because Dennis was insisting on going outside the boundaries we lived with. He's an assertive and strongly opinionated guy."


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: Despite the album's financial and chart success, after the "Kilroy" tour, the songs were not performed live by the band Styx (who fired DeYoung in 1999) in subsequent tours (with the exception of segments from "Mr. Roboto" and "Heavy Metal Poisoning" performed in the "Cyclo-medley"), until "Mr. Roboto" reappeared in full (in their encore) on May 30, 2018. DeYoung does perform the songs "Mr. Roboto" and "Don't Let It End" regularly during his solo tours. The James Young Group performed "Heavy Metal Poisoning" and "Double Life" as well on their tour in 1993.


title: Kilroy Was Here (album)

text: Three of the four videos for the album—"Mr. Roboto", "Don't Let It End", and "Heavy Metal Poisoning"—were filmed at the same time and used footage from the minifilm. A fourth video, "Haven't We Been Here Before", was filmed a few months after the album was released; it did not interact with the album's story.


title: Β-Alanine

text: β-Alanine (or beta-alanine) is a naturally occurring beta amino acid, which is an amino acid in which the amino group is attached to the β-carbon (i.e. the carbon two atoms away from the carboxylate group) instead of the more usual α-carbon for alanine (α-alanine). The IUPAC name for β-alanine is 3-aminopropanoic acid. Unlike its counterpart α-alanine, β-alanine has no stereocenter.


title: Β-Alanine

text: In terms of its biosynthesis, it is formed by the degradation of dihydrouracil and carnosine. β-Alanine ethyl ester is the ethyl ester which hydrolyses within the body to form β-alanine. It is produced industrially by the reaction of ammonia with β-propiolactone.


title: Β-Alanine

text: β-Alanine residues are rare. It is a component of the peptides carnosine and anserine and also of pantothenic acid (vitamin B), which itself is a component of coenzyme A. β-alanine is metabolized into acetic acid.


title: Β-Alanine

text: β-Alanine is the rate-limiting precursor of carnosine, which is to say carnosine levels are limited by the amount of available β-alanine, not histidine. Supplementation with β-alanine has been shown to increase the concentration of carnosine in muscles, decrease fatigue in athletes, and increase total muscular work done. Simply supplementing with carnosine is not as effective as supplementing with β-alanine alone since carnosine, when taken orally, is broken down during digestion to its components, histidine and β-alanine. Hence, by weight, only about 40% of the dose is available as β-alanine.


title: Β-Alanine

text: Because β-alanine dipeptides are not incorporated into proteins, they can be stored at relatively high concentrations. Occurring at 17–25 mmol/kg (dry muscle), carnosine (β-alanyl--histidine) is an important intramuscular buffer, constituting 10-20% of the total buffering capacity in type I and II muscle fibres. In carnosine, the pK of the imidazolium group is 6.83, which is ideal for buffering.


title: Β-Alanine

text: Even though much weaker than glycine (and, thus, with a debated role as a physiological transmitter), β-alanine is an agonist next in activity to the cognate ligand glycine itself, for strychnine-sensitive inhibitory glycine receptors (GlyRs) (the agonist order: glycine ≫ β-alanine > taurine ≫ alanine, -serine > proline).


title: Β-Alanine

text: β-alanine has five known receptor sites, including GABA-A, GABA-C a co-agonist site (with glycine) on NMDA receptors, the aforementioned GlyR site, and blockade of GAT protein-mediated glial GABA uptake, making it a putative "small molecule neurotransmitter."


title: Β-Alanine

text: There is evidence that β-alanine supplementation can increase exercise and cognitive performance, for some sporting modalities, and exercises within a 0.5–10 min time frame. β-alanine is converted within muscle cells into carnosine, which acts as a buffer for the lactic acid produced during high-intensity exercises, and helps delay the onset of neuromuscular fatigue.


title: Β-Alanine

text: Ingestion of β-alanine can cause paraesthesia, reported as a tingling sensation, in a dose-dependent fashion. Aside from this, no important adverse effect of β-alanine has been reported, however, there is also no information on the effects of its long-term usage or its safety in combination with other supplements, and caution on its use has been advised. Furthermore, many studies have failed to test for the purity of the supplements used and check for the presence of banned substances.


title: Β-Alanine

text: β-Alanine can undergo a transamination reaction with pyruvate to form malonate-semialdehyde and -alanine. The malonate semialdehyde can then be converted into malonate via malonate-semialdehyde dehydrogenase. Malonate is then converted into malonyl-CoA and enter fatty acid biosynthesis.


title: Shergar

text: Shergar (3 March 1978 – ) was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse. After a very successful season in 1981 he was retired to the Ballymany Stud in County Kildare, Ireland. In 1983 he was stolen from the stud, and a ransom of £2 million was demanded; it was not paid, and negotiations were soon broken off by the thieves. In 1999 a supergrass, formerly in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), stated they stole the horse. The IRA has never admitted any role in the theft.


title: Shergar

text: The Aga Khan, Shergar's owner, sent the horse for training in Britain in 1979 and 1980. Shergar began his first season of racing in September 1980 and ran two races that year, where he won one and came second in the other. In 1981 he ran in six races, winning five of them. In June that year he won the 202nd Epsom Derby by ten lengths—the longest winning margin in the race's history. Three weeks later he won the Irish Sweeps Derby by four lengths; a month after that he won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by four lengths. In his final race of the year he came in fourth, and the Aga Khan took the decision to retire him to stud in Ireland.


title: Shergar

text: After Shergar's Epsom Derby win, the Aga Khan sold 40 shares in the horse, valuing it at £10 million. Retaining six shares, he created an owners' syndicate with the remaining 34 members. Shergar was stolen from the Aga Khan's stud farm by an armed gang on 8 February 1983. Negotiations were conducted with the thieves, but the gang broke off all communication after four days when the syndicate did not accept as true the proof provided that the horse was still alive. In 1999 Sean O'Callaghan, a former member of the IRA, published details of the theft and stated that it was an IRA operation to raise money for arms. He said that very soon after the theft, Shergar had panicked and damaged his leg, which led to him being killed by the gang. An investigation by "The Sunday Telegraph" concluded that the horse was shot four days after the theft. No arrests have ever been made in relation to the theft. Shergar's body has never been recovered or identified; it is likely that the body was buried near Aughnasheelin, near Ballinamore, County Leitrim.


title: Shergar

text: In honour of Shergar, the Shergar Cup was inaugurated in 1999. His story has been made into two screen dramatisations, several books and two documentaries.


title: Shergar

text: Shergar was a Thoroughbred bay colt with a white blaze, four white socks and a wall (blue) eye. He was foaled on 3 March 1978 at Sheshoon—the private stud of the Aga Khan IV—near the Curragh Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland. Shergar was sired by Great Nephew, a British stallion whose wins included the Prix du Moulin and Prix Dollar in France in 1967. Great Nephew's other progeny included Grundy, Mrs Penny and Tolmi. Shergar's dam was Sharmeen, a seventh-generation descendant of Mumtaz Mahal, a horse that is described by the National Sporting Library as "one of the most important broodmares of the 20th Century".


title: Shergar

text: In 1978 the Aga Khan—the leader of Nizari Ismailism, philanthropist and horse owner—announced he would send some of his yearlings for training in England. For a trainer, he chose Michael Stoute, who was based at Newmarket. Stoute had a good year in 1978, and had trained the winners of the Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks with Fair Salinia, and the Gold Cup with Shangamuzo. Shergar was sent into training with Stoute in 1979, as the Aga Khan's second year of sending horses to England.


title: Shergar

text: According to Stoute and Ghislain Drion—the manager of the Aga Khan's Irish studs—Shergar was easy to break, and had a good temperament. He responded very well to training, particularly in September 1980, when the jockey Lester Piggott rode him in the run-up to Shergar's debut race.


title: Shergar

text: On 19 September 1980 Shergar ran his first race, the Kris Plate, with Piggott as his jockey. The race was open to two-year-old colts and geldings over a straight at Newbury. Listed as favourite with odds of 11–8, he kept in behind the leaders before opening up and winning by lengths. Richard Baerlein, the racing correspondent for "The Observer", thought Shergar's run was the best from a two-year-old that season. After the race Stoute said the horse would run one more race that year to gain experience, before resting until the following year.


title: Shergar

text: Shergar's second race was the William Hill Futurity Stakes at Doncaster, run on 25 October 1980. He was again ridden by Piggott, with odds of 5–2 in a very experienced field of seven. Shergar sat behind the pace-setting leader for much of the race, and when that horse faded, the running was taken up by Beldale Flutter. Shergar challenged for the lead, but Beldale Flutter pulled away and won by lengths; Shergar came in second. Following the race, Michael Seely, the racing correspondent of "The Times", thought Shergar's run was significant, and that he was "a magnificent stamp of a horse" whose odds of 25–1 for the following year's Derby were worth considering.


title: Shergar

text: Over late 1980 and early 1981 Shergar filled out and was stronger by April 1981. Stoute had decided that Shergar should run in that year's Derby, and planned the season accordingly. The first race to prepare him was the Guardian Newspaper Classic Trial, run at Sandown on 25 April 1981, where he was ridden by Walter Swinburn. In a 9-horse, -mile (2.0 km) race, Shergar raised his pace after a mile and won by 10 lengths. Baerlein had written in his column before the race that at 25–1, the odds for Shergar to win the Derby were excellent. After the win, he noted them shortening to 8–1, where, "the bet is still worth pressing"; he continued "If ... [Shergar] wins his next race at Chester or the Ladbroke Lingfield Trial as easily, he will be down to less than 4–1. Surely this is the time to bet like men."


title: Shergar

text: As further training for the Derby, Stoute decided that Shergar needed practice on a left-hand cornered course; he selected Chester, where the Chester Vase was run on 5 May 1981. After keeping pace with the leaders, with half a mile to go, Swinburn urged Shergar to increase speed, and he did, overtaking the leaders and going clear to win by 12 lengths.


title: Shergar

text: On 3 June 1981 Shergar ran in the Derby. Set over a  mile (2.4 km) course at the Epsom Downs Racecourse in Surrey, the Derby is a Group 1 flat race open to three-year-old Thoroughbred colts and fillies. After the top of the uphill straight start of the course, Shergar was well-placed and moving through the other runners. At Tattenham Corner—the final bend of the course—Shergar took the front of the race and opened up a lead over the others. Commentating on the race, Peter Bromley informed listeners that "there's only one horse in it—you need a telescope to see the rest!" Swinburn eased off the pace with two furlongs to go, and won by ten lengths. It was the largest winning margin of any Epsom Derby. John Matthias, the jockey of the second-placed horse Glint of Gold, said that "I thought I'd achieved my life's ambition. Only then did I discover there was another horse on the horizon." In the light of Shergar's run of wins, particularly the Derby, Baerlein wrote that the horse was one of the finest he had seen.


title: Shergar

text: While out on the gallops on 15 June, Shergar threw his rider, ran through a hedge onto the road and trotted along to the local village. He was spotted by a local resident, who followed the horse until it stopped to graze on a hedge, and then led him back to the stables. Shergar was unharmed during the event, and Stoute recalled "it's very lucky nothing happened to him; there's a crossing there, and it's a difficult thing".


title: Shergar

text: By the time the Irish Derby was run at the Curragh, on 27 June 1981, Swinburn was suspended following an infringement at Royal Ascot, so Piggott returned to ride Shergar. At the half-way point in the race, Shergar was in third place, but increased his pace to take the lead with three furlongs to go. He slowed during the last furlong, and won by four lengths. As the horse approached the line, Michael O'Hehir, the commentator, informed viewers that "He's winning it so easily; it's Shergar first and the rest are nowhere". After the race Piggott told reporters that he had no doubt that Shergar would win as the horse never struggled in the race. He also said that Shergar was one of the best horses he had ever raced on.


title: Shergar

text: Following Shergar's Epsom Derby win, a group of US horse owners had offered $40 million to syndicate the horse. The Aga Khan turned down the offer, and instead decided to syndicate Shergar for £10 million at £250,000 for each of the forty shares—a record price at the time; the Aga Khan kept six shares for himself and the others were sold individually to buyers from nine countries. The shareholders had the option each year of selecting a mare to be covered—or of selling that option on. The stud fees were £60,000–80,000 per cover, which meant that shareholders could expect to make a profit from stud within four years.


title: Shergar

text: Shergar had a break of almost a month until he ran in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot on 25 July 1981. The race was slow-paced to start and Shergar was boxed in by other horses, but found a way out by the time the leaders had reached the final straight, and accelerated to win by four lengths. For Baerlein, the race showed that Shergar was the best horse he had ever seen race; Michael Phillips, the racing correspondent for "The Times", wrote that the win "proved that Shergar is a cut above the average but not exceptional". Phillips continued that Shergar "failed to fill me, and many more besides, with the magic that was in the air after Nijinsky and Mill Reef had won the same race".


title: Shergar

text: The Aga Khan and Stoute considered entering Shergar into the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe that autumn, but decided that he needed one more race to prepare. They entered him into what would be his final race, the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster on 12 September 1981, with Swinburn as the jockey. Ten days before the race, a story was published in the racing newspaper "Sporting Life" that Shergar had not been practising well and had become "mulish"; Stoute stated that the rumours were untrue. Shergar was running well in the race, although the soft ground was not to his liking, but on the final straight, when Swinburn tried to get him to accelerate to the front, the horse would not respond. Shergar came in fourth, lengths behind Cut Above, the winner.


title: Shergar

text: Surprised by the manner of the loss, Stoute and the Aga Khan ran a series of tests on Shergar. All showed the horse was in good health, and he worked well in training after the race. Unwilling to risk the horse without knowing what had happened at the St Leger, the Aga Khan did not enter him into the Arc, and instead retired him to the Ballymany Stud, near the Curragh. He later explained to a racing journalist:


title: Shergar

text: He was just an exceptional athlete. All through the spring and summer he completely dominated European racing in a very dramatic manner, and after he had run so uncharacteristically in the St. Leger, we knew something had gone wrong, but we didn't know what it was, so it was an easy decision to retire him before the Arc.


title: Shergar

text: The Aga Khan turned down large offers to put Shergar to stud in the US, and instead chose to stand him at the Ballymany Stud in Ireland. He arrived in October 1981, and was paraded down the main street of Newbridge, County Kildare. Milton Toby, the writer on Thoroughbred racing and equine law, judges Shergar to have been "a national hero in Ireland. ... one of the most recognizable sports personalities—horse or human—in Ireland."


title: Shergar

text: In 1982—his only rutting season—Shergar covered 44 mares, from which 36 foals were produced: 17 colts and 19 fillies. Of these, three won Group races, and the most successful of his progeny was Authaal. When sold as a weanling (between six months and a year) Authaal reached 325,000 guineas. He was sold a year later, where he fetched 3.1 million guineas. In 1986 he won the Irish St. Leger by five lengths. Toby considers that Shergar's progeny were "perhaps not a disappointing first crop, but certainly below expectations for a horse with Shergar's racing prowess."


title: Shergar

text: At the start of February 1983 Shergar's second stud season was about to begin, and he was in high demand, and had a full book of 55 mares to cover. He was expected to earn £1 million for the season.


title: Shergar

text: On 8 February 1983, at around 8:30 pm, three men—all armed and wearing masks—entered the house of Jim Fitzgerald, the head groom at Ballymany. They were part of a group of at least six, and possibly up to nine men. One of the men said to him "We have come for Shergar. We want £2 million for him." Fitzgerald said the men were not rough, although one of them who carried a pistol was very aggressive. Fitzgerald's family were locked into a room while he was taken, at gunpoint, out to Shergar's stable and was told to put the horse in the back of a horsebox.


title: Shergar

text: After the horsebox was driven away Fitzgerald was told to lie on the floor of a van, and his face was covered with a coat. He was driven around for four hours before being released near the village of Kilcock, approximately from Ballymany. He was told not to contact the Garda Síochána (Gardaí)—the Irish police—or he and his family would be killed, but to wait for the gang to contact him. He was given the code phrase "King Neptune", which the gang would use to identify themselves. The men did not say that they were from the IRA, or give any other indication as to who they were, although one of the men spoke with a Northern Irish accent, and another seemed to be experienced with horses.


title: Shergar

text: Fitzgerald walked on to the next village and called his brother to pick him up. On arrival back at Ballymany, he rang Ghislain Drion to inform him of the theft, and urged him not to call the police because of the threats that had been made. Drion attempted to reach the Aga Khan in Switzerland to inform him, then rang Stan Cosgrove, Shergar's vet, who was also a shareholder. Cosgrove contacted a retired Irish Army captain, Sean Berry, who was manager of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Berry contacted Alan Dukes, a friend of his who was the serving Minister for Finance, who suggested that Berry speak to Michael Noonan, the Minister for Justice. Noonan and Dukes told him to call the Gardaí. By 4:00 am Drion had managed to contact the Aga Khan, who told him to phone the Gardaí straight away. The force were then contacted, but it was eight hours after Shergar had been stolen and any possible trail had already gone cold.


title: Shergar

text: The Aga Khan had several reasons for non-payment of the ransom, including that he was only one of 35 members, and could not negotiate or pay on behalf of the others. He was unsure whether Shergar would be returned even if the money was paid, and concerned that, if the kidnappers' demands were met, it would make every high-value horse in Ireland a target for future thefts. The shareholders were divided on the approach. Brian Sweeney, a veteran of the American horseracing industry thought that "if you ask a mother who has had a child that has been kidnapped if a ransom should be paid, I think the answer would be 'yes, and quickly'"; another shareholder, Lord Derby, disagreed and said "if ransom money is paid for this horse, then there is a danger of other horses being kidnapped in the years to come—and that simply cannot be tolerated".


title: Shergar

text: The first phone call from the thieves was on the night Shergar was stolen; Fitzgerald was not back at Ballymany by that time, and had not had the chance to tell the news of the theft to anyone. The call was to Jeremy Maxwell, a horse trainer based in Northern Ireland. The caller demanded £40,000, although this figure was later raised to £52,000. Maxwell was told that the negotiations would only be with three British horse racing journalists, Derek Thompson and John Oaksey of ITV and Peter Campling from "The Sun". The men were told to be at the Europa Hotel in central Belfast by the Thursday evening; the Europa was known as the most bombed hotel in Europe after having suffered multiple bomb attacks during the Troubles.


title: Shergar

text: When the three sports journalists arrived at the Europa, they were contacted by phone and told to go to the Maxwells' house to await further calls. On orders from the police, Thompson kept the person talking for as long as possible, but the caller rang off at 80 seconds—before the call could be traced. There were a series of calls to the Maxwells' house later that night, and at 1:30 am Thompson managed to keep the caller talking for over 90 seconds, which would have been enough to trace the call; he was told that the person who was doing the call intercepts had finished his shift at midnight and gone home. At 7:00 am on 12 February another call was put through to the Maxwells' house, which said that things had gone wrong, and that Shergar was dead.


title: Shergar

text: Although a committee put together by the syndicate to co-ordinate their response later considered that this was a hoax, Toby argues that as the call about the theft preceded Fitzgerald's return to Ballymany—i.e. before anyone knew about the theft—and as the callers used the code phrase "King Neptune" in their communications, it is more likely that the calls, and the ensuing focus on the high-profile activity in Belfast, were undertaken to distract the authorities from what was happening with Shergar elsewhere.


title: Shergar

text: On 9 February the thieves opened a second line of negotiation, contacting Ballymany Stud directly and speaking to Drion. The call, which came in at 4:05 pm, was short. Drion was not a fluent speaker of English and struggled to understand the Irish accent of the caller; the caller similarly had problems with Drion's heavy French pronunciation. Ninety minutes later, the caller tried again, with Drion asking him to speak slowly. A demand of £2 million was made for the return of Shergar, and for a contact number in France, through which further negotiations could be made. Drion provided the number of the Aga Khan's French office.


title: Shergar

text: The syndicate which owned Shergar brought in the risk and strategic consulting firm Control Risks to handle the negotiations. They negotiated from the Paris office, with a series of telephone calls over four days. On Friday 11 February the negotiators demanded proof that Shergar was still alive, as there had been some speculation in the press that Shergar was dead. The thieves said that a representative of the syndicate should go to the Crofton Hotel in Dublin and ask for any messages for "Johnny Logan"—the name of an Irish singer. Stan Cosgrove went to the hotel and asked for any messages. Armed members of the Special Detective Unit—the domestic security agency of the Gardaí—were present in an undercover role. No message was delivered, and Cosgrove returned home after waiting. Shortly afterwards the negotiators received a phone call from the thieves, angry at the presence of the police, and threatening that if any members of the gang were captured or killed, the negotiators and police would be murdered in retribution.


title: Shergar

text: On Saturday 12 February the thieves contacted the negotiators and said that proof had been left at the Rosnaree Hotel. When this was picked up, it contained several polaroid pictures showing Shergar; some of the pictures showed the horse's head next to a copy of "The Irish News", dated 11 February. Cosgrove saw the photograph and confirmed that "it definitely was him", although he added "It wasn't proof that the horse was alive ... at that point ... you'd want to get much more definite evidence ... if you'd have seen the complete horse it would have been different, but this was just the head."


title: Shergar

text: In a telephone call from the thieves to the negotiators at 10:40 pm on 12 February, it was explained that the syndicate were not satisfied with the pictures of the horse, which, they explained, did not constitute enough proof. The caller told the negotiators "If you're not satisfied, that's it". The call was ended, and the thieves never made any further contact. The syndicate attempted to re-establish contact with the gang, but there was no response to newspaper requests to do so.


title: Shergar

text: The syndicate committee put together a report for the full syndicate, which examined the possible motives behind the theft. They concluded that the theft of Shergar was either undertaken to create confusion and publicity, rather than obtaining money, or that the negotiations were undertaken with naivety. They reached this conclusion after taking a number of factors into account. Many of the demands were physically impossible: the ransom demand included £100 notes, which did not exist. In one call at 5:45 pm to Drion in Ballymany, he was told to deliver the £2 million to Paris before noon the following day. In a call at 5:00 pm, the Paris negotiators were told to get £2 million by the end of the night—after the Parisian banks had closed. In another call, the negotiator in Paris was told to get agreement for a ransom, but told he should not contact anyone in Ireland, despite some of the shareholders being there. It also became clear during the course of the negotiations that the gang thought that the Aga Khan was the sole owner of Shergar; they had no knowledge of the other shareholders, and did not take into account the complexity of liaising and organising all 35 shareholders into a position of agreement.


title: Shergar

text: The initial police investigation was hindered by the eight-hour lapse before the crime was reported, and by a local Thoroughbred auction, which meant several horseboxes were travelling in the area. Leading the investigation was Chief Superintendent James Murphy, a highly experienced detective. In his first press conference Murphy described how he was "slightly concerned" about the theft, and told reporters that "I have no leads". His comment about a lack of leads was not truthful, as Murphy withheld much information from the media, including the police finding the magazine for a Steyr MPi 69 submachine gun, which suggested a link to an IRA active service unit in South Armagh.


title: Shergar

text: Murphy had a strong Irish brogue, wore a trilby hat and had a self-effacing sense of humour. At one press conference, he announced "A clue? That is something we haven't got". Several people claiming to have paranormal powers contacted the Gardaí with their thoughts; Murphy reported that "diviners, clairvoyants and psychic persons—they're in three different categories—they must be running into the fifties now". During one press conference, six photographers turned up wearing similar trilbies to the policeman; "The Times" called him a "stage Irishman". One reviewer of a documentary in 2004 called Murphy "the most richly comic copper since Inspector Clouseau". After eight days with no progress, he was replaced as the public figure of the investigation, but continued to lead it.


title: Shergar

text: On 16 February a description of the horsebox used by the thieves—from a description given by Fitzgerald—was released. It was either light green or light blue with no working lights and no licence plates. The huge police search of possible hiding places for Shergar—by the Gardaí in the Irish Republic and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) in Northern Ireland—found no trace of the horse or horsebox, but several IRA caches of arms and explosives were uncovered, leading to the loss of several safe houses. Up to 70 detectives were working on the case at one point. Two weeks after Shergar was stolen, the police search was scaled down, although the investigation continued.


title: Shergar

text: With no definite news of Shergar's whereabouts, and with the Gardaí limiting the information they released to the press, the media took to speculation to cover the story. Baerlein observes that in reporting the Shergar case, "the press speculation was remarkable for its enthusiasm and its inaccuracy over a long period of time". Such media claims included that Shergar had been stolen by Colonel Gaddafi as part of a deal to supply arms to the IRA; that, according to the tabloid newspaper "Sunday Sport", Shergar was spotted being ridden by the missing Lord Lucan; that a Middle Eastern horse breeder had stolen him for stud; and that the Mafia had undertaken the act to punish the Aga Khan over a previous sale of a horse which had gone badly.


title: Shergar

text: Eight weeks after Shergar was stolen, Stan Cosgrove was approached by senior detectives within the Gardaí who introduced him to Dennis Minogue, a horse trainer. Minogue claimed to have a contact within the IRA who had shown him a photograph of Shergar, and that he could help get Shergar released for a ransom of IR£80,000. The Gardaí asked Cosgrove to assist them in a sting operation to lure the thieves out. Cosgrove agreed, and on 20 July 1983 Detective Garda Martin Kenirons assisted the operation. He put the money in the boot of his car in a remote village, which Minogue was to collect once the horse had been released. The following day Kenirons found the boot of his car forced open and the money missing. Minogue had also disappeared, and the money was never recovered.


title: Shergar

text: A subsequent internal Gardaí enquiry dismissed Kenirons from the force for breaching Gardaí regulations. In an interview in 2018 he reiterated his long-stated innocence and said "when it all went wrong, everyone jumped for the high ground. They [the senior Gardaí officers] all denied that they had anything to do with the ransom."


title: Shergar

text: Shergar was insured through several different insurance companies. The Lloyd's of London insurance brokers Hodgson McCreedy covered £3,625,000 of the total, and added a theft clause to the policy. Other shareholders—accountable for £1.5 million worth of shares—had insurance that did not include a theft clause; Cosgrove was one of the mortality-only insured members. Shareholders accounting for £3 million did not take out insurance; the Aga Khan was one of the uninsured members of the syndicate. Cosgrove was insured with the Norwich Union (now part of Aviva), who refused to pay, even when it became clear that Shergar was probably dead; the company's liability was £144,000.


title: Shergar

text: The 20 policies that included a theft clause were all settled in full in June 1983, even though there was a question of whether there was a need to. Terry Hall, an animal insurance insurer with Lloyd's of London, observes that while theft was clear cut, the demand of a ransom meant that the action was considered extortion, rather than theft, which meant the mortality and theft policies did not have to be paid out. Legal advice was sought by Lloyd's of London, who were told that although it was a grey area, payment was advised.


title: Shergar

text: Police and intelligence sources considered the IRA as the most likely suspects behind the theft. During the 1980s, the Irish republican movement followed the Armalite and ballot box strategy, in which electoral success was chased by Sinn Féin, while an armed struggle was continued by the IRA. The strategy was expensive, requiring payment for arms and explosives for the IRA, and for political activity, advertising and salaries for Sinn Féin. The annual budget for the movement was estimated at between £2 million and £5 million, and it was always under financial pressure.


title: Shergar

text: In October 1981 the IRA Army Council—the leadership group of the organisation—approved the kidnapping of Ben Dunne, then head of the chain of Dunnes Stores. Dunne was released unharmed after a week; both the Dunne family and the Gardaí deny a ransom of £300,000 was paid. According to intelligence subsequently received by the intelligence sources, after the success of the operation, it was decided to undertake another ransom—through kidnapping or theft—this time of Shergar.


title: Shergar

text: In 1999 Sean O'Callaghan, a former member of the IRA who had been working within the organisation as a supergrass for the Gardaí since 1980, published his autobiography. In it, he states that the plot to steal and ransom Shergar was devised by Kevin Mallon, a leading IRA member who sat on the Army Council; Mallon came up with the idea while serving time in Portlaoise Prison. Mallon was put in charge of a Special Operations unit with orders to raise several million pounds, and several IRA men were taken from under O'Callaghan's control in IRA Southern Command and put into Mallon's unit. These included the IRA members Gerry Fitzgerald, Paul Stewart, Rab Butler and Nicky Kehoe.


title: Shergar

text: Two weeks after Shergar's kidnap, Gerry Fitzgerald told O'Callaghan that he had been involved in the theft, and that Shergar had been killed early on in the process after the horse panicked and no-one present could cope with him. In the process the horse damaged its left leg and the decision was made to kill it. In his 1999 autobiography O'Callaghan states that Shergar "was killed within days" of the theft; in an interview for RTÉ, the Irish broadcaster, in 2004, he stated that Gerry Fitzgerald "strongly suggested that Shergar had been killed within hours of his kidnap". The IRA then kept up a deception that the horse was still alive and in their care.


title: Shergar

text: Kevin O'Connor, a journalist with RTÉ, identifies three parts of the gang: a section to undertake high-profile activity in Belfast, to focus media attention in the north; one part negotiating discreetly with the Aga Khan; and one part guarding the horse.


title: Shergar

text: According to O'Callaghan, in August 1983, in an effort to raise the money that they failed to do with the Shergar theft, Fitzgerald and his group attempted to kidnap the businessman Galen Weston at his home in County Wicklow. The Gardaí had been forewarned, and took over the house while Weston was in the UK. After a gun battle, Gerry Fitzgerald, Kehoe and three others were arrested. They received long prison sentences. O'Callaghan stated that "Essentially the same team that went to kidnap Shergar went to kidnap Galen Weston".


title: Shergar

text: No arrests have ever been made in relation to Shergar's theft. The IRA have never admitted any role in the theft or its aftermath. Mallon and Kehoe deny any involvement in the events. Toby raises a query over O'Callaghan's story, saying the IRA informant was "a confessed informer whose life depending on his ability to weave a convincing web of lies. Without more evidence, O'Callaghan's story ... [is] just that, an interesting story."