In some ways, she resembles another single-minded lady, who rose from modest low-church origins and a scientific training to take her country by the horns and shift it in a rightward direction Margaret Thatcher.

ECONOMIST: Germany’s iron-curtain lady | The

"Evita, " which opens Christmas Day, is a screen opera about the life of Eva Peron, the daughter of a poor farmer who rose to power as the first lady of Argentina's President Juan Peron in the 1940s.

CNN: 'Evita' premieres with star-studded gala

Events include Elvis cage fighting, confessing sins at the virtual confession box, breakfast aerobics with the nuns, more nuns and priests five-a-side soccer on the beach and the Lovely Lady competition (a homage to the kitsch Irish Rose of Tralee), where girls are tested on their sandwich-making or swiss-rolling skills.

BBC: Ireland's most offbeat festivals

The seller's grandmother, Lady Ethel Margaret Stronge, left the vase to his mother Mrs Rose Ethel Richardson of Tynan Abbey, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, who gave it to her son.

BBC: The Chinese vase