Back at last from his Christmas holidays is Stephen Rawson, the Green party press officer. Rawson officially returns to work tomorrow, January 30, a full six weeks after the Greens’ notorious Christmas party, after which he allegedly phoned journalists to apologise for party leader Trevor Sargent’s rambling speech.
Sue tried to steal a march by phoning Rawson last week, but he rang off quickly saying he had no time to talk as he had to go to a meeting. There’s diligence for you.
One of Rawson’s first tasks will be to sit down with the Green party’s general secretary to explain precisely what he told journalists after the Christmas party.
“Clarification is needed and it has to be sorted out,” a Green source said. “It needs to be established what calls were made and in what context and explanations are required. There is a need to establish if there is a personnel issue here and whether any action is needed.”
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Sue’s guess is that Rawson can always use the old “blame the media trick”, and claim that what he said to journalists was misinterpreted. Hopefully we can talk to him afterwards and clear it up; keep that phone on, Steve
Why am I carrying this gun? Just off to destroy it, your honour
You’re a Provo, and the police catch you in possession of an assault rifle, 5,000 rounds and bomb timers. So what’s your excuse? “Well, judge, you won’t believe this, but I was on my way to have them decommissioned.”
That’s just what Stephen Harte from west Belfast said last week when charged with possession of firearms and explosives. Accepting that Harte was part of the “political process”, the judge convicted him on reduced charges.
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A kind-hearted Justice Deeny said: “I envisage the possibility that the defendant was engaged in some step preliminary to such a scheme.”
And the dog ate his homework as well, your honour.
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Here’s a question you may get asked at a pub quiz: what do the music groups Kiss and Celtic Woman have in common? The answer is that each of their members made simultaneous debuts in the US Billboard charts. While the Celtic women’s album is at No 1 in the Top World Albums chart, all five members also have a solo album in that list.
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Humble porridge debate heats up at Merrill Lynch
You’d think staff at Merrill Lynch’s Dublin office would have more important stuff to worry about. But last week management received a complaint from staff about the quality of the porridge in the investment bank’s canteen. “It seems as though the salt content is ruining the taste; it’s like having a bowl of sweat,” said one employee in an e-mail that, naturally, has been passed to Sue.
Management was quick to admit the problem with the porridge. “It seems to vary depending on who cooked it,” one manager agreed. “As far as I am aware, porridge should be moist but not runny and you should definitely not be able to slice it. I’ve asked them to formalise the cooking process to ensure that porridge consistency remains the same.” Busy man.
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No immediate improvement was detected, however. The following day the porridge tasted “like rice pudding. There were even suspicions of cream being added to the mix”. But good news on Wednesday: “Today’s porridge was received quite favourably.” But you mustn’t feel too concerned for employees. With offices in the posh Treasury Building in Dublin city centre, they could afford hand-made organic muesli if they fancied it.
Reports that the GAA president, Sean Kelly, has gone cool on the idea of standing for Fine Gael in Kerry South are wide of the mark.
With Labour’s Breeda Moynihan Cronin bowing out of active politics at the next election, there is a great chance for Enda Kenny’s lot to win back the seat the party held there for 20 years. But private research suggests that only one of its councillors, Seamus “Cosai” Fitzgerald of Dingle, stands a chance of victory. Fine Gael has commissioned a further study and asked local officers to draft a shortlist of people who could win back the seat.
If Kelly’s name emerges from this process, alongside that of Fitzgerald, it could overcome the GAA man’s aversion to being imposed on the local party organisation, Sue has heard.
Kelly’s recently expressed wish to have a GAA trophy named in honour of Michael Collins certainly sounds like the musings of a man who already knows all about the Fine Gael heritage.
Irish people really are as popular internationally as they like to think. Henley & Partners, a Swiss legal firm, has analysed visa regulations worldwide, and ranked countries according to the visa-free access its citizens enjoy. A sort of world popularity contest, really.
In joint fourth place comes Ireland — behind Finland, Denmark and America — whose citizens enjoy visa-free access to 129 countries.
No welcome mats are being rolled out for the “axis of evil” Afghans, who can only travel to 12 countries without a visa.
In making Flush!, a documentary about loos, naturally the Canadian film team visited Ireland. They also went to China, India and Japan to get “global perspectives about how we do our ‘business’ ”. Were they up to standard? Ari Grief, the producer, said: “The Irish facilities in general were good. And I was impressed by the publication, in Belfast I believe, of a public toilet city map. This is something sorely lacking in the rest of the world.”