Miscellaneous

THE LOW point of the election cammpaign was reached on Thursday, Febbruary 11. In the Shelbourne Hotel Michael O'Leary, flanked by five civil servants, unveiled the National Development Corporation to an inncredulous press which discovered that the new body would do nothing that was not already being done by other agencies and that anyway there was no money left ower once the losses of the semi-state bodies under its aegis were absorbed.

HAVING captured the title of "The Worst Journalist in the World" in 1980 and tenaciously held on to it last year, John Feeney is bidding strong for anoother merit award: "The Worst Broadd.caster in the World". He appeared in the first of The Live Mike programmes this season and delivered the worst script ever heard in the most bumbling manner ever witnessed, even on RTE. Feeney was to have appeared regularly on the programme but after this first appearance the R TE .

The season of Irish Conntemporary Arts at the Third Eye Centre in Glassgow has been causing quite a row, even before its actual opening. The rumpus conncerns the fact that two of the performance artists, Alistair MacLennan and Nigel Rolfe, appear nude during their preesentations. One Glasgow councillor, Bill Aitken, has taken exception to the shows, or rather to what he thinks the shows will be, since he has not actually seen them yet.

Tuesday 5th:

An edifying and pleasant hour with Flor Crowley TD, Cork South-West. We discuss some rather obscure and intricate points of similarity, or perhaps agreement, between Engels and Teilhard de Chardin. Deputy Crowley tells me that such conversation nowadays, is, as a rule, only available inside the portals of Dail Eireann. He is most gracious, and suggests that I am the only citizen in Ireland worthy of our legislature. I am afraid that I blush somewhat at this.

POOR CHARLES HAUGHEY. There is now not a single writer on politics who is sympathetic to him. The estabblished political correspondents were at all times antagonistic to him but there were a few other writers on politics who were friendly. Bit by bit he has lost these allies until now the only perrson he has going for him is Prioncais MacAonghasa who writes the Gulliver column in The Sunday Press, but not under his own name. This anonymity allowed Prioncais to write a whole load of bilge recently on a media connspiracy to undermine Fianna Fail, masterminded by subversives.

THE RTE Authority was finally given an opportunity on Thursday, December 10 to meet the Minister for Transport and Communications, Pattrick Cooney, to press its case for a massive hike in the licence fee increase which the Authority claims is urgently necessary to save RTE from financial collapse. It was most unfortunate therefore that the Chairman of the

THE Government's tough attitude on the Dunne kidnapping, based on the line that Governments never concede to or negotiate with kidnappers, was a load of old codswallop. Which brings us back to Wigmore's old and trusted friend, Patrick "Ghengis" Cooney. At the time of the Herrerna kidnapping in 1975 the Government not alone entered into negotiation with the kiddnappers but actually agreed to a deal in writing. The aeal was discussed in detail at cabinet meetings and agreed to. It was communicated to the kiddnappers via a senior Garda officer at the scene of the seige in Monasterevin, Co.

Garret, the Garda Review and senator Sean O'Leary

The view from Dr. O'Brien's glasshouse

The August issue of this journal conntained an article by Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien entitled "Miss De Valera's Grandfather Speaks", wherein the author contrasted statements made by Eamonn De Valera when out of office, with statements he made while in office, relative to the partition of Ireland and allied matters. The main purpose of the article was to seek to demonstrate that there was a marked contrast between statements made in each situation, all to the general disscredit of Mr De Valera.

Tony Murray, Aine O'Donoghue John & Anne Foley, Richard Seager and Danny Osborne