Dogs of many colours

Just after he called the election, Bertie Ahern mocked the pedigree of the alternative government - they'd be a mixed breed of blue, green, red, he said. Even allowing for Mr Ahern's notoriously bad memory, it is funny he cannot remember that, as well as the PDs, his 1997 government depended on a pack of independents whose agenda was as widely scattered as the constituencies from which they came. One wanted to fill pot holes in Kerry, and another to stop MMDS in Donegal! The FF party whip had to meet this little rump once a week to throw them a bone. But Ahern never seemed to mind that his first government was a
truly heedless if colourful mongrel with a rather unruly tail.

Ciarán Mac Aonghusa, Churchtown, Dublin 14