It starts, sometimes, with It Says In The Papers. That early in the day. A TD is chomping the toast when he hears mention of some story from, say, page three of the Indo. The story might, perhaps, be about how some government department bought a few boxes of Belgian blotting paper. To most people it's a story of little importance, but a certain kind of TD has the imagination and sheer hard neck to work this up into an electoral asset.
On 24 June a full-page article on the Ranks dispute appeared in the Irish Independent. The article was called "The Breaking of Ranks" and was advertised prominently on the front page. Inside it was claimed that Independent journalists Michael Brophy and PJ Cunningham had gone "behind the scenes to catalogue the lead-up to the fall of the Ranks empire in Ireland".
Vote Jon Hume for a better Londonderry", say the mocking slogans in Derry's Bogside. "SDLP = the Stoop Down Low Party" reads a wall-slogan near Free Derry corner. The SDLP denounce the Provisionals as fascists and mafia, embezzlers, thugs and kneecappers. Bishop Cathal Daly of Belfast says a vote for Sinn Fein could be seen as a vote for violence. Bishop Edward Daly of Derry calls on Catholics to examine their consciences before voting for candidates associated with violence.
A Profile of Tim Pat Coogan by Risteard O Muirithille
The reader of Joyce visiting Dublin for the first time will know what to look for: the river, the National Library, the Bailey or the tower in Sandymount. Similarly, the visitor to Robert Ballagh's house will be watching out for the key items that appear in his autobiographical paintings. There will have to be an upstairs and a downstairs in his house: the paintings say so. There will have to be a spiral staircase in his house: it runs through two of the paintings like the Liffey through "Finnegans Wake".
Travels in the Soviet Union by Anthony Cronin
Gene Kerrigan was in Dublin South for a Fianna Fail contribution to The Great Debate.
Bill McBride and Jim Telfer have laid down a number of conditions that they say will be applied to the choice of captain of the British Lions team, which they will manage and coach in New Zealand in two months' time.
1. The Tale of the Dog It all started when Dessie Hynes bought a pub in Merrion Row from Paddy and Maureen O'Donoghue in October 1977.The O'Donoghues had lived over the pub and there was a delay before they could move to their new house in Glenageary. Dessie Hynes invited them to stay on in the rooms above the pub as long as was necessary.