THE SHAFTING of Ken Ryan has revealed hitherto unplumbed depths of gutlessness in Fianna Fail and hypoocrisy in other places. What did Ryan do wrong? He asked FF members to keep an eye out for wrongdoing and deviousness by opposition parties, to check out any stories they heard and send the results to HQ.
VOTES: THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced that the local elecctions, due to be held on the same day as the European elections this year, are to be postponed. One of the reasons the government has given is that voters might find voting in two separate elections with separate voting systems confusing.
Before Christmas, some of the gay blades in Dail Eireann hit on a new game to while away the long hours of parliamentary ennui. Careful personality study, they deciided, could reveal all the secrets of a TD's childhood. There was a unanimous verdict on Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell - a fretful child, may be even a bedwetter, guaranteed to get violently sick on major outings. They were just as sure about John Bruton - a happy secure little boy, earnest and unselfconscious, arranging his toy world with the same unquestioning certainty that he would later bring to bear on government.
Charles Haughey and the Press, by John Horgan
In recent weeks the long-awaited Orwell circus has come to town. The Orwell legend has been employed to make political capital by the kind of people Orwell raged against with typewriter and rifle. It has been used to sell horoscopes and to draw conclusions about English soccer. We await the "Orwell Lives!" tee-shirt and the Big Brother Bubblegum. GENE KERRIGAN examines the man 's life and politics.
Dear Ken, Sorry about the long silence. Things pile up. Just finish one month and the next one starts. You know the kind of thing.
VOLUNTEERS, one step forward. Don't all rush. We are this month seeking volunnteers from among the ranks of Cabinet Ministers - or maybe even the Ceann Comhairle. It's in a worthy cause and the brave and generous one will have his or her picture printed on this page, three months running, with two hunndred words of the most obsequious drivel about how brave, generous, public-spirited and just plain nice he or she is.
IT is shocking that not one voice has been raised in defence of the poor turkeys of Monaghan. This is the only species of bird that to our knowledge has been repressed by the full might of a modem army. Look at the poor, helpless creature:
HUMAN RIGHTS: ON MONDAY NOVEMBER 28 a young fresh-faced soliicitor kept wandering in and out of the Magill offices wanting to see an article. The article was the story of Lyn Madden by June Levine and the young solicitor was acting for John Cullen who had been convicted on Lyn Madden's evidence of murdering Dolores Lynch. As Denis Mitchell, who acted for Magill in the subsequent court case, would later say: Magill does not hand out articles prior to publication to members of the public.
MICHAEL FARRELL WILL have two books launched next week. One is his "Magill Book Of Irish Politics" which, because it's produced by ourselves, we will not comment on it or mention it in any way. It would be unfair to other books of politics, it would give this one an unfair advantage and would take up too much space. Anyway if you want to know about it, and see all the many reasons why you should buy it, there's an advertisement for it on page 38.