SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of (mostly) news

◼ SENATOR Aodhán Ó Ríordáin took to Twitter this week with a ‘personal statement’: ‘To all students of mine who had a vomiting bug when absent and felt my raised eyebrow was less than sympathetic. I can confirm the vomiting bug is indeed real, aggressive and explosive. I appeal for privacy at this sensitive time.’ Surely a case of TMI, as the kids might say.

◼ THE Irish Times reported yesterday on a document instructing judicial staff about the dietary preferences of Supreme Court Judge Peter Charleton. It details a preference for English eating apples, Orkney oatcakes, San Pellegrino water, Kenyan coffee, and Marks and Spencer mackerel and prawn cocktails. His tastes are nothing if not international.

◼ FINE Gael Senator Tim Lombard, from Cork, found himself a bit lost and confused while canvassing in north Dublin. He was politely told at one door he knocked on that FG wouldn’t be getting a vote here because it is GV Wright’s house. And who, Tim innocently asked, is GV Wright? Only the former two decade-long Fianna Fáil TD for the area.

◼ A HELPFUL source tells Smokes the Mount Anville site, in the heart of Josepha Madigan’s constituency, could solve the direct provision problem with the stroke of a pen. Mounties to the rescue?

◼ DON’T mess with the Baileys. In the Swing-gate TD’s statement issued after her deselection as a Dáil candidate – printed in Comic Sans type – she refers to Minister Paschal Donohoe as Paschal Donoghue. Misspelling names. Now that’s top level trolling.