Letter from the Editor
WE’VE started the process of redesigning the Sunday Independent, but you’ll have to wait a while to see what we come up with. The first fruits are likely to be seen in
LIFE magazine and today we welcome Leslie Ann Horgan as its new editor. She begins with a cover story on racism featuring some superb photography by Evan Doherty.
Changing a newspaper can be hazardous. Months of painstaking design work have been undermined by a reader revolt because the crossword was moved. I’ve already learned that if there’s something, anything wrong with a crossword, Sunday Independent readers notice it — and react. Two down in last week’s Quizword was ‘Current Minister for Agriculture and Marine’ — five letters, starting with C. Readers who filled in ‘Cowen’ were correct on Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday. With prizes at stake, entries were accepted up until Thursday – but the right answer had changed to ‘Calleary’ by Wednesday morning, when the Mayo man replaced the sacked Offalian. Alas, with eight letters, the new minister’s surname didn’t fit in the Quizword grid. “I suppose a week is a long time in politics,” writes a sympathetic Kevin Costello, a Tipperary man, on our Letters page this week. You said it, Kevin.
And fear not, anyone answering ‘Cowen’ was given the nod by our Quizword adjudicators.
Another truism that comes to mind to describe the events of last week is ‘all politics is local’. He didn’t coin it, but the phrase is associated with Tip O’Neill, the former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. O’Neill, of course, had Irish roots — his grandmother was a Buncrana woman. And 26 years after his death, his catchphrase still rings as true in the home country.
Barry Cowen, dismissed by Micheal Martin on Tuesday night, spoke to his local radio station in Offaly yesterday, the first interview he has given since the end of his 17day ministerial career. You can bet that he had plenty of other offers — he certainly had one from us — but Irish politicians have long chosen to look after their base when times get tough. Martin, excoriated in Mayo for overlooking Calleary first time around, now finds there’s a welcome for him out west again. But he may choose to steer clear of the Faithful County for a while, and especially Clara.
Cowen’s radio interview did not shed any new light on the events that led to his departure, but I think you’ll find the big piece by Hugh O’Connell and Maeve Sheehan on pages 4-5 an illuminating read. Enjoy the paper.