SMOKES & DAGGERS
A mischievous mix of (mostly) news
OPENING Leader’s Questions on Tuesday, the Ceann Comhairle began: ‘Happy St Valentine’s Day.’ Micheál Martin, who was waiting to grill the Taoiseach on the Garda scandal, replied: ‘We’ll try to avoid a massacre.’ WHEN discussing a new Bill that aims to criminalise men who pay for sex, Senator Rónán Mullen managed to crowbar in a reference to the Late Late’s controversial Valentine’s night show. He said: ‘I believe it was a tremendously crass piece of television. Nonetheless, it got people tweeting quite a lot. I mention this because it is closely related to the point I am making in so far as it shows how quickly a tipping point can be reached that results in the exploitation of others. The exploitation of others – and it is mainly women who get exploited – is at the heart of prostitution.’ Smokes DID see that Late Late Show and can assure the senator that Ryan Tubridy, left, was only lining up dates, not organising a prostitute for everyone in the audience. FRANCES FITZGERALD’S fraught interview with Áine Lawlor on The Week In Politics last Sunday was not the minister’s finest hour. But it also featured some fine metaphor-mixing from Lawlor, who suggested at one point that the minister was ‘setting up Chinese walls while ignoring the elephant in the room’. SENATOR Colm Burke took to Twitter to offer the Taoiseach some advice: ‘Enda Kenny should listen to Kenny Rogers – The Gambler.’ For those of you unfamiliar with the refrain of the country classic, it goes: ‘You’ve got to know when to fold them, know when to hold them, know when to walk away and know when to run.’ SENSATION ensued when Fianna Fáil senator Catherine Ardagh, left, referred to teachers ‘busting their asses’ to get good results for their students. She immediately exclaimed ‘my apologies’ but it was not enough. Foghorn-voiced senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell burst in: ‘What kind of language is that in the Seanad? Where are we now? At a bus stop?’ Jerry Buttimer chimed in: ‘Well spoken.’ The lesson? Never, ever refer to asses… but insulting bus users is grand.