SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of (mostly) news

JOGGING in the park with Justin Trudeau, joshing about Love, Actually in 10 Downing Street… but it can’t always be glamorous in the top job, Leo Varadkar is learning. Last weekend he attended the Fine Gael Mad Hatter’s BBQ in Maughan’s Bar in Crossmolina. What a brave soldier he is! WE ARE told junior minister John Halligan has been busy this week dealing with the International Lofar (Low Frequency Array) Telescope, a €150m network of radio telescopes distributed across Europe. Ireland has just joined that network with a telescope in Birr, Co. Offaly. Mr Halligan, revealed that his task was ‘to turn the switch on’. He apparently succeeded and the telescope is still working. ‘IF THE Taoiseach thinks he is going to use the border to make a name for himself, he should think again,’ warns Robin Swann, pictured, responding to Leo Varadkar’s new, tough stand over Brexit. In case you’re wondering, Mr Swann is the newly installed leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. Who knew? Certainly not Smokes… JAN O’SULLIVAN intervened in the most irritating way in the growing row about gender equality in pay at RTÉ. The Labour TD pointed out that before the controversy arose, Labour had published a comprehensive paper on gender equality in the workplace. Alas, Jan, once Labour’s name is attached to a document, nobody cares. WE ARE intrigued to see that Martin Ferris has taken up the cause of the Irish pike. The Sinn Féin TD, who is a keen angler, has been in correspondence with Inland Fisheries Ireland over whether the pike is a native species. Responding to a Dáil query on the subject, Communications Minister Denis Naughten referred to a new scientific study of the genetic structure of the pike, to be published in the Journal of Biogeography. He said it revealed a complex and previously unrecognised history of pike colonisation in Ireland. Sinn Féin won’t like the sound of that…