THE invasion of international media to cover the referendum did not please every journalist.

David Blevins, pictured, the Ireland correspondent for Sky News, was unhappy with rip-off hotels. He wrote: ‘OK Dublin, you’ve been wonderfully welcoming as always, but I just paid €2,000 for five nights in a very average, boiling hot hotel with no air conditioning.’ We are well used to sky-high prices in the capital, where hoteliers boast about their ‘dynamic pricing’. That’s gouging to you and me!

IN 1996, while I was working on the Gay Byrne Show, we got a call from a taxi driver who told us about driving Irish babies with Aer Lingus air hostesses to Dublin Airport in the 1950s and Sixties. The ‘illegitimate’ children were being ‘sold’ to American families. The next day I arrived at the National Archives where I met Caitríona Crowe. I asked her if there were any files on this issue. She said she had recently found some and went on radio with me to reveal the full horror. No one should be surprised by this week’s revelations – and Caitríona Crowe deserves praise for her bravery.