SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of (mostly) news

SMOKES is told independent TD Mattie McGrath is now polling so well in Tipperary that he’s ‘like the Healy-Raes: he could bring in a running mate. He could turn into the next Michael Healy-Rae. What a political Frankenstein that would be.’ However, Smokes is told that Mattie would be far too cautious to sanction a run by any mini-Mattie.

BUSINESSMAN Gavin Duffy had to defend his links to hunting during the week. But it’s understood that he has already lost the vote of his potential neighbours, the Phoenix Park’s fallow deer…

CBD oil, extracted from the cannabis plant, is the latest health craze to hit and has been appearing in pharmacies and health-food stores nationwide as a result of its supposed pain-relieving and calm-inducing benefits – minus the high. Now a ‘family run farm’ is getting in on the action. Irish-based Lough Farm is growing and selling ‘full-spectrum Hemp extracts, retaining cannabinoids, terpenes & plant nutrients’. It even has an outdoor strain it calls Irish Kush. However, apparently it’s not for smoking.

THE Buncrana-based Inish Times published a headline in recent weeks that has managed to go viral. In anticipation of the sniggerinducing Muff festival, a reporter from the paper interviewed a local legend about his memories of the town and the festival. This local is known as Black Mickey Doherty, provoking the headline… well, you can use your imagination.

‘THE Story So Far’ is how former tánaiste and Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell describes his political career on his website. The independent senator, pictured, is keen for a return to the main political stage, but when asked by the MoS yesterday if a run for the Áras would interest him, he said: ‘I’ll look on with astonishment, that’s all.’