SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of (mostly) news

ONE of the natty features of the new Dáil website is a clock counting down to the Dáil’s return. For those wondering about the political equivalent of ‘how many sleeps to Christmas’, our TDs have only three weeks to go before their holidays end. We can’t wait… A NAME shouldn’t mean anything but in the case of a critique of Minister John Halligan by John Pratt, Labour general election candidate for Waterford, it does. The headline ‘Pratt attacks Halligan’ somehow isn’t right. SMOKES hears that tetchy debates recently took place between our ministers and senior Conservatives over the UK’s capacity to take on the world all alone. An Irish minister is believed to have told the Tories the UK hadn’t won a war on its own since the Boer War at the dawn of the 20th century and had had to be bailed out by America ever since. It is believed the history lesson did not go down well, particularly the lines about ‘the Egyptians chasing you out of Suez’. And these are the diplomats speaking? DARA Ó BRIAIN took to Twitter to remark on a wonderful moment on Newstalk’s Off The Ball. Limerick midfielder Cian Lynch was being interviewed about his mother’s pitch invasion after the final whistle in last Sunday’s hurling final against Galway. Here’s the exchange – OTB: ‘There’s a great photo of the two of you in the paper.’ Lynch: ‘I haven’t seen it.’ OTB: ‘We’ve just sent it to your WhatsApp.’ Pause. Lynch: ‘Ah God.’ O’Briain, left, an Irishman who lives in England but remains an avid GAA follower, added: ‘Doesn’t happen in soccer.’ Indeed.