SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of (mostly) news

BIZARRE scenes yesterday as a group of brightly trousered British tourists heckled protesters involved in Saturday’s sit-in on Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge. The group shouted ‘scroungers’, and told protesters to ‘get a job’ as they walked by. It got a whole lot stranger when one of the tourists threw the severed head of a pigeon into the crowd.

FAIR play to the Ógra Fianna Fáil stand at the National Ploughing Championship. It had a ‘Where’s Willie?’ poster, done in the style of Where’s Wally? with five Willie O’Dea characters to find. Hours of fun.

SPARE a thought for Pat Deering. The Carlow-Kilkenny Fine Gael TD announced at the end of a speech that he would welcome people to Carlow next year, before the organisers had officially announced next year’s venue. Ploughing

chief Anna Marie McHugh reacted swiftly by declaring that the final decision had not yet been made, and pulling the traditional last-day announcement. A bit of an overreaction, in fairness, since it was also announced by RTÉ’s Damien O’Reilly on the radio on Wednesday afternoon, The Carlow Nationalist on Tuesday and the Leinster Express on Monday.

JOURNALIST and CNN presenter Fareed Zakaria’s column in the Washington Post on Friday appeared under the spectacular headline: ‘I wanted to understand Europe’s populism. So I talked to Bono.’ Among the many cutting responses it provoked was this from Ben Shapiro: ‘I wanted to understand nothing. So I read Fareed Zakaria.’