Two former Fianna Fail government press secretaries Sean Duignan (Albert Reynolds) and P.J. Mara (Charlie Haughey) launched Fine Gael Senator Maurice Manning's first novel, Betrayal, on Wednesday and were most anxious to discover who the book's narrator - government press secretary Peter O'Donnell - was based. Mara said he personally was from the school of self-effacing press secretaries, a profile he had grown to understand. He recalled that former Minister for Justice Gerard Collins had called on his silken skills for a press launch. It was a great success and loads of coverage was achieved. At 9.30 a.m. the next day, Mara's buzzer rang and he was summoned by a gravelly voice. "Are you feeling unwell, Mara?" asked CJH. "No Taoiseach." "There is something definitely wrong with you." "No," Mara replied. "You are on page 3 of The Irish Times, you and Collins. This is megalomania, Mara. Never again. The back of the camera is where you should be."
Both Duignan and Mara agreed that O'Donnell had to be a member of Fianna Fail because, said Mara, he was fun-loving, thrill-seeking and a party animal and, said Diggie, because he got the girls with the long legs. Both suggested the character's model might have been Frank Dunlop, Jack Lynch's press secretary, who was lurking at the back of the room.
Mara said Manning had got the bit about the heave absolutely right. This was interesting, he said, since Fine Gael was no good at it while in Fianna Fail it was a science - but defending the heave was an absolute art. Anyone could plot a heave, it was seeing it off that involved the great skill. Maurice, said Mara, had obviously been listening to him, because in Betrayal the heave was seen off with great style. But if he wanted to get the sex angles right "you should talk more to our lads - the Christian Brothers rather than restrained Clongowes types."
Maurice said he wondered was there something of himself in O'Donnell? He asked his wife Mary. "`Dream on," she said. "The only resemblance is that you both drink Smithwicks." On this note, they followed publican Dessie Hynes, who is outed in the book as a Fine Gaeler, to his hostelry on Baggot Street bridge, to taste some ale.