In politics, some things just never go away

Dail Sketch/ Frank McNally: Given recent events in Belfast, it was no surprise yesterday when Sinn Féin raised the issue of "…

Dail Sketch/ Frank McNally: Given recent events in Belfast, it was no surprise yesterday when Sinn Féin raised the issue of "human rights training" for army members.

Party defence spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh wanted to know whether any such training was provided. If so, he wondered, did it include "gender sensitivity"?

We could see exactly where he was coming from with this one. The role of "the army" in the Robert McCartney murder continues to be a severe embarrassment to the republican movement.

Without rushing to judgment, the killing seems almost certain to have involved some major human rights abuses. And gender sensitivity has also become a big issue. The McCartney sisters seem to have caused unprecedented levels of it within Sinn Féin, whatever about the military wing.

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But why ask Willie O'Dea about this? Then the penny dropped. He was talking about the State's Army, not the other crowd!

With all these armies, it's easy to get confused. But apparently the human rights question arose in the context of recent allegations of bullying by Defence Forces members against women recruits.

For the record, the Minister said he was not sure if gender sensitivity was part of training. He said he'd get back on that one. But in broad terms, he agreed that human rights training was a necessity for - as Aengus had put it - "a modern army".

Elsewhere yesterday the Taoiseach found himself under attack yet again over the actions of his former minister for the environment.

To paraphrase Gerry Adams, the Cullen controversy hasn't gone away, you know. Neither has Mr Cullen, much to the Opposition's chagrin. And as the parties pressed for details of the Quigley report on Monica Leech's PR contract, gender sensitivity was thrown out the window.

Pat Rabbitte said it was clear that Ms Leech was not "remotely" close to having expertise commensurate with the fees paid to her.

It was left to the Taoiseach to defend Ms Leech. The evidence he'd read did not suggest she "had no expertise", he said, although Mr Rabbitte was entitled to "the contrary view". This wasn't the most dashing defence of a woman's honour, but Ms Leech will be grateful for small mercies.