THE country is full of dangerous dogs and one of the worst must be Mr Aidan Mende's mongrel. It doesn't just take the dog biscuit. It includes in its diet such exotic items as a letter with a harp on top of it and the name McDowell at the end of it.
So, at least, the nation was informed early this week when Mr Meade's letter to Michael McDowell threatening the ultimate sanction, disclosure to Geraldine Kennedy, came to light. It seems Mr Meade is another of Michael D.'s worthy appointments to the IRTC and he was seeking to jump to the defence of his political patron by writing a rather silly letter to Michael McDowell, in reply to an alleged letter from McDowell which the dog had conveniently swallowed.
At first it was thought he got his McDowells mixed up but Derek of the Labour Party says he wasn't fund raising either, which is probably true because the Labour Party has had enough fund raising to do it for a good while. The Labour Party might have preferred if the dog had swallowed McDowell rather than the letter.
Mr Meade made a monumental ass of himself but it was all done in aid of his benefactor and his chairman and at least it took some of the spotlight away from them. Michael Kitt wanted to know during the week whether letter eating dogs would be classified with suburban jaguars and other exotic animals as a dangerous species for the purposes of forthcoming legislation. Can we have a photograph of the Meades's canine pride and joy?
Michael Lowry is back in the wars again. During the week Bobby Molloy raised the circumstances in which the second GSM licence for mobile phones was issued and at what price. A great deal of questions aide being asked and there have not been very many answers from Mr Lowry yet. Fianna Fail now seems to be determined to follow it through and even the US Embassy has expressed its disquiet. Some of the unsuccessful American bidders are comparing the process to what would pertain in a banana republic and are threatening to make no more industrial investments here, so the matter is serious.
Denis O'Brien had a high powered list of advisers to help him gain his objective. They ranged from Brendan O'Kelly and John Callaghan of the business world to Bill O'Herlihy and P.J. Mara of the spin doctoring profession and to Padraig O'hUiginn who was Charlie Haughey's great adviser and was Secretary to the Department of the Taoiseach.
It was quite a remarkable auction when the vendor agreed to put a limit or cap on the amount that could be bid for a valuable asset, a State licence. If Mr Lowry were selling his house in the morning Drapier doubts very much if he would announce at the auction that nobody was allowed to bid more than £20,000 and that he would then pick the purchaser from among those who had bid that sum. Would Lowry tell a prospective purchaser at the back of the room, who shouted that he wanted to bid £80,000, to shut up and behave himself?
STILL on the trail of Michael Lowry, Seamus Brennan was put out of the House during the week for getting too worked up about Luas. This is the light rail system for Dublin which seems to be losing some of its initial attraction. It now appears that when Lowry made a big announcement about the progress of this last December he omitted to tell the Dail or the country that the European Union, which is paying most of the bill, had queried the whole thing in November and asked for further studies to be done. Lowry protests his innocence but he has an extraordinary facility for complicating things. It may be that he actually enjoys all this controversy that he generates. His colleagues don't enjoy it.
The IRA has reminded the people of London and of these islands that it is still in business and that indiscriminate bombs are its and Sinn Fein's way of making a political point. By allowing these bombs to continue, and by failing to restore a permanent ceasefire, Sinn Fein is gradually excluding itself from whatever talks may take place in the North on its future. Nobody can now seriously suggest including Sinn Fein in any such talks.
The electoral process being proposed for the North next month seems very complicated and raises again the query of whether there is any point in the whole exercise. What can be done after the election that can't be done now? WHATEVER our concerns about bombs in London by the IRA they seem very small beer by comparison with what is happening in Lebanon. Israel's attacks on helpless refugees and on a clearly identified United Nations post show an extraordinary lack of regard for innocent human life. It is amazing that a democratic country like Israel conducts its military affairs with as little concern for the rules as any terrorist organisation. Its philosophy seems to be 10 eyes for one eye and its indiscriminate brutality certainly does its cause no good and loses it support.
There is a lot of concern for the position of Irish troops and their safety in south Lebanon. They are in a most unenviable position and a lot of people would be much happier to see them home out of a situation where they are sitting targets for Israeli artillery. If the Israelis attacked the Fijians, what is to stop them attacking the Irish? The Irish are there on behalf of a United Nations whose Security Council is not even prepared to condemn the Israeli attacks on its own troops. What sort of body is it?