And that is amongst the huge crowd who took to the streets to protest at the Aer Lingus decision to abandon the Shannon-Heathrow flights.

The Minister might have been booed. But with a salary in excess of €100,000 per year a little jeering would not have had too much of an impact.

Those who persist in calling for the resignation of Minister O’Dea (or Minister Dempsey) are way off the mark.

Who would walk away from such a high salary?

Full marks to West Limerick Fianna Fail TD, John Cregan, who braved the hostile crowd in support of the campaign to have the injustice righted. He did not deserve to be jeered by a section of the attendance.

My mind sometimes leads me to unusual types of thinking.

But when I hear of Fianna Fail even attempting to suggest that they move into the North Of Ireland sends strange notions through my head.

Could it be possible that the sell-out of the Shannon-Heathrow slots and their transfer to Belfast had anything to do with the Fianna Fail plan to ‘invade the north’ for votes?
 
Michelle Smith is one of the few women who kept me up half the night. That was before she became Michelle De Brun and when she was winning three Olympic gold medals at swimming for her country.

Controversy erupted subsequently but Michelle retains her gold medals. I believed at the time that she was innocent and I still do. But now I admire her courage as well. While hundreds of do-gooders, writers of music and artists launching their latest CD queue to go on ‘The Late, Late Show’, Michelle refused point blank to do so.

She and a group of others were due to leave Montrose for a charity event in what was described as the ‘wilds’ of Connemara. All the others appeared on the show but Michelle sat outside in the bus waiting to transport them to Connemara.