Republican News · Thursday 13 March 1997

[An Phoblacht]

The NIO's very own Spice Girl, Baroness Denton, met some female sixth formers last week to advise them how to get on in the cruel world of work. No better woman, you might think.

First she told them, ``You must believe in yourselves and your ability to succeed''. Very good advice.

Then she told them: ``Still too few women are making decisions which affect their lives''. Yes, but there are some who make decisions which affect other people's lives, such as Baroness Denton who, let's say, doesn't always make the right decision.

d the name of the initiative which the Baroness was promoting? The Fair Play initiative. How appropriate. 

 

I thought I had stumbled upon a sensational new back channel which might put the peace process back on track. Last week our office received a Reuters report which quoted US Congressman Peter King in Washington speaking about Korea diplomats who have analysed the republican movement.and found it genuinely wanting to move towards a peaceful settlement.

Well, I thought, if the Norwegians could help broker talks in the Middle East, why could the Koreans not do the same in Ireland?

But my hopes were soon dashed. Whoever transcribed Peter King's comments had been having a little difficulty with his accent. It seems he had been speaking about career diplomats. 

 

I've been asked to say hello to one of our regular readers. Intrepid Branchman Michael O'Sullivan buys his copy of An Phoblacht in a Cork bookshop every week and, I'm told, reads it from cover to cover. Glad you enjoy it, Mick, keep handing over your 50p. 

 

Spare a thought for Private Lee Clegg. He was coming out of a pub in the early hours of Saturday morning when two bad men roughed him up a bit. He is reported to be feeling sore and humiliated. The men said they struck out as Clegg went past them because they thought their lives were in danger. 

 

If you have a weak stomach I don't want you to read this piece.

Máire Cruise O'Brien, wife of the esteemed Conor, recently met informer and agent Seán O'Callaghan in New York. She felt moved to write about it in the Irish Independent.

``The man is quiet; very quiet and very thin,'' she tells us. ``His quietness and thinness suggest detachment, if not reclusiveness. A monk? The planes of his face are handsome, composed; the eyes large, luminous and salient; the expression is courteous and reserved, illumined, as it were, from within, with a lively intelligence and humour, rigidly controlled.''

Can you take any more?

``...deprecatingly he refers to himself as the `Informer Poet'. He is totally non-confrontational. I am aware of old memories stirring, I recognise the style. This is the ideal of my youth, the Irish countryman, particularly the Kerryman, realist, mannerly, humane, the archetypal hero of my early poems.''

Enough there to keep you in sick bags for many a long day.

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