Say it aint so Joe, 1 February 1984, Comrade Joe Duffy (glasses and Aran jumper) occupying social welfare offices as part of the campaign for medical cards for students

Joe Duffy's secret past

RTÉ's Joe Duffy got a bit worked up last week when an Ógra Shinn Féin spokesperson turned the tables on the chat show champ.

Former student radical Joe grilled the Ógra about a protest the previous day when the fine young radicals disrupted a conference promoting private health care by letting off some stink bombs purchased from a local joke shop. Joe raged about the effects of this demonstration. Who would clean up the mess? What about the disruption?

But Joe's blood really boiled when he was challenged about his days of unorthodox protests. What about when one Joe Duffy, student protest leader, occupied social welfare offices in the 1980s as part of the campaign for medical cards for students? What about the disruption to people's social welfare claims caused by Comrade Joe Duffy?

When reminded that he too once was a disruptive radical protestor, Joe snapped: "You'll find a lot worse."

Don't keep it a secret, Joe. Tell us more. Tell us more.

Cross community relations

Unionists, including the Alliance Party, on North Down Borough Council have blocked Sinn Féin and SDLP representatives from taking part in a debate to be held in Bangor Town Hall.

The event was organised by Women Into Politics "to discuss a shared future for everyone living in Northern Ireland".

The unionists' ban was proposed by Ian Paisley's DUP and supported by the Alliance Party's Ian Parsley. Paisley and Parsley are not related (at least not by blood, anyway).

The motion was passed by the unionist parties during Cross-Community and Community Relations Week.

Talking bollocks

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a right balls of his general election campaign address to a shopkeepers' association just days before polling took place on Sunday and Monday of this week.

Tony Blair's buddy told the merchants of Venice that people who voted for the left are "coglioni" literally meaning testicles.

Makes Michael McDowell's efforts look a bit flat.

Clash of cultures

British cabbies have joined the so-called 'War on Terror'.

Phone salesman Harraj Mann (23) was on his way to catch a London-bound flight from Durham Airport, in the north-east of England, when he asked a taxi driver to play The Clash's London Calling.

But the cabbie rang police after he heard the song which includes the line: "War is declared and battle come down." Mr Mann was consequently dragged off his BMI flight and interrogated under the Terrorism Act.

The police (that's Durham Police, not the band) said a security check revealed that Mann did not pose a threat and he was released without charge. The police also said that it was not just the music the unfortunate Mann requested but "the overall impression" he gave that aroused the taxi driver's suspicion.

Was that suspicion from his passenger being of Indian descent or being a mobile phone salesman?