Letter to the Taoiseach

Patrick Kavanagh spoke about “the tremendous silence of mid-July” which tended to afflict the county of Monaghan following their exit from the Championship.  Having said that, Taoiseach, Monaghan did run Tyrone very close at Clones.  
I was talking to Sean McCague and we reminisced about big games involving Monaghan in the past.  The former county manager (football, not the County Council) told me that when Nudie Hughes found out that he was to mark the Kerry great, John Egan, Nudie immediately responded by saying “He is going to have a bad day.”
I bet you didn’t know this one Taoiseach.  The Monaghan team were supposed to play in blue on Sunday, having agreed with Tyrone that both teams would play in their second strips.  Then they appeared out of the tunnel wearing their familiar white jerseys.  I knew that was to be the end of their fun.  
I suppose that the Back Door would force a revision of Kavanagh’s “tremendous silence”.  No one can afford to be silent if they are to face Donegal in the qualifiers.
I wasn’t sure if you got to the Leinster Final or did it clash with the christenings of Rocco and Jay?  Keep me posted on this.
I have news for you on a different front from the town of Omagh in County Tyrone.  The PSNI found fireworks with nails attached to them at a property on the Hospital Road, Omagh on Friday 6 July.  In their press release, the PSNI described this weapon as a pipe bomb.  It is beginning to emerge now, however, that the PSNI also uncovered a UFF flag and even more sinister again, a Ruger handgun.   
The question that people in and around Omagh are asking is why did the PSNI conceal these facts?  And why did they not provide full and truthful disclosure about the find?  Does the Ruger handgun have any previous history, so to speak?  I am wondering now if the PSNI will issue a second belated press release.
People are asking me these questions and I keep telling them that I do not have the answers.  I simply do not know why.  I told them that I would be writing to you and that you might undertake to find out for us.  I have also briefed my party colleagues who sit on the Policing Board in the Six Counties to see if they can unearth the truth as well.
On Tuesday of this week, I attended a Party meeting in Stormont to do with our approach to a Bill of Rights for the North and an All-Ireland Charter of Rights.  One of my colleagues at the meeting, Chrissie McAuley urged those of us present to be more succinct with our memoranda and written reports on the subject.  That reminded me of a story I heard one time about the Station Manager at Ballygawley, Co Tyrone, a man by the name of Brannigan.
You will know, Bertie that they took the trains off us in Tyrone and the wider North West of Ireland in the 1960s.  Nothing to do with discrimination and all that, I am sure.  At least now, following on from this week’s meeting in Armagh of the All Ministerial Council, Martin McGuinness promised the delivery of a dual carriageway standard road from Dublin to Derry, through the heart of Monaghan and Tyrone that will address our infrastructural needs in the North West to some degree, at last.  
Anyway, back to Brannigan.  His reports to his supervisor in Belfast concentrated on the fairly regular occurrence of a train going off its rails and then repair work that needed to be carried out.  His supervisor did not want to hear about the weather conditions, or the number of passengers who were on the individual but Brannigan always provided the fullest details including the atmospherics.  
When told to make his reports much more succinct, Brannigan detailed the next subsequent minor accident in the following terms:
“Off again.  On again.  Gone again. Brannigan.”
So, Taoiseach, I am off again, myself.  On again next week.

Is mise le meas
Barry McElduff

NB: Bertie Ahern can be contacted on (00 353) 1 619 4020 or e-mail [email protected].  Address: Office of the Taoiseach, Government Buildings, Dublin 2.