11 December 1997 Edition
Editor's desk
Well, there is one little correction to our prisoners' list from last week. You needn't send Christmas cards to Liam Averill in H8 because he has popped out to enjoy the festive season in more comfortable surroundings.
Don't spend your money on a stamp and card - instead, buy a drink and toast one of the cheekiest escapes in the long history of republican wall jumpers. And spare a thought for those poor screws who are still scratching their heads wondering how the Maghera Houdini managed it.
My little piece last week about the `Tiocfaidh ár lá lá' T-shirt has provoked the worst in our native tabloids. Dublin's Evening Herald carried a report on Monday that we were advertising the ``ProvoTubby'' T-shirts for sale at £5 each. Scandalously cheap and a complete lie, of course. The BBC's merchandising and licensing department have raised the matter with trading standards officers in Belfast and so the hunt is on for the elusive TeleChuckies.
I understand that David Ervine is taking a healthy interest in republican history. He was spotted on a flight to London last weekend reading Tim Pat Coogan's biography of Michael Collins. Today a Sinn Féin delegation will be the first republican leaders since Collins to visit a British Prime Minister in Downing Street, so you can expect a weighty, learned soundbite from the always entertaining Ervine.
It is amazing that newspapers will waste lots of money on sometimes totally meaningless opinion polls. Take this headline from Wednesday's Irish Times: `Poll finds most voters believe Budget will favour those on high incomes'.
I think it's fair to say that the result came out that way because the Budget did favour those on high incomes.
They're so predictable. In the week before Gerry Adams and a Sinn Féin delegation meets Tony Blair at Downing Street, British Intelligence (nowadays better known as the securocrats) went on a media briefing frenzy. So we had BBC Spotlight last week claiming that Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris are on the IRA Army Council. And of course the rest of the media ran this tired old story as headlines for a day or two.
Then on Wednesday of this week the Daily Telegraph tells us in a front page headline: IRA `preparing to call off truce'. Quoting ``Intelligence officers in Northern Ireland'' they tell us that ``several RUC officers have been forced to move home after intelligence warnings of planned attacks''.
You could nearly write their script yourself.
Don't spend your money on a stamp and card - instead, buy a drink and toast one of the cheekiest escapes in the long history of republican wall jumpers. And spare a thought for those poor screws who are still scratching their heads wondering how the Maghera Houdini managed it.
My little piece last week about the `Tiocfaidh ár lá lá' T-shirt has provoked the worst in our native tabloids. Dublin's Evening Herald carried a report on Monday that we were advertising the ``ProvoTubby'' T-shirts for sale at £5 each. Scandalously cheap and a complete lie, of course. The BBC's merchandising and licensing department have raised the matter with trading standards officers in Belfast and so the hunt is on for the elusive TeleChuckies.
I understand that David Ervine is taking a healthy interest in republican history. He was spotted on a flight to London last weekend reading Tim Pat Coogan's biography of Michael Collins. Today a Sinn Féin delegation will be the first republican leaders since Collins to visit a British Prime Minister in Downing Street, so you can expect a weighty, learned soundbite from the always entertaining Ervine.
It is amazing that newspapers will waste lots of money on sometimes totally meaningless opinion polls. Take this headline from Wednesday's Irish Times: `Poll finds most voters believe Budget will favour those on high incomes'.
I think it's fair to say that the result came out that way because the Budget did favour those on high incomes.
They're so predictable. In the week before Gerry Adams and a Sinn Féin delegation meets Tony Blair at Downing Street, British Intelligence (nowadays better known as the securocrats) went on a media briefing frenzy. So we had BBC Spotlight last week claiming that Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris are on the IRA Army Council. And of course the rest of the media ran this tired old story as headlines for a day or two.
Then on Wednesday of this week the Daily Telegraph tells us in a front page headline: IRA `preparing to call off truce'. Quoting ``Intelligence officers in Northern Ireland'' they tell us that ``several RUC officers have been forced to move home after intelligence warnings of planned attacks''.
You could nearly write their script yourself.