DERMOT McCARTHY is around long enough to know that this week’s controversy about the extraordinary pension and pay-off he received in July will pass.

CAN you imagine the ructions there would be now had our Government succeeded in getting the being deposed Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gadafi to invest in the rescue of our banks late last year?

A MAN I know who is well versed in financial matters, being a very senior and successful figure in Irish business, received a phone call recently from his bank, inquiring as to his financial well-being.

ON the first day of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s visit to Ireland they had lunch at Áras an Uachtarain, invited by President Mary McAleese as part of a small group that included Michael Ó Muircheartaigh, the GAA commentator.

IT’S hard to get excited about the increasingly odious English Premier League soccer competition that begins this weekend, rioting and police response permitting.

IN A less civilised country, Michael Fingleton might be “doing time”, but in lawful Ireland — where rights seem paramount compared to responsibilities — the former boss of the now defunct Irish Nationwide Building Society gets to watch time instead on a €11,000 time-piece presented to him as a going away present in 2009 by his fellow directors.

MY two friends are in the pub, sharing a couple of pints.

ENDA KENNY might have floated to Brussels yesterday instead of flying.

IF I run into Roscommon TD Luke “Ming” Flanagan in Roscommon next Sunday at the Connacht Senior Football Final he’ll find that I’ll be dressed in a suit, what might be called a “business suit”.

ONE of the most condescending putdowns I ever heard made by a lawyer about a colleague who had been appointed to the position of judge was that he “was the first to get a pay rise on the promotion”.