FMD Walsh's finest hour

WITH just weeks to go as a Minister, Joe Walsh may reflect that his most formidable opponents in 12 years in the Cabinet were a virus and a newly discovered micro-organism called a prion.

Political skills kept the west Cork man at the seat of power in the farming and food industries for 17 years, including his 1987 to 1992 stint as Minister for Food.

But a good political show cuts little ice with adversaries such as Aphthovirus, which causes foot and mouth, or the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy prion.