Cormac MacConnell: Will the Clingdom prevail in Stroke Park?

It would make our lives so much brighter and stimulated if those dedicated journalists from all shades of the media who have to cover the political events of the day were given the same freedom of expression as their colleagues who keep us abreast of sporting matters.

I accept that sporting matters, for most of us, are infinitely more exciting than our frequently boring politics, but that gulf could be sharply narrowed, in this view, if political journalists were freed to use the colourful language and cliches of the sport pages.

As a young reporter in Dublin many years ago, I was only dispatched by The Irish Press to cover the Dail proceedings three times.