I LANDED my job in the Irish Examiner by pitching a half-baked idea — cold — to the sports editor.

EVER have that nightmare where you’re rowing the Indian Ocean in a 23ft-long boat, surrounded by sharks, the sun is melting the skin on your back, you’re eating out of tins, going to the toilet in a bucket... and you’re naked? No, me neither. But meet the Irishman who plans on living that dream for 150 nights.

MORE INNOCENT times. On the day Fianna Fáil launched its 2002 election campaign, PJ Mara walked into the party’s press conference in the Shelbourne Hotel and announced: “It’s showtime.”