WHILE attending university in Texas in 1964 I was about to play golf one day when somebody asked if he could join me. I was going to agree, until I saw the man was black.

WITH Northern Ireland now being jolted by a couple of sex scandals, maybe we should ask why our politics have remained strangely free of such scandals? The whole thing undoubtedly has a lot to do with hypocrisy.

THERE was an amazing interview during the week on RTÉ in relation to the final decommissioning of weapons by the UDA. It seemed strange to hear Frankie Gallagher of the Ulster Political Research Group speak in such complimentary terms about the help received in Dublin.

EARLIER this month I was asked to discuss Irish neutrality during the Second World War on Tom McGurk’s programme on 4FM.

The Lemass style of leadership was to encourage his ministers to be proactive. Unlike de Valera, he never managed to lead Fianna Fáil to an overall majority but, unlike some of his successors, he refused to bargain with any independents to support his nomination for Taoiseach

FOR years the maxim of American business was: “As General Motors goes, so goes the nation.” Today there are fears General Motors is going bankrupt and this could have further enormous implications for the global economy. The whole thing emphasises the need for new political thinking in relation to the economy.

NEXT week marks 90 years since the election of the first Irish woman to parliament — Countess Constance Markievicz.

Ahern left himself wide open to the suspicion that he was under obligation by appointing several people to State boards after they gave him money.

IN the past week we had posthumous pronouncements from both Judge Seán O’Leary and the late US President Gerald Ford.

IN the past there have always been people in the wings who have had a vested interest in destroying the various peace initiatives.

TERRY DE VALERA’S memoir, which was published this week, has some fascinating insights. As the youngest son of Eamon de Valera, Terry provides some up-to-date observations of his own on the international scene.

MY earliest memory of anything to do with rugby was the horror of the Christian Brothers in the early 1950s at the news that Eamon de Valera described rugby as his favourite game.

GENERAL elections seem to be developing into an auction in promises,” Charlie McCreevy complained in the early ’80s. “We are so hell-bent on assuming power that we are prepared to do anything for it.”