Old timers add cut to thrust of campaign

IT was just like old times. There they were, Garret, Dessie and Albert, the elder statesmen of Irish politics, as if they had never gone away.

The occasion was the final press conference of the Alliance for a Yes Vote. And they were there to present a unified picture of distinguished, silver-haired former leaders appealing for the Nice Treaty to be ratified.

But the problem was it was just like old times. And it didn’t take long for the old animosities to surface as the former leaders started to stick the knife into each other.