OFF THE BOYLE

YESTERDAY morning Brian Lenihan accused Green Party Senator Dan Boyle of defaming him by inferring a 2009 phone call betrayed something less than zeal in Mr Lenihan’s pursuit of rogue bankers.

So when interviewing John Gormley later on Six One, Brian Dobson could probably have picked a better day to refer to the Corkman as “Dan Brown“, that imaginative interpreter of historical events.

We await an updated edition of Angels & Demons — the inside story of the outgoing coalition.

WORD OF THE DAY

- IN fairness to Brian Lenihan, in his time he has introduced more new words into the everyday Irish vocabulary than an average English degree, even if most of them belong on an economics syllabus. He can also take credit for the return to popularity of several other words; like banjaxed.

Yesterday, however, Brian dug deep, worrying that the incoming government would be “distracted by focus group research and political flapdoodle”.

Yes, we had to look it up. “Foolish talk; nonsense” is the verdict. Useful addition; we might just be needing that one again.

CAREER MOVE

- At least Dan Boyle has the writing to fall back on. Pressed on TV3 yesterday morning about his own plans if he’s out of work in two weeks time, John Gormley took a good look round and quite liked what he saw.

“Well I could come in here and present this show. It would be an absolute doddle. I can read that (the autocue).

“The news is next… tensions are rising in Bahrain… I can read that no problem. You know? No problem!”

But you said that about achieving political reform too, John.