Mary Hanafin tries hard to whip up a storm

BDSM, Bertie’s unbelievability, and bad marriages dominated as the opening of the MacGill Summer School took some unusual twists.

As the seasonal summer rain storm lashed the little Donegal town of Glenties, former cabinet minister (and wanna-be future Fianna Fáil leader) Mary Hanafin was raising the temperature with a risqué (for her) quip with saucy overtones.

“I had the pleasure of being government chief whip between 2002 and 2004, I was the first female whip, and you have no idea the number of male TDs who told me they were looking forward to being whipped by a woman. I had my very own 50 Shades Of Grey,” she said to an audience whose age and political profile made the hall resemble a day room in a decidedly right-wing old people’s home.