Cowen might have an honorary doctorate, but he has not learned

The degree was an opportunity for Cowen to make a speech. A lengthy speech. Fifty minutes, writes Terry Prone

I MET the former taoiseach, Brian Cowen, only once. That was when he was minister for health. Like his predecessors, he was encountering one nasty controversy after another.

The latest was going to put him on that night’s Prime Time, and someone, either in the department or in Fianna Fáil, had persuaded the minister that seeing a communications trainer — specifically, me — before the programme might be a good idea.