Most people unlikely to be as happy with McDowell as he is with himself

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell must be the first politician ever in the history of the State to have issued an apology with a shelf life shorter than the lifespan of a mayfly, and that’s usually a single day.

Having apologised to Richard Bruton for his appalling, practically racist, remark, he issued every member of both Houses of the Oireachtas - 220 TDs and Senators - with a letter to the effect he was correct about garda figures, the cause of the row.

You would find it hard to come up with such a petty, mean-minded attitude in a school playground.