Rules and controls may correct the past, but they cannot shape the future

WHEN the final programme in the TV series about Charles Haughey goes out tonight, at least some of its audience will be watching out of nostalgia.

For them it evokes a time when banditry, brilliance, booze and bawdiness came together in an impelling illicit mix.

A time when conspiracies satisfactorily complicated reality, when everybody knew someone who had the real, REAL story. A time when first names and favours were the currency by which to buy or sustain success.