Bring out the red and yellow cards, and keep Lisbon debate free of porkies

IT WAS one of those panels studded with the famous, lucid and loquacious.

David Norris was in flying form, lashing between Rabelaisian humour and impassioned political exposition. Noel Whelan was at his analytical best. As you would expect.

What I hadn’t expected was that the guy sitting on my right, whose name was only beginning to be well-known, would be equal to, if not better than, the best on the panel. He was interesting, well-informed and blissfully short of political waffle. He treated the chairman, Vincent Brown, as an entertaining phenomenon rather than a personal threat. He didn’t hog the limelight, but did intervene to correct or build on statements made by others. He was – to use that current cliché – ay-mazing.