Senator Callely - Immediate clarification is essential

IN the normal course of events a languid political ceasefire is observed across the muggy days of August but, as in so many, many ways, the travails of Senator Ivor Callely are well outside of anything that might be considered normal.

Once again he has found a way to turn what is essentially a token political position into one that allows him undermine the credibility of the process he fought so hard to remain a part of. He, and many of his Seanad colleagues, are something like an Irish version of the English royal court’s gentlemen of the bedchamber; they can smell power but have none of their own.

His shameless behaviour, and his vehement rejection of his peers’ judgment of that behaviour, undermines the leadership of the party that sponsored his Lazarus seat in the Senate.