Abuse of power and the gardaí is nothing new to boozy politicians

WITH the rumblings of Garglegate in Galway still continuing, we had the story of PJ Sheehan threatening the young garda outside Leinster House when she prevented him from driving his car because he had too much to drink.

Although the whole thing has been depicted as another serious blow to politics and law enforcement, what happened is really a healthy development because it shows there has been a change in the culture of tolerance towards alcohol abuse.

Drink has always been an Irish problem. Plastered Paddies are infamous the world over. In the early days of independence, leaders were expected to be abstemious. Of course, some of them were not. Michael Collins, the great icon of Fine Gael, was essentially on a pub crawl of west Cork on the day he was shot.