It’s the end of the line for toodle-pip ...and no more kisses at the bottom!

LAST week, I was briefly famous.

Or infamous, if you want to be negative about it. An email I had written to a government minister’s private secretary was printed on the front page of a national newspaper, courtesy of the Freedom of Information Act.

I read the piece in the Irish Times in absolute terror. Not terror of having given evil advice or having sought payment in gold bullion in the Cayman Islands. No: this terror was of finding I’d peppered the communication with swearwords and slander. Fortunately, this one turned out to be clean and without casual libel. I thought I was home free. Until I hit the end. The way the message ended provided the bang-forehead-off-desktop moment.