FF footsoldiers spike the café bars - for our health’s sake, of course

FIANNA FÁIL’S parliamentary party bravado in the face of the aborted café society plan showed a refreshing change from the normal sheepish pursuit of the party line, sometimes against the best interests of their constituents.

It may well have been the sotto voce party line to scuttle Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s determination to bring the country’s publicans to heel, and the minister in the process. Fianna Fáil are very good at the Italian tactics.

Whatever, it came as a surprise to most people, and probably nobody was more surprised than themselves, that they did “exactly what it said on the tin”, to borrow an excellent advertising slogan.