Minister afloat in copious watersheds

THE publicity-conscious Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, tells us that the murder of Donna Cleary will be a "watershed".

There have been so many watersheds in the political life of this minister, that, any day soon, we may see him trying to negotiate Niagara Falls in a tub.

And when I look at the arts, sport and tourism minister John O'Donoghue beside him, I am reminded of zero tolerance and his assassination of Nora Owen when Mr Donoghue was opposition spokesman on justice. Even the shredding of a warrant that was photocopied in Garda HQ was a resigning matter for the then justice minister Owen, according to the then proponent of zero tolerance.