The candidacy of Martin McGuinness for the Irish presidency was announced on a Friday evening, too late for the Sunday Independent team of columnists which has been a force of note in Irish political life for many years now.
The "Sindo" scribes can be a grouchy lot and they frequently act in unison. If you're a target of their ire it's a good idea to lie low, head for the Gobi Desert, join the Foreign Legion perhaps.
Readers with elephant memories will recall that the Sindo scribes (13 in total as IF best recalls) only savaged John Hume when it became known that the then SDLP leader was sipping tea with Gerry Adams.
So no surprise that McGuinness has been taking his lumps in the post-announcement editions of the paper for which there was time to load up and have a lash at the Sinn Féin candidate for the presidency.
It's a Christians to the lions approach that can be very entertaining if the scribes are reflecting your point of view, infuriating if they are not, and distinctly disturbing, indeed a little scary, if you're the target.
Having the political hide of a rhinoceros is helpful if you are in the crosshairs. McGuinness wouldn't be lacking in that department.
Still, the Sindo and its hunting-as-a-pack strategy is a fascinating study in and of itself and a studied assessment of its impact on Irish political life down the years would be the worthy subject of a journalism school thesis.
HOWYA JOE?
So loyalist leader Jackie McDonald was given a special visa to visit the U.S. this week. Jackie is a good pal these days of Joe Doherty, the two of them working together to improve community relations in Belfast.
Now whatever about Jackie winging his way over the pond with some fellow loyalists, wouldn't it indeed be a sign of improving times if Jackie and Joe could land together someday on U.S. soil.
For Doherty, of course, it would be familiar ground, and given his history with U.S. authorities such an arrival would likely require a very special visa.
Still and all, stranger things have happened.
WELL DONE USA
IF has been keeping an old hooker's eye on the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and feels compelled to congratulate the USA Eagles for putting up fine performances in the group games including the one against Ireland. The Eagles didn't qualify for the knock-out stages but beat the Russians and added to the number of folks back home who are actually aware that the U.S. has a rugby team and compete at the top levels of the international game. Well done Eagles!
NO BETTER MAN
Frank Durkan is still sorely missed, not just in the New York Irish community, but Irish America in its totality. Well, his name lives on in many ways and one of them is the Frank Durkan Scholarship at Dublin City University.
A fundraiser in support of the scholarship, and an opportunity to meet new DCU president Prof. Brian MacCraith, is set for Rosie O'Grady's, Times Square on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. The gathering is being hosted Brian and Marianna O'Dwyer.
