Political satirist and comedian Oliver Callan openly admitted during the week that he would have to put both his writing and thinking caps on following Paschal Donohue’s defection to an even bigger, better paid talking shop in Washington.
Lord Dimples of Inchicore has long been a central tenet of the Monaghan performer and broadcaster’s long running and comically accurate Callan’s Kicks sketches.
However, he should have no shortage of material given how close the real thing his portrayal of Simon Harris actually is. In the humorous gags, “I’m important” is An Tanaiste’s tag line while the other repeated theme is the Wicklow man’s fondness for engaging with the public via social media.
Often refering to Mr Harris as the “TikTok Taois(each) ” during his stint in the top job in Irish democracy, the funny man got particular mileage out of the former tea maker’s fondness for the Block button on social media sites.
Like most satire, though, there tends to be more than a smidgeon of truth therein. For example, nobody will tell me it was pure coincidence that Helen McEntee was cast off to Foreign Affairs.
Slithery Simon might think out of sight will mean out of mind, but his not the first pilgrim to pull that gun from the holster only to see the trigger jam. Make no mistake about it, Bertie Ahern packed Charlie McCreevey off to Brussells because he knew damn well Chazza was the biggest threat to his job.
Years later, Enda Kenny + Phil Hogan = the same result. Ditto Micheal Martin and Barry Cowen. Thus, I would be wholly convinced Harris was getting the Meath East deputy out of the way.
With strong political characters like Donohue, Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney no longer in the equation, Ms McEntee must surely be considered to be the front runner to be the next Fine Gael leader if/when the position became available.
And, while nowhere near under the same level of scrutiny as Micheal Martin (if his son Micheal Aodh dropped two clangers while in goals for Cork like the oul lad did with Grainne Seoige and Jim Gavin he’d be dropped for six months), the fact that Heather Humphries was tailed off worse than when Istabraq pulled up on his farewell run won’t have done the Greystones guy any good with the notoriously conservative, self assured blue elders.
The Block button might be his best friend yet again going forward.
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