Picture this in a Dublin pub sometime in early 1997: a row of Americans in starched white shirts and short military-style haircuts sitting by themselves and gazing mournfully into their pints. All because Irish eyes apparently were not smiling when they came to examine our national plans regarding encryption.

Encryption is the form of electronic security used to encode data used on computers and in particular, over the Internet. The US has banned its own technology companies from exporting software products which use so-called "strong" encryption leaving rather satisfying opportunities for non-Yank firms like the Republic's Baltimore Technologies to grab market share.

The US would like to persuade other countries to adopt its approach on encryption. So, in early 1997 - The Margin's informants say - the US government dispatched personnel from the National Security Agency, one of its most secretive divisions, to chat with relevant people here, along with Irish technology companies and US firms based in the Republic.

But because of its role in shutting down foreign markets for US tech companies and opposition to the free use of encryption in general, the NSA is derided and despised worldwide by technology firms, privacy advocates, and geeks in general. Sadly, according to an impeccable source, no one responded to their invitation. Thus, one sympathetically imagines them, sitting alone and unwanted - unable to do the work of Uncle Sam and consoled only by Uncle Arthur.