HE DIDN'T quite stop the whole population with a wave of his hand but, as he strolled down the Strand yesterday, former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds was in buoyant form. "Full steam ahead," he exhorted, approaching a battery of cameras.
The Sunday Times had published an article about him in its British editions entitled "Goodbye gombeen man". Lord Williams was at pains to explain such Irish terms. A gombeen was "a term of insult in the Republic" was as far as he got on that one. But there was Teachta Dala, Dail, Taoiseach, Tanaiste, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and a Labour Party "which has nothing to do with our Labour at all". And some very odd pronunciations of our first national language. Even Rooskey didn't sound itself.
He spoke of Albert the family man. Of his seven children. Of his eldest daughter, Miriam, who was in court. And of his wife, Kathleen, "a shy, private woman, not in perfect health".
As his counsel read the offending article to the court, Albert winced just once. That was when Lord Williams read that the Masri passport affair reinforced "his image as yet another in a long line of Fianna Fail politicians who walked a very thin line".
He did not blink when Dick Spring was described as "the self styled Mr Clean (of Irish politics)" or when it was said Bertie Ahern "could have walked straight out of a Roddy Doyle novel". Even Charles Haughey's description of Bertie as "the most able, devious and cunning of his ministers" evoked no reaction. That reference itself was described in the article as "akin to being labelled a devious bastard by Machiavelli". It promises to be an interesting four weeks in High Court No 13. Unlucky for someone, definitely.
