So how do the current crop of politicians match up?
I read that Taoiseach Simon Harris came into this world in October 1986. To put this in perspective, I started working with the late Seamus Mallon MP in September 1986, after completing an internship in Washington DC.
As the young Harris raced through his life from nappies to puberty, my career was at the coal face of the bare-knuckle ring that was northern politics.
Rough and tumble it was but there was also fierce comradeship. Internal political disagreements were, to say the least, forthright.
Seamus Mallon, pictured with John Hume and his wife Pat, operated a time when politicians needed sharp elbows and a thick skinThere were definitely two SDLP types back then. There were the pseudo-intellectuals who, like the smartest pupils in the class, always liked to remind you how smart they were.
Reform UK and the TUV deserve each other, but haven’t the rest of us suffered enough? - Deirdre Heenan
So how does the current crop of politicians match up? – Tom Kelly
On the other side were politicos from the school of hard knocks; instinctive types forged by life experiences and rooted in local communities.
I was never accused of being intellectual. And I was certainly too busy with other activities at university to ever bother with student........
© The Irish News
visit website