DUBLIN

“HE’S NOT FIT to serve in the Dail,” said a parliamentary colleague of Peader Tobin TD, when the member of the Irish Parliament and leader of political party Aontu admitted that he had actually turned down a trip to Russia, a meeting with Vladimir Putin and a stay in a luxury Moscow hotel seven years ago.

“He’s a disgrace to this place, to everything we stand for,” said another. “I mean it’s one thing telling the whole damn world about it, but now he’s asking the rest of us to follow suit.”

The representative for Meath West has caused genuine shock in the corridors of power in Dublin, and calls for his resignation have been spreading. “If we were not so close to a general election, I’d have him thrown out,” said a Dail stalwart of many years. “But I’ll leave his fate in the hands of the good people of Meath West. They’ll know what to do with him. And I used to like Peadar. But some things are beyond forgiveness and this is one of them. How the fuck am I going to get offered anything now?”

Others see the hand of London in the whole affair. “British intelligence, will they never leave us alone?” shouted a drunken TD as he stumbled from the Dail Bar to its brand new bicycle shed to take a piss. “They probably slipped him something to make him reveal all this. They probably don’t like him because his lot- Aontu – play both sides of the border. Yeah, that’s it. Perfidious Albion and its nasty securocrats. Believe me, I know what they’re capable of. Didn’t I used to work for them myself? But since Brexit, MI5 and MI6 have virtually turned the tap off. Bastards! I suppose there’s always the Chinese. Or, God forbid, the French.”