Too good to miss this from Miriam Lord:
The Munster mafia of Labour’s Michael McCarthy and Fine Gael’s Tom Hayes and Patrick O’Donovan, aided and abetted by Fianna Fáil’s Michael Moynihan and Dara Calleary, put in a call to Mr McGrath, making sure to block the number of the caller.
McCarthy, a noted mimic, did the talking.
When Mattie answered, he heard a man with a foreign accent say: “Hello. You like pizza? I phone from Pizza Hut. You like pizza?”
“I can’t hear you. I can’t understand you,” responded Mattie. “What are ya on about?” The pizza man explained: “You no like bank. And we no like the bank, so we want send you pizza. Solidarity!”
The little group in the Dáil bar was listening in on the entire exchange, because McCarthy had the phone on speaker.
“Jesus. Grand job. Grand job,” said Mattie, exclaiming “Lads, lads! Pizza Hut is droppin’ around pizza!”
Michael then inquired if he wanted chips as well.
Oh, yes, that would be lovely.
“Hauld on a minute. Hauld on. There’s two guards in here with us as well. Will ya send us four?” The Leinster House pranksters nearly passed out as they struggled to stop laughing out loud. “We send you four,” promised Michael.
That was settled so, except for one further thing. It might not look good for Occupy Loughlinstown to be seen getting in a big feed of pizza and chips.
“Bring ’em around the back,” shouted Mattie. “Bring ’em round the back.” The boys in the bar collapsed.
The food never arrived. Poor Mattie was starved out of the building. But at least he highlighted the situation in Wexford and made the farmer’s case with Friends First.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty