Tell Me!

A good performance, from BBC Foyle, by a relaxed Martin McGuinness who easily avoided traps set by David Frost. Frost started with an introduction – Bertie Ahern, who is neither British nor Unionist and as such is neutral, says it was the IRA – obviously aimed at a GB audience and when this failed to ruffle Mr McGuinness asked him would he encourage people to contact the police with any information that would help solve the case.A useful, and less open to criticism, comeback by Mr McGuinness who said that people should contact any autority in which they have confidence and that he would be interested in any information if people wished to contact him. Some carefully considered points were made when Mr McGuinness gave his summary of events. Firstly that if he had known in advance of plans for this robbery he wouldn’t have tolerated it and also that that the process had been damaged by Paisley demanding photographs not only to humiliate the IRA but also David trimble.Very neatly done and much more reasoned and controlled than previous performances. The interview ended with a hint of sarcasm from Frost who exited with ‘let us know if you get lots of phone calls …’ (paraphrased).

Ambrose Uprichard