Gang culture alive and well on our mean streets and in Fianna Fáil

"I'm glad to see that Battling Siki over here has apologised to the good lady of Limerick." Indakinny's been reading more than his briefing notes again. Dáil Éireann can be very educational sometimes, you know.

With his reference to Battling Siki, the Fine Gael leader was taking a mischievous swipe at Willie O'Dea and his recent little difficulty in a Limerick public house.

The Minister, chuckling gamely, appeared to get the allusion, which went over the heads of most people in the chamber. As soon as the Order of Business finished, we rushed off to find out more.

Battling Siki, as opposed to Battling Willie, was a light heavyweight boxer from Senegal, who won the world title in Paris in 1922, amid allegations of dives and skullduggery.

After his victory, he embarked on a well-publicised rampage of partying and carousing. Siki used to walk his pet lion down the Champs Élysées while wearing his top hat and tails, and was known to fire his revolvers in the air as a means of prompting his two Great Danes to do tricks.

Perhaps Enda was getting slightly carried away with his comparison. Battling Willie wearing a tux and leading two big cats on a leash along Limerick's O'Connell Street might be a fantasy too far.

Mind you, a couple of barks from Cpl O'Dea would be enough to frighten a couple of Jack Russells into turning cartwheels.

However, one can imagine the Minister in battle fatigues, moustache abristle, saluting from the gun turret of a tank, leading the first assault wave down O'Connell Street as his army prepares to retake the city.

Not so far-fetched this time. Yesterday, following a question from Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan on the latest gangland murder, the Minister for Justice said he would ask the Garda Commissioner if he wanted to call on army backup in the fight against gangland crime.

Battling Willie will be ready for the call. (Not that it will ever come.) Gangland crime was the only topic on the menu yesterday during Leaders' Questions.

"Who is in charge of the streets, Taoiseach? Is it the Government, or is it the gunmen?" asked Enda Kenny, so pleased with this soundbite that he said it twice.

Enda outlined his litany of rising gun statistics. He finished up with a sobering statement. "Around the country, cocaine parties are all the rage."

The Government Ministers present put on their best "don't look at us" expressions.

Bertie agreed this matter of "the cocaine and the coke parties" had to be tackled and it is an "issue that the gardaí are functioning on".

When party leaders talk in the Dáil about such things as cocaine parties, you know by the sound of them that the concept is as alien to them as people firing pistols in public to make their dogs do tricks.

"I think you have to set an example," muttered Bertie, his voice trailing off: "and there's an example to be, eh, set on." Whatever that means.

But gang culture. Now that's something he understands. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore asked him why so many gangland murders go unsolved.

The Taoiseach stressed, again and again, the "unfortunate reality" that where this sort of crime is concerned, people will not co-operate with the authorities. Associates of criminals, even if they have been victims of violence, will not talk to the police.

"It's the gang culture." Alive and well on the streets of Ireland - and in Fianna Fáil.

Not one Minister, junior Minister or backbencher, when pressed repeatedly recently on whether they believed Bertie's tribunal evidence, answered the question.

Beverley Flynn looked very perky when she came in for a vote late in the afternoon.

With a smile wider than her generous lapels, she took her designated seat among the independents. However, having settled with RTÉ following her long-running legal battle with the national broadcaster, she must now be hoping she will soon take her place again in the Fianna Fáil gang.

It's the culture.