`Everyone thinks Bertie is a real Dub but to be honest with you, in those days we used to call him the culchie." Thus can your old mates embarrass you. Tailor Louis Copeland, aided by his brother Adrian, told Gloria Honeyford on RTE's VIP Suite last Sunday about hanging out in Drumcondra in the 1950s with the present Taoiseach. Once, said Louis, he, Bertie and some other boys were giving out cards for FF. A solitary kid was handing out Labour cards. They sorted him out.
"When nobody was looking we had a little chat with him, took the cards off him, threw them over the college wall, gave him a few slaps and sent him on his merry way." Bertie was an organiser even in those early days. When they were doing an orchard in Slack Lane, Bertie brought a half-ladder and a coat to cover the glass on the wall. Before these dreadful revelations the brothers assured Gloria that their stories wouldn't bring down a government. Are they sure?