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GEORGE LEE’S recent elevation, or relegation, to the Dáil represents the welcome return of an old tradition in Irish politics. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the ranks of the Irish Party at Westminster were regularly populated by journalists as varied in their politics and bitter in their personal rivalries as William O’Brien, Tim Healy, Michael Davitt, Tim Harrington, TP O’Connor and JJ O’Kelly. It probably helps explain why their speeches were far more readable and relevant than those of current TDs, many of whom had captive audiences in the classroom or the courts before entering the Dáil, writes  PADRAIG YEATES

Most of the literary stalwarts of the past are long forgotten, but one of the most significant, JJ O’Kelly, has received a new lease of life thanks to a dismissive comment in Dermot Meleady’s recent biography of John Redmond, Redmond: The Parnellite. Meleady’s characterisation of O’Kelly as an advocate of racial superiority has spurred the re-publication of the latter’s 1873 reports for the New York Herald on the first Cuban war of independence, which won international acclaim at the time.