That prolific journalist and author Raymond Smith publishes his 26th book this week. All but three of his previous works - Charlie Haughey The Survivor, Garret The Enigma and Under The Blue Flag (about his time with our troops in the Congo in 1960) are on sport. So is his latest: Vincent O'Brien - The Man And The Legend.
He read the proofs while being treated for heart problems in St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, where, he says, he occupied "the cardinal's room" - so called, he claims, because it was reserved for any cardinal seeking treatment and from which an incumbent patient was hastily removed. It overlooks the eighth green on Elm Park golf club which suited him grand.