Lord Fitt, aka Gerry Fitt, told Quidnunc in the splendour of the House of Lords on Tuesday that he had just been to see the movie The End of the Affair, because he and Graham Greene went back a long way. In 1976, Greene wrote asking if they could discuss the North. Fitt agreed and Greene flew from Antibes to Aldergrove, where the SDLP leader picked him up and the two set off up the Antrim coast. After calling into many hostelries - "he took a gin and tonic, no ice, no lemon, just as I like it" - the pair at last met an inn-keeper who had heard of Greene and they retired to his house.
The next morning, Fitt left Greene on the couch and returned to Belfast with a hangover. That evening Greene flew out, cancelling a meeting with the then secretary of state, Merlyn Rees. One day in this lovely and beautiful country was enough, he said. Years later, Fitt says, Greene refused to attend literary awards in Dublin unless Fitt came too. He did and they sat together.
After this yarn and many others, several G & Ts and a chat with Lord Longford (a hereditary peer who was not thrown out with the others because of his age - 94 - and record), Lord Fitt walked over to the BIIPB meeting in Church House to say hello to the Irish parliamentarians, in particular his old colleague, Aus- tin Currie.
Quidnunc is at rholohan@irish-times.ie