Nudged off the plinth

Some may say, Dana for one, that the system is loaded against the outsider getting a nomination for the Park. Prof Mary McAleese found this out for herself on Wednesday. During a day of intense canvassing of FF deputies prior to next Wednesday's selection, she posed on the plinth at Leinster House for the photographers. The superintendent, Comtd Eamon O'Donohue, was quick to call a halt, however. Only members of the House can avail of this privilege and she and her entourage had to decamp, temporarily, to Kildare Street.