The new chairman of Telecom Eireann, Mr Brian Thompson, although a grandfather, has revealed himself as a fan of the Star Wars film series - and one who identifies with the archbaddie, Darth Vader.
At a conference on e-commerce, he informed the audience it was the first one in the history of telecoms to hear the first public statement by the first chairman of an incumbent national telephone company who had been "brought in from the dark side". He was, in fact, "a cream-skimming opportunist".
"I am indeed the Darth Vader of telecoms," he told the attendance who might well have been assembled Imperial troops.
To their disappointment, though, he said he did not intend to provide the James Earl Jones voice-over, guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of those telecom competitors in the galaxy's outer regions.
At the same conference, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, expressed her unease at the use of the word "loose" when describing the new regulatory regime. "`Loose' is a loose word. It is dreadful," she said. She finally settled on "supple" as the new lovely and perhaps even sexy word to describe the telecoms environment.
