Shareholders at last week's annual general meeting of Independent Newspapers in Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel were treated to a bullish assessment of the company's performance during 1998 by chairman Dr Tony O'Reilly. The Indo chief spoke of tremendous progress and change in the year under review. But what year?

A colour photograph on the front page of the business section of Dr O'Reilly's Irish Independent carried the following caption: Independent Newspapers chief executive, Liam Healy and chairman Dr A.J.F. O'Reilly following yesterday's agm of the company.

The picture showed Dr O'Reilly sporting a blue shirt with a white collar and a dark handkerchief protruding from his breast pocket. But the intriguing thing is Dr O'Reilly was wearing a light striped shirt and a different colour handkerchief at the a.g.m. Mr Healy was also wearing a different tie from the one shown in the photo.

A bit of detective work on the part of the Margin established that Dr O'Reilly's attire at last year's a.g.m. included a a blue shirt and white collar.

Could it be that his own newspaper decided to use last year's photo? And they say time stands still for no man.