THE deputy leader of Fianna Fail, Mary O'Rourke, paid generous tribute to our late colleague Christina Murphy at her funeral on Wednesday but the former Minister for Education also provided an insight into Cabinet politics. Back in 1990, she called Christina into her office in Marlborough Street, where she told her about her plans to publish a Green Paper on Education.

The news duly made the front page of The Irish Times the following day. But Minister O'Rourke had to pay a price at the next Cabinet meeting when, as she told mourners last week, Charlie turned to her "in his usual beady way" and said "I see you're going to give us a Green Paper. Next time, you might tell your colleagues before you tell The Irish Times."

As O'Rourke recalled: "Not much escaped him, either then or now.