Exit Beria

After Josef Stalin died in 1953, there was a power struggle to replace him.

(Editor - Of course there was, you twat.)

True to form for a people who make most important decisions at 5.30am over vodka and cold chicken and cheese served on a hunting knife, the men who wanted to replace Stalin got a bit mischievous.

As we know, Nikita Khrushchev eventually won and was all the happier for it. One man who wasn't very happy was Lavrentiy Beria.

He wasn't happy, you see, because he was dead.

Beria was the commissariat for internal affairs who came within a whisker of taking power, but was shafted by Georgy Malenkov, who was later shafted by Khrushchev, the cutest shafter of all.

Beria was found guilty of treason by a phoney court in December 1953 and was executed by a non-phoney firing squad hours later.

The point is this - ever since he spent two days in the company of crazy Russian fishermen in northern Ontario four years ago, The Board has admired the directness of the Slavic people. When they had political rows, they threw down with bombs and ice picks and intent and the rest of us were appalled and entertained.

In Limerick city, we get donnybrooks about moving posters. Cllrs Kevin Kiely and John Ryan claim that they caught Fianna Fail candidate Joe Crowley "red handed" taking down their bunting on De North Side (DNS). Crowley is pleading his innocence. The rest of us are mildly amused. Mildly at best.

But where's the insanity? Where's the anarchism? Instead of quarrelling with your opponent about posters, why not kidnap your opponent, hoist him into a barrel of paint and tie him to a billboard?

The political statement would be far more exciting.

And the Russians would certainly approve.