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IT is said there are no real friends in politics, only colleagues: it's just some colleagues are more friendly than others. It is no secret that Seamus Mallon and David Trimble are not drinking pals. Nor are Seamus Mallon and John Hume buddies, either. No doubt there are personal factors: Seamus seems destined to be one of life's deputies. But there are political differences, too. John Hume always sets much store by his European Socialist contacts. Down South, he is close to Fine Gael and Labour, while relations with Fianna Fail are sometimes prickly. Seamus Mallon, though, makes a natural Fianna Failer and was particularly close to Charlie Haughey during the New Ireland Forum. Haughey, by turn, apparently regards Hume disparagingly as "the high priest of compromise".
In Eamon Delaney's new book, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs' Anglo-Irish division is described as a "virtual constituency office for the SDLP". Criticisms of any Irish Government from the SDLP are consequently rare. Criticisms of a Fianna Fail government from Seamus Mallon are almost unprecedented.
But, on Sunday, Mallon went on radio demanding a halt to both Governments' practice of insinuating more - and different - meaning...