George Lee, RTE’s chief economics correspondent, appears to see himself as the Savonarola of our times, castigating the citizenry for their wicked ways (buying outdoor Jacuzzis, for example) and generally pointing out that we’ve all lost the run of ourselves. Although Lee is probably right, it’s sometimes difficult to avoid reaching for the car radio’s “off” button when he starts, with a tone of wearied righteousness, to explain to his Morning Ireland interlocutor that, no, the economy’s not chugging along fine–in fact, WE’RE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR A CLIFF!

Given Lee’s distaste for the excesses of his contemporaries, it was all the more surprising to see his relatively supine performance when interviewing cardboard-box tycoon, Michael Smurfit, a man whose self-pampering would make even the most hard-necked of Celtic cubs blush. Lee even kept a straight face when Smurfit claimed that money was never really important to him.

Yet this is small potatoes compared to Smurfit’s explanation about what drove him to the top of the pile. The good doctor claims that he wanted to establish the good name of the family after his father was blackballed at a number of golf clubs because members mistakenly thought he was Jewish.

Oh, the humanity!