Hail, Mary

If she is unsuccessful in next Thursday's Irish presidential election, a warm welcome back for Mary McAleese is assured at Queen's University, Belfast, where her day job as a law academic is based. While she has been engaged in a political fight about her enthusiasm for Sinn Fein, her colleagues will be more interested in the newspaper leak of her views on Queen's.

Professor McAleese says that the appointment of a new vice chancellor is a chance to cut out "dead wood" at senior levels "sooner rather than later," a plan we are sure will commend itself to future incumbent George Bain. She also rubbishes the university council for allegedly opposing attempts by "a nationalist source" to impose preconditions on a large donation (a position she talked them out of) and "is disappointed" at the removal of signs in Irish. She also claims that the flow of local Protestant students to English and Scottish universities is so great that Catholics will dominate all the local professions some time soon.