A Cypriot Boycott
Anyone listening to Caitriona Ruane's icy response to Seamus McKee's questions about taking her daughter to Cyprus during term time can have been left in no doubt about the Education Minister's anger that her child had become the focus of media attention.
There was more evidence of how personally she took the story when Education correspondents travelled to Middletown to report on the North South ministerial council's discussions about the proposed autism centre there. She gave interviews to some, but one reporter was left sadly out in the cold - Simon Doyle from the Irish News who broke the Cyprus story.
Simon could compare notes with the Belfast Telegraph's David Gordon who was once made to sit in the waiting area at Stormont Castle watching every other reporter getting a farewell interview with Ian Paisley Senior, who wouldn't forgive him for some of his stories. I imagine both scribes will reckon that sometimes it's better to be out than in.
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