Whatever happened to

‘Wouldn’t get along with but would ride anyway’

Another touch point that unites the far-right and far-left.

Mention of General Ratko Mladic inevitably brings to mind his partner in war crime Radovan Karadzic, who has a face we all remember.

It just so happened that a friend of my oul’ fella’s going back decades looked very like Radovan Karadzic, and from about 1993 on, when the real Radovan had come into the international public consciousness due to his face constantly being on the RTE Nine O’Clock News, my oul’ fella privately, well, privately to myself, started calling his friend “Radovan”, though never in his company.

We’d go to a league match between Dublin and Down in Croke Park in the depths of February 1994 and me oul’ fella would tell me at half time “We’re going for a drink afterwards with Radovan and his (Manchester United-supporting) son to watch the Wimbledon v Man United FA Cup match”. This sort of thing continued on a three or four times yearly basis for around the next 15/16 years.

And never once did Radovan find out he was called Radovan.