The Brown Evelope Bunch

The Irish are fond of political discourse, and they have incorporated some choice American words such as gerrymandering into the debate. They also have their own colorful way of describing political skullduggery. Two terms that I jotted down in my notebook early on in my visit that struck my fancy were the following:

Smoked-salmon socialist A person who comes from a privelaged middle or upper class background and espouses left-wing rhetoric; not a true socialist or of the working class, a poser, bourgeois.

Brown evelope bunch or crowd A member of a corrupt group of politicians or public officials who are paid off by developers and/or lobbyists who are intent upon buying influence to advance their agendas.