Private Diary of a Suspended MLA
By: by Garbhan Downey.
Publisher: Stormount Books
Published: 2004
Place of publication: [Belfast]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 122
Description: When Shay Gallagher is elected as an independent assemblyman for North Derry, he thinks he's home in a gravy train. Forty grand a year (plus exies) and no work to go to for the foreseeable future - what could possibly go wrong?

Then his agent Tommy Bowtie has the bright idea of opening a constituency office. And before you can say: "Turn off that tape-recorder", Shay has fallen out with all four main parties, the boys in balaclavas, and just about every woman he knows - including the feisty Tyrone MLA Sue McEwan. 

The parish priest Father Know-All, meanwhile, has made it his mission in life to get Shay married off; Emile the Spy wants him to take out a paramilitary cell; and Bite Me O'Boyle is ringing from the police station looking for bail money.

Indeed, a lesser man than Gallagher would pack it all in - but then King Size Barkley won't hand over the negatives until he gets his big grant from Tony Blair...

The Private Diary of a Suspended MLA is a record of one man's heroic struggle to survive the great Stormont lockout. Follow Shay Gallagher as he battles his way through TV debates with political giants, drinking sessions with political pygmies, and a no-holds-barred football match, which could settle, once and for all, the great Derry-Londonderry name-change debate...

"...a hilarious romp"
-  Sunday Tribune

"...a must for all interested in taking the mickey out of our politicians"
- Derry Journal

"...viciously funny"
- Eamonn McCann