Iris Robinson is, at the time of writing, under acute psychiatric care in a Belfast hospital, after a BBC Northern Ireland documentary revealed that she had, at the age of 59, solicited £50,000 from two property developers to help fund a business run by her 19-year-old lover, Kirk McCambley.

She has some experience of the mental health profession. In June 2008, days before she embarked on the affair, she said on the radio: 'I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals - trying to turn them away from what they are engaged in.' This was the interview in which she caused outrage by calling homosexuality 'an abomination'. The 'lovely psychiatrist' was not Selwyn Black, who also worked in her offices and eventually shopped her to the BBC, but a consultant from Belfast's Mater Hospital, who took a career break shortly after her remarks were made.

LRB 28 January 2010 | PDF Download