Not everyone is going to like you, Ronan Mullen.. so get over it!

The independent senator appears to have had his hackles raised by James Burke telling him, according to Mullen, that he disliked him.

Mr Burke also seemingly accused the independent senator of smirking.

What a shocker - politician is told someone doesn't like him.

I was on a radio panel once with Ronan Mullen. Oddly, in light of the fact that I wouldn't subscribe to many of his views, there was no disagreement between us.

Then again, the discussion was mainly about how the bankers had fecked up the country and ordinary people were suffering, not much to quibble about there.

But I knew I'd have my work cut out trying to out argue with this man on a subject close to his heart.

He knows his own mind and has no problem expressing his strongly held views - the man's a barrister, for God sake, and won a big-deal debating competition at the King's Inns.

Nothing wrong with that - but he's also a politician and it really doesn't do to come over all sensitive if someone comes out and tells you they dislike you.

And even if they go further and say they don't like anything about you or the way you talk or the way you argue or the way you look with your smirky face, so what?

It doesn't mean they have another agenda. Sometimes, Ronan, it just means they don't like you. Live with it.