'Mind how you go, son; the last fella to try and interview Alex Higgins was from the Sunday Life. Your man went down to the Winning Post bar in Bangor, and found him pissed in the bookies next door. Higgy wrote down the number plate of the reporter's car and threatened to have him whacked by a UDA hit squad. Believe me, he knows the people who can do it.

'Word on the street now is that Higgins has gone back to where he came from - like a wild animal returning home to die. In his case that's Sandy Row, south Belfast.