Affair turns young cafe owner into internet star

Kirk McCambley, the young man whose fling sparked the political scandal engulfing Northern Ireland, is now an unlikely hero. More than 5,400 people have already joined a McCambley appreciation society on a social networking website.

Meanwhile, last week's download sales of the song Mrs Robinson by New York folk duo Simon and Garfunkel were up 1,200 per cent in Northern Ireland on the week before.

The song was written for the 1967 film The Graduate, about a young university graduate played by Dustin Hoffman being seduced by the much older Mrs Robinson.

Aged 19 at the time but now 21, the cafe proprietor's romance with lawmaker Iris Robinson, the 60-year-old wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson, is also earning him an unlikely fan base in the gay community.

Her alleged role in helping McCambley get the cafe licence has led to her husband stepping aside for six weeks in a bid to clear his name over the affair.

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