Analysis: On Sunday, Bertie Ahern was quite definite about the Government's official response to the death of Pope John Paul II. "We won't be having a national day of mourning as such," he told journalists.
He did say that there would be a period of mourning leading up to the Pope's funeral in which the Government would "fully participate" and where the public would be asked to "fully comply, not just for one day but for all".
Just over 24 hours later he was back addressing the issue, and his position appeared to have changed. At yesterday's press conference, Mr Ahern was describing the Government as observing "a period of official mourning".
Flags would continue to fly at half mast on all State buildings until midnight on Friday. The Cabinet meeting, set for Cork tomorrow, was also cancelled. Schools would also be given the option of closing on Friday, the day of the funeral, while civil and public service employees would be facilitated, where possible, to have some time off on Friday to attend services.
Private companies would be asked to make similar arrangements for their workers, he said. He was clearly trying to dampen down the growing controversy over his initial blunt statement.
Mr Ahern also said that there was no official definition of a national day of mourning.
"If people want to call Friday a national day of mourning, I've no difficulty with it," he said. "It doesn't break any rule or guideline". Mr Ahern's statement on Sunday had sparked a flood of calls to his office from other politicians and media organisations in favour of a national day of mourning.
Officials have indicated that when Mr Ahern made this statement, it was an initial comment, in the absence of a final date on the funeral and before the details of the Government's official mourning plans had been finalised. He was at this stage informed that the precedence was that official days of mourning had not taken place during papal funerals in the past, as the Pope was the head of state of another jurisdiction.
By yesterday morning, pressure for a national day of mourning was growing, with the Taoiseach's office being inundated with hundreds of telephone calls and e-mails.
The calls were at this stage led by former MEP Dana Rosemary Scanlon, who said that the Pope's death warranted a reaction similar to that in 2001, when the entire public sector and most private businesses closed for a day in the wake of the September 11th attacks .
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny joined the calls for a national day of mourning, suggesting a compromise day of Sunday.
"A time of official mourning would give the Irish people an important opportunity to connect publicly with a more subtle, though vital, dimension of who we are," he said.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach was having a series of meetings with officials and reviewing the Government file relating to occasions of national mourning in the past. He also discussed the issue with the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto.
Announcing the arrangements yesterday he said they were in line with previous measures of national mourning in Ireland, including the funeral of Pope John XXIII in 1963, the funerals of the Irish soldiers killed in the Niemba ambush in the Congo in 1960, and the funeral of US president John F. Kennedy in 1963.