One of the key events of the Cabinet's Cork tour was at the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, now redesignated a national institution entitled to State funding. The building used to be the city's custom house before becoming a gallery. But as the Taoiseach noted: "Today this venue plays host to many fine pieces of work," writes Frank McNally in Cork.
Opinion was divided on whether he was referring to the art or to the visiting ministers. Such lines are easily blurred in the European Capital of Culture and the Government was exploiting the confusion.
In what looked like careful choreography, the Crawford announcement was made in front of a painting called Men of the South - Seán Keating's heroic portrait of republican gunmen in the 1920s. Posing in the foreground, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste were flanked by the Cabinet's southern wing: Micheál Martin, John O'Donoghue, and Mary Hanafin.
Not for the first time, Fianna Fáil Ministers were making an exhibition of themselves.
The choreography came unstuck slightly when the visitors were treated to lunch in the gallery's long room, currently hosting the work of abstract painter John Shinnors.
How anybody expected Cabinet members to enjoy their food while surrounded by Shinnors is a mystery. They ate it anyway, and even the Minister for Justice seemed none the worse for the experience.
Art is not normally part of Mr McDowell's brief, but the spectacle of Frank McBrearty jnr - as framed - continued to dominate the news agenda, and the Minister's opinions were as a result much sought after on the matter.
On a day when the Government was claiming credit for most things, Mr McDowell generously shared responsibility for the McBrearty affair with the Opposition parties, pointing out that the original events happened during the Rainbow Coalition.
He said the McBreartys were owed a "ringing" apology by the State. But asked about the position of Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy, Mr McDowell sounded suspiciously like an art critic raving about a masterpiece.
"A man of transcendent honesty," he called him.
The Morris tribunal apart, the Government was not sharing the limelight.
Mary Hanafin - dressed in red to compensate Cork people for what she claimed would be a thrashing by Tipperary next weekend - announced a €350,000 grant towards a centre for the performing arts. The Taoiseach handed the State-purchased Seán Ó Riada archive over to UCC.
And, as if to prove that Fianna Fáilers are innately cultural, Mr Ahern also cut the ribbon (red, naturally) on a new artists' residence, in the house where Jack Lynch once lived.
The only thing the Government didn't announce as a gift to Cork yesterday was the weather. The city was drenched in sunshine all day.
Indeed, the Taoiseach's nose was looking a little sunburnt by the end of the afternoon and, as befits a visit to Cork, the entire Cabinet left a little redder for the experience.