Eoghan Harris spreads wedding and Christmas cheer. . . why two young soccer lads were in rag order . . . migrant Catholics might be sidelined in North . . . Ned O'Keeffe sitting in the front row and, once upon a time, Bertie was encouraging a move to bank accounts
It was Christmas in the Seanad and all around the House, not a creature was stirring, not even an argumentative historian from Cork. So the call went out: "Where's Eoghan?" Senators hadn't heard Harris's dulcet tones for a couple of days, and they began to worry. But there was no need for alarm.
All is well with Eoghan Harris. Couldn't possibly be any better, in fact.
We bring glad tidings of great joy from our friend Eoghan, who slipped away from Dublin during the week to marry political journalist Gwendoline Halley.
"We got married on Wednesday in the registry office in Cork. It was a very quiet wedding, we didn't want any fuss. Afterwards a few friends joined us for afternoon tea in Jurys Hotel on the Western Road," a "thrilled" Harris tells us.
The couple first met at a conference on Sean O'Faolain in UCC, where there was "an immediate meeting of minds".
Waterford-born Gwendoline and Eoghan moved in together soon after, or as Eoghan puts it, "she's been interrogating me for the job for seven years, but this was one interview I had no intention of walking out on." There is a considerable age difference between the controversial Senator and his new wife, but he says: "This is how it would have been at any age. We are both political news junkies. She is my elective affinity and Gwendoline calls me her unelective affinity." There's nothing like a nice bit of Goethe to speed the path of love.
Aside from the happy occasion of his marriage - Harris had to wait for his divorce from Sunday Independent deputy editor, Anne Harris to come through - Eoghan is still brimming with happiness over his Seanad appointment by Bertie Ahern.
So at the moment, his cup runneth over. "I love the married state. Life is wonderful at the moment." The same can't be said for his beloved terrier, Posy, who now has to share him with Gwendoline. "Posy was fit to be tied on Wednesday, because she was left in the car when we went to the reception."
Then, just when he thought things couldn't possibly get any better, Eoghan received a Christmas gift from fellow Senator Donie Cassidy. Donie has presented all his Oireachtas colleagues with a boxed set of singer Louise Morrissey's entire repertoire. Fifty hits in all, apparently.
The newlyweds plan to divide their time between Baltimore in west Cork and Dublin. Now they'll have something to listen to during the long commute - in between their happily heated debates.
As our wedding day picture shows, Eoghan and Gwendoline are delighted.
Christmas, a great time for wallowing in a little nostalgia. We have another marvellous picture, this one unearthed by the Alumni Association of NUIG - or Galway university, to those of us who are less brand aware.
It is a photograph of the UCD Student Council football team from 1969. What a fine body of young men they are, and not half as fashion conscious as today's namby-pamby athletes. The photo was taken during rag week, which explains why the lads look in particular rag order.
Spot the future Fianna Fáil minister in the front row, with the posh jersey and a proprietorial finger on the football. Look at the swagger, the jaunty hand on the hip, the confident pout. For it is a young Séamus Brennan - taller sittin' than a dog standin', as the saying goes.
But wait! Who is that handsome blade in the trendy polo-neck, arms folded across his manly chest? The chap second from the right in the back row with the unruly shock of black hair? You can see by the look of him that the baby Pat Rabbitte knows that if he can't outrun his opposition marker, he will be able to stop him in his tracks with a few bon mots.
To emphasise the all-party nature of the team, that tall lad with the dark hair, third from the left in the back row, is former Fine Gael director of elections and veteran party adviser, the now silver-haired Frank Flannery.
To Northern Ireland now, where religion remains a divisive issue. Today's row: when is a Catholic not a Catholic? Time was when the answer to that question was simple - when it's a Prod. But now that Big Ian and Wee Martin are the best of friends, the subject isn't mentioned any more.
But now, Martina Anderson, Sinn Féin MLA for Foyle, is arguing that migrant Catholic workers in the North should be classified as "other" when it comes to compiling statistics on the number of Catholics in the workforce.
Anderson says the monitoring system was intended to address discrimination and imbalances between nationalist and unionist communities. Therefore, counting migrants as Catholics gives a false impression of the number of nationalists in employment.
"They should be categorised as having a background of 'other'," she told the BBC.
The large number of Ulster Poles will be very confused this Christmas, as they remember their illustrious compatriot, the late John Paul II and wonder: "Is the Pope a Catholic?"
Christmas can be difficult time for so many - especially for those who have fallen on hard times and have resigned the Fianna Fáil party whip. Mind you, it doesn't appear to have bothered Ned O'Keeffe, rebellious Cork East Fianna Fáil backbencher. Not only is Neddo basking in the limelight of having a single released about him abstaining in the recent Dáil confidence vote, he's also proving the envy of at least one senior Minister.
Opening the newly refurbished Fermoy courthouse in Ned's constituency heartland on Monday, Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan took centre stage on the bench between Judge Patrick Moran of the Circuit Court and Judge Michael Pattwell of the District Court.
As a former senior counsel, Brian opined that he wasn't used to sitting in such lofty spots, looking down at the court. "I'd be much happier sitting where Ned O'Keeffe is sitting," mused the Minister, oblivious to any irony, as he nodded down to Ned, who was grinning with abandon in the front row.
It wasn't the first time that day that Neddo stole the limelight. As Minister of State Michael Ahern - Ned's big constituency rival - waited with the other dignitaries for Lenihan to arrive, a few murmurs went around as to where was Ned? The mystery was solved when our hero surprised the gathering by hopping from the ministerial Merc with Brian, having nabbed the Minister for himself earlier when he visited Fermoy Garda station.
Who says the future is bleak when you lose the party whip ?
An interesting e-mail arrived at this column during the Taoiseach's stint at the Mahon tribunal this week. A correspondent points out that Bertie Ahern's ministerial history included a successful stint in the Department of Labour. While in that Department he introduced the Payment of Wages Bill 1991. That Bill was designed, among other things, to "facilitate the payment of wages otherwise than in cash". However, at the time he was piloting the Bill through, Bertie didn't have a bank account himself.
In the Seanad, on May 23rd, 1991, he said: "The legislation provides a framework which will facilitate the move to non-cash wages. The will and the action necessary to effect this move must come from the interests themselves. Unlike some other desirable objectives, arrangements for non-cash wages are likely to prove financially sound for all those involved."
He outlined in great detail the benefits of moving away from using cash payments for both employers and employees.
"One criticism of the move to non-cash wages is that it delivers employees, who would not otherwise be their clients, into the hands of the banks. There is a sense in which this argument cannot be rebutted. Any of the readily negotiable modes of wage payment, other than cash, necessarily involves the mediation of a reliable financial institution.
"If employees are to avoid contact with financial institutions at all costs, there is no option but for the payment of their wages in cash . . . The notion that low-paid employees have little to gain from the banking system touches some deep preconceptions about banks and about the capability of low paid employees to look out for themselves.
"Understandably, banks, like all commercial enterprises, may have a preference for the customer that is likely to profit them most though, no doubt, like other businesses, they will deal with the less profitable customer too. Indeed, banking is one business in which the modest client with a good track record is appreciated."
In the Dáil the following month, he said: "It is my aim to help effect the move to non- cash wages as speedily and as effectively as possible. The Bill will contribute to that process by helping employers and employees.
"Employers have a lot of gain financially in the short term and in the long term from a move to non-cash wage payments. They should not expect employees to agree overnight to a change without the goodwill of an employer being demonstrated in some way. Employees must show their goodwill too in the move to cashless wages. They must not stubbornly hold on to their ancient rights to cash payments without due cause."
This would be the same Bertie who, for six years during that period, cashed all his wage cheques and kept the money a drawer in his office.
More good news for Minister for Food, Trevor Sargent, as he continues his Trojan work on behalf of Irish vegetables. He notes in the Green Party's latest newsletter, that 2008 has been designated as the UN International Year of the Potato. To mark this wonderful boost to his efforts, Trevor will be sending potato growing kits to every primary school in the country in the coming months.
The Joint Oireachtas Administrative Committee finally convened for the first time this session on Wednesday morning. The committee deals with issues such as members' interests, office space, computers, restaurants and the like.
Green TD Mary White's wide-ranging contribution went from the subject of restoring the Leinster House car park to a lawn, to library books, to the very important issue of coffee available in the house.
She was prompted to talk about the quality of the Oireachtas coffee following the installation of a new machine in the house. Mary asserted that the coffee from it is awful. People who like to take it black have to insert their cup under a nozzle that also dispenses lattes and cappuccinos. "Dribbles of milk into black coffee is a no-no," she said, steaming like a well-calibrated Gaggia.
The deputy for Carlow Kilkenny proposed that the committee should go on a fact-finding mission around town, possibly incorporating a café across the road, where there is excellent coffee. As "a connoisseur of coffee", she gave advice on what blends they might seek out. "The best coffee blends are always found above 3,000 metres, such as in Colombia," she said.
At which point an unnamed deputy interjected: "Oh yes, we all know Mary White was in Colombia!" But this was a different Mary White - the Fianna Fáil millionaire chocolate manufacturer who had been on a different kind of fact-finding mission to South America.
"My mission is to restore coffee's good name in Leinster House. Seriously strong, hot black coffee is a simple request. I am on a mission," said the other Mary White afterwards.
Hurrah!