Mo Mowlam has taken a vow of silence. But only on the situation in the North. Attempts to draw her on the issue failed miserably. Subjected to close interrogation, she just stared at a spot on the wall and said nothing.
Mo is famous for being even more relaxed in public than in private. So the hearts of journalists lifted when she appeared on the podium at New York's Plaza Hotel. But all she would say was that, when she was Northern Secretary, comments from other politicians were "not always helpful".
As Tony Blair's pro-consul in Belfast, Mo became more popular than the emperor. Such women are dangerous. Then Blair brought her back to London to keep the other ministers in line. But now the great Manhattan Mystery was: who enforced the "Cabinet Enforcer"?
Dr Mowlam was on a flying visit to receive a Special Peace Award, courtesy of Niall O'Dowd's Irish America magazine. It wasn't the Nobel Peace Prize and instead of some Norwegian academic it was presented by Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady and candidate-on-the-run for the US Senate.
Riverdance received the magazine's "Irish Heritage" award. A film clip showed the actor John Hurt asserting that the renowned dance and music extravaganza "put Ireland on the map as the sexiest country in Europe". Riverdance opens on Broadway this week.
The creators of Riverdance, Moya Doherty, John McColgan and Bill Whelan, accepted the award. Whelan, who wrote the music, said Riverdance "is about a new kind of Irish nationalism, outward-looking, broad and inclusive".
The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Ms Harney, arrived with, for once, a tale of economic success in the "old country".
Emigrants who talked to her for more than five minutes were likely to be offered a job back home.
All human life was there. Gabriel Byrne, who also opens on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, tried the cupla focal on the audience.
The Irish-American singer Cathie Ryan went one better with a perfect rendition of Roisin Dubh. She hails from Detroit, which can now claim a Gaeltacht grant on the strength of her fluency.
For the last 15 years, the magazine has honoured the "Top 100" Irish-Americans. An event like no other, it is a reminder that Irish-Americans started out small and made it big, but that many held on to their social conscience.
A steady procession of award-winners represented causes such as the homeless, disadvantaged immigrants and deprived children. It wasn't so much big bucks as big hearts. Siobhan Walsh, who runs the Concern office in New York, caught the spirit when she described the US as "that god-sent second chance to make a fresh start".
Irish America used to be known for providing the sinews of war, but there is a different mood these days. Mo Mowlam, a member of the British cabinet, received four standing ovations.
The journalist Pete Hamill told an audience which included republicans of the American and Irish variety: "Nobody else should die for Ireland. It's time to live for Ireland."
It sometimes seems that everyone in the US has an Irish ancestor lurking in their family tree. Who would have thought that Ellen Burstyn, star of Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More and The Exorcist, was really Edna Rae Gillooly, whose great-grandfather was James Gillooly from Leitrim. She got an Oscar for acting and now she was honoured for being an Irish-American.
There were heroes, too. The young fire-fighter Tom Foley went down the side of a 17-storey building on a rope to rescue two construction workers.
He summarised the skills of Irish-Americans as "building buildings, arresting perpetrators, running the biggest businesses throughout America, being the best dancers, singers and musicians in the world".
His senior fire department colleague and fellow award-winner, Lieut. Timothy Kelly, is famed, among other things, for inventing the "Kelly Kart", a portable emergency device which gets light and power to places other equipment cannot reach. Could we have a Kelly Kart for the peace process please?
The full list of the Top 100 Irish Americans is available on The Irish Times Website at: www.ireland.com