The 1942 film Casablanca is at least one thing that (almost) all politicians agree on. The cover story in today's Ticket, The Irish Times entertainment supplement, reveals that when asked to name their favourite films, candidates for Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, the Progressive Democrats and Labour all gave it their first preference, writes Donald Clarke.
Michael Curtiz's great 1942 drama, in which Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman form a coalition in wartime Morocco, tied with Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley for the title of the politicians' movie of choice.
Support for Loach's picture, which is unenthusiastic about the pro-treaty forces in the Civil War, was, however, in short supply from Fine Gael candidates.
Enda Kenny, whose passion for Sir Thomas More has hitherto gone unnoticed, selected A Man for All Seasons, Fred Zinnemann's film detailing the unhappy demise of the English statesman, as his desert island film. More finds time to remark in the film that his "taste in music is reputedly deplorable". This would, perhaps, be an unkind verdict on the candidates' favourite music. But the repeated appearance of U2 - Labour's Pat Rabbitte admits he purchased, but has not yet listened to, the band's last CD - suggests that our leaders have paid little attention to the charts anytime recently.
Indeed, the candidates' affection for the ancient stylings of such veterans as Cat Stevens, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen and Albert Hammond reveals a political class most at home with music released before the troubling arrival of punk. In this company, U2 come across as a band of whippersnappers.
The politicians, fearful of offering commentators the opportunity to make allegorical mischief, may, of course, have deliberately played safe in their choices of film and music. Bertie Ahern, savvy as ever, selected the harmless documentary March of the Penguins as his favourite movie and Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits as his top LP. Any media clever clogs who can construct a damaging metaphor from that material deserves a substantial raise.
Michael McDowell was less cautious. The Tánaiste, currently conflicted as to his relations with Mr Ahern, named The Beatles' Help! as his favourite LP. More deliciously, he offered measured support - "Good, but not great" - for the hugely violent sword-and-sandal epic 300. It is described by Village Voice as "both homophobic and homoerotic" and by everyone else as unashamedly right-wing.