This is the time of year for diplomatic shuffles, and the mandarins in Iveagh House are on tenterhooks. Several moves have been decided already. David Donoghue leaves the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in Belfast, after many gruelling years in the bunker and a couple of months in the high-rise Windsor House, and heads to Moscow. Whether it's a change for the better remains to be seen. Russia is, after all, considered a hardship posting, but he's to be ambassador there in place of Ronan Murphy, who is joining Mary Robin- son's cabinet at the UN in Geneva.
Philip McDonagh, who has also been involved in the Northern quagmire for years, but based in the London embassy, is being promoted to ambassador and goes to India. Joe Hayes returns to Dublin from China, and Declan Connolly leaves Budapest to replace him in Beijing. Jim Flavin leaves New Delhi for Budapest, and Marie Cross returns to Dublin from Prague.