Patter of tiny feet expected at the Áras amid happy news aplenty

After a turbulent week on the political front, here’s a lovely little story about the patter of tiny feet in Áras an Uachtaráin.

No, we are not talking about Michael D perambulating around the gilded corridors thinking great thoughts as he waits for the latest tranche of last-minute Bills to land from Dáil Éireann.

The good news is that Senator Alice Mary Higgins, the President’s daughter, is expecting her first child some time around the middle of June and we hear she and her partner are thrilled at the prospect of becoming parents. Alice Mary’s news is also a source of much delight to President Higgins and his wife, Sabina.

They were proud as punch a couple of weeks ago when introducing their granddaughter Fiadh to President Joe Biden during his visit to the Áras. Fiadh’s parents are John Higgins and his wife, Eva Lynch.

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The Independent NUI Senator, who is one of the most hardworking politicians in the Oireachtas, said nothing to colleagues in the Upper House and had been keeping an unusually low profile of late. They only began to notice something in the last week or so and they were delighted for Alice Mary when she duly confirmed the exciting news.

But true to form, she told them she has two Bills and a motion to get through the Seanad in the next month and is determined to finish the job before going on maternity leave.

One of the Bills is on electoral reform and the other is on forestry and land use. The motion addresses the issue of precarious employment arrangements in universities.

Legislating and policy matters will have to take a back seat for a while after that.

A particularly political union

More good news from Leinster House. Leader of the Seanad, Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers, married her partner, Fine Gael Councillor Jarlath Munnelly, last weekend in Galway’s Cloghan Castle, just across the Mayo border.

It was a small wedding, the couple and their three-year-old son Louis were joined by family and friends for what we hear was a terrific day. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin both sent their best wishes to the Coalition couple. Jarlath, who is a youth services co-ordinator, is a member of Mayo County Council representing the Ballina local area.

The novel wedding booklet, a nod to this particularly political union, went down well with the guests. The cover was printed in the style of a Seanad Order Paper.

Meanwhile, there’ll be another Fianna Fáil wedding bash this Sunday when TD Christopher O’Sullivan marries Sarah Redmond in Cork. Party leader Micheál will be among the guests.

The Ceann Comhairle, who is given to occasional moments of soppiness in the Chair, decided to mark the occasion in the middle of Wednesday night’s block voting in the Dáil.

“Members, an unscheduled announcement for the attention of the House,” he boomed, as deputies wondered if he was about to inform them of a twist in the Niall Collins statement-to-the-Dáil saga.

“Members here will be aware that Deputy Christopher O’Sullivan is interested in all matters maritime, but it has just come to my attention that when he takes the plunge this weekend, he won’t be doing so alone.

“He will be joined by his fiancee, Ms Sarah Redmond. I am sure we would all join in wishing him and Sarah every happiness together.”

Everyone in the chamber applauded and Christopher looked suitably embarrassed.

Shocking rows

And there’s more from our packed Kildare Street Court Circular.

Congratulations to Fine Gael TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, John Paul Phelan, and his Leitrim-born wife Claire on the birth of their first baby, Gareth, at Waterford University Hospital last Friday.

It’s congratulations on the double because baby Gareth arrived just a few days after his dad announced he is stepping down from national politics at the next election. Escaping Leinster House after 20 years of Oireachtas membership must seem like a merciful release.

Barrister Phelan (44) was a two-term senator before he was elected to the Dáil in 2011 and has had a chequered political career. His life changed in 2020 when he suffered a major heart attack and he was forced to reassess his participation in the stressful word of politics.

In a wide-ranging and candid interview with Damien Tiernan of WLR just hours after the birth of baby Gareth (who arrived three weeks early), the former minister of state admitted he was annoyed at not getting a major promotion despite his loyal support for Leo Varadkar and influential early decision in 2015 to back his bid for the party leadership.

But he denied stabbing then taoiseach Enda Kenny in the back by throwing in his lot with Leo.

“Myself and Enda always had a suspicious relationship of one another,” he revealed on Waterford’s Deise Today programme. He feels now that this coloured his relationship with then constituency kingpin and government minister, Phil Hogan.

He said they became great friends “once he became EU Commissioner and he was thousands of miles away. When we were both in Kilkenny, things were difficult. I lost my first general election by a few hundred votes because of internal machinations within Fine Gael. Phil Hogan was there for years and he wasn’t going to allow a whippersnapper to take his seat. He was protecting his own.

“It soured relationships between Phil and myself – and Phil was very tight with Enda. The interactions between myself and Phil were always a bit awkward. We had shocking rows over the years.”

But they never came to blows.

“There’s a way of being in constant struggle with someone that it doesn’t have to come to fists,” he laughed. Damien Tiernan wondered if he was delighted to see Big Phil going to Europe.

“Oh, absolutely!”

As for his own health matters and leaving politics behind, John Paul says he is on 18 tablets a day “for different things” and that low blood pressure is a problem for him.

He has no idea what he is going to do next: “For the time being, it’s going to be all about changing nappies.”

Ode to Bród

Dog lovers around the country were sad to hear of the death of Bród Higgins, the nation’s first dog and official charmer of VIPs visiting the President

News of his death was announced by Áras an Uachtaráin last Saturday evening and the charismatic Bernese Mountain Dog’s legion of adoring fans went into mourning.

This announcement puzzled quite a few of the staff and faithful retainers who toil in around Áras an Uachtarain. Because they were wondering why it took so long?

Poor old Bród, who had reached a fine old age for his breed, had been on his last legs a week earlier and was too poorly to greet President Biden when he made his Thursday morning call on President and Mrs Higgins in the Phoenix Park.

First Pup Misneach, though coming along well, wasn’t brave enough to greet Biden on his own and barked at him from a distance. There was another dog in the mix. Luna, a very elegant little greyhound, also put in an appearance as the media waited for the two Presidents to stroll in the grounds.

Back to Bród, who sadly died on Friday, the day after the visit. But nothing was said for over a week.

Michael D and his wife went on a short holiday to Spain in the immediate aftermath of Bród’s passing, so perhaps the Áras thought it best to delay the announcement until they were home and could share in remembering and celebrating their darling dog’s life with his wider public.

When Russian president Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, the Kremlin waited almost 27 hours before breaking the news.

Good old Bród has smashed the record.

A parliament of Crowe

We wrote during the week about Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe pulling a little stunt during Dáil business when he crossed the chamber floor and presented Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald with a petition “that I brought up today from Co Clare, signed by 113 family descendants of the late Peadar Clancy – a great Irish patriot”.

He said they were the signatures of Clancy’s grandnieces, grandnephews, great-grand-nieces and great-grand-nephews and they have been objecting for years to a Sinn Féin Cumann in Ennis calling their branch after him without the family’s consent.

Clancy fought in 1916 and the War of Independence and was shot dead by his guards in Dublin Castle on the eve of Bloody Sunday in 1920.

“They’ve written to Sinn Féin headquarters; it’s been flatly ignored. Commemoration has to be done with the consent of families. We cannot just pick names out of the air and claim lineage that doesn’t exist,” Crowe told the Dáil.

Mary Lou didn’t say anything when he gave her the petition and, according to the Clare TD on Friday, he has had no response from her or Sinn Féin since.

“The family are absolutely, hugely upset here,” he told us.

Despite hearing nothing back, Cathal Crowe says he will continue to fight the relative’s case.

“There have only ever been two Sinn Féin TDs elected in Co Clare. The first was Éamon de Valera in 1917 and the second was Violet-Anne Wynne in 2020 and the party didn’t do much to mind their second TD,” he says of Wynne, who is now an independent.

“Sinn Féin of old was a separate party to the one that exists today – even the High Court has recognised this. Of the modern iteration, the only TD they’ve ever had in Clare is Violet-Anne.

“Maybe Mary Lou might consider naming the Ennis Cumann after the first female member ever to take a seat for her party in Clare.”