Following Government instructions means remaining indoors during the foot-and-mouth scare, so the national holiday, St Patrick's Day, will be a non-event - no parades, no racing, no sports, not even country walking. So, should there be a bank holiday in lieu? The Minister in charge of such matters, Mary Harney, under her Employment portfolio, was in the US this week, so bank holidays or the like were not on her mind.
An extra, one-off bank holiday is not unprecedented. There was one last year for the millennium and the UK is getting one next year, 2002, for the golden jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. Even Martin McGuinness, as Northern Minister for Education, has been forced to allow the kids an extra day off. But being the place it is, the schools can choose their own day.
Events planned for Monday week are now postponed to another, and hopefully, better-weather day but it won't be much good if there's no long weekend. Along with the UK, the Republic has the lowest number of official annual holidays - nine - in the EU. There are 14 in Finland, 13 in Austria, Greece and Portugal and 12 in Denmark. The North has 10 bank holidays, with March 17th and July 12th. Japan has 15 but, Quidnunc wonders, do they take them?
Public holidays were originally Christian feast-days and much of Europe - Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain - still has August 15th off, but not the Republic. Some historians argue that the decline of Spain and the rise of England stems from the latter's elimination of some 200 holy days after the Reformation. Hence the notion of the Protestant work ethic. Some maintain that unlike the rest of Europe, Ireland takes the Christmas and New Year period off. So, while there might be fewer official holidays here than in the rest of Catholic Europe, there is more time off. Contrarily, when a Catholic feast-day falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, many continental Europeans take what is known as a bridging day to make a long weekend.
So, will the ICTU make an extra bank holiday part of the next review of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness?