Fine Gael and Labour may be fighting in the Dail over procedures at Question Time, but last Saturday they were cosying up to each other big time at the FG party in Citywest for Garret FitzGerald's 75th birthday. As Quidnunc anticipated, there wasn't a Fianna Failer in sight, but Michael McDowell, Des O'Malley and John Gormley were present. John Bruton sent his apologies. Labour was out in force, from Dick Spring to Barry Desmond to Pat Rabbitte, but it was Ruairi Quinn who practically stole the evening. The new FG leader, Michael Noonan, who will address the country, solo, for an hour next Saturday from the ardfheis at the RDS, spoke before dinner, to a cold-sober room, praising Garret and setting out his plans; Quinn wound up after dinner to a warm, jolly room and left the 1,200 guests feeling good about him and Labour. In between, there was the former British Foreign Secretary, Lord Howe, on FG's skill and tenacity in getting Margaret Thatcher to change her mind on the Anglo-Irish Agreement; the birthday boy himself, who said the boom of the last eight years didn't come about by accident but went back to the time of John A. Costello; and John Hume on the North. Quinn started by acknowledging ambassadors, senators, deputies, ladies, gentlemen - "and comrades. Get used to that salutation". He had known Garret for more than 33 years and was honoured to speak for the guests. Politics, he told them, was an addiction for which there was no cure, rather constant humiliation.
The MC was Sean Donlon, former ambassador to Washington and government adviser, who the previous weekend celebrated his 60th birthday with a big party in Killaloe, where a Marilyn Monroe look-alike jumped out of a cake. Quoting from a newspaper report, he said a chairman or leader must be "a diplomat, a democrat, an autocrat, an acrobat and a doormat. He must sit on both sides of the fence, on the fence and be able to jump the fence. He must be a qualified boxer, negotiator and peacemaker. He must have colleagues who are honest, quick thinkers, technicians and always on the chairman's side and always within the rules. To sum up, he must be outside, inside, offside, sometimes crucified and, if he's not strong, thick-skinned, placid and in good health, there's always suicide."
Before all this, Donlon had to say grace - they couldn't find a priest in the room.
Quidnunc can be contacted at rholohan@irish-times.ie
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