During a robust Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Wednesday morning, Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin traded barbs over pre-election promises and the state of the health services. But as backbenchers added their voices to the pointed exchanges, three Ministers were oblivious to the noisy drama.
Michael Noonan, Brendan Howlin and Pat Rabbitte were in a little huddle on the front bench, falling around the place laughing. Rabbitte was particularly animated, making strange gestures as the trio went into paroxysms. They would pause for breath, before a red-faced Rabbitte would start them off again. Suddenly he put his hand up in the air and took it down again. Then they all sat back, chuckling to themselves.
What was going on?
It turned out that Rabbitte, the Minister for Communications, who is a terrific mimic, was reprising a Mario Rosenstock comedy sketch that had aired the night before on Vincent Browne’s show. The skit was first shown during the election and it featured the impressionist doing a take-off of Willie O’Dea and of Micheál Martin dressed as an altar boy.
Martin, then a minister, had just got into hot water over attempting a Chinese accent at a press conference. This gave Rosenstock ample scope to have Martin putting on silly voices.
At the end of the sketch, O’Dea shot a gun in the air.
Howlin and Noonan hadn’t seen the item on TV but Rabbitte had, and he was filling them in. Judging by the reaction from his colleagues, Rabbitte ’s version was every bit as funny as Rosenstock’s original.