Country and Western or what? The old clique may be out of favour in Leinster House but they are in power in the Phoenix Park. The US ambassador Mike Sullivan and his wife Jane - shown here with Albert and Kathleen Reynolds - hosted a Fourth of July party at their residence last Saturday. In keeping with the Sullivans' Wyoming background, the dress-code was Western and there were plenty of cowboys and girls, red indians, Dodge city gamblers, ten-gallon hats and cheerleaders eating hamburgers and hot dogs. Photograph: Matt Kavanagh
The appointments by the Government this week of David Byrne as our EU Commissioner and Michael McDowell to replace him as AG came about for more reasons than the need to avoid a by-election and PD antipathy to the runner-up, Maire Geoghegan Quinn.
From the day McDowell lost his Dublin South East seat and Mary Harney went into government without him she has sought a means of getting him involved. He has already chaired two high-powered committees. As a former member of Fine Gael and an intellectual and political heavyweight, he was a valuable asset to the party, and despite the electoral defeat and subsequent disillusionment which led to him allowing his
party membership to lapse, the PD leader was always hopeful he would return. He rejected a seat in the Seanad as one of the four PDs in the Taoiseach's 11, and seemed destined to continue indefinitely with his lucrative Bar career.
The Taoiseach submitted three names to the EU President Romano Prodi 10 days ago - Byrne, Geoghegan Quinn and Brian Cowen. A FF examination of the local election results in Laois/ Offaly ended Cowen's chances. Geoghegan Quinn had a lot going for her - European and cabinet experience and her gender - but it wasn't enough. She has few friends at the top in FF, or favours owed, and her sudden departure from politics before the last election citing media intrusion, and then her recent attack on the PDs, were fatal errors. The Tanaiste saw the opportunity for bringing McDowell back into the fold and strongly pushed for Byrne, who is well-liked in FF. Byrne is a friend of hers, for whom she has high regard and admiration of his skill in handling recent legal controversies.
For FF the deal means greater Government stability. McDowell is unlikely to advocate pulling the plug if he has only been there a couple of months. It is also a huge coup for the Tanaiste. She now has a strong new ally at Cabinet and party morale has received an enormous boost. Those most put out by this week's developments are the FF lawyers.