Ministers aren't the only politicians leaving the country next week during the Dail's break for St Patrick's day festivities. There's a big exodus to Cheltenham and a number of humble backbenchers are understood to be taking holidays on the strength of having invested in Bula shares when Albert Reynolds some months ago was promising to do the devil and all with the company. The second group are saying to the first that buying Bula was better than putting money on any horse.
One unusual outing is that being undertaken by Michael D. Higgins. The Labour frontbencher leaves for Montserrat this weekend at the invitation of the island's chief minister, David Brandt to give a lecture on the Irish in the Caribbean in the 17th century. Higgins presented a Channel 4 documentary on the Emerald Isle of the West Indies in 1986, so is somewhat of an expert. In recent years, the island suffered a devastating hurricane and a catastrophic volcanic eruption. Two-thirds of it is still cordoned off and many people have left.
St Patrick's week has been a festival in Montserrat since 17th-century Anglo-Irish planters were followed by indentured settlers, making the majority of the its 1,000 white families Irish and because of the failed slave revolt of March 17th, 1768. Irish names are still predominant. Higgins will be there for a week and as well as the lecture will attend special events and participate in a radio phone-in on the history of the Caribbean. The story is a fascinating one, he says, both for its history and for the tenacity of the people and their commitment to survive. He may write a book about it one day.
Quidnunc is at rholohan@irish-times.ie