Dail Sketch/Frank McNally: Eighty years after Churchill remarked on their durability, the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone were back on top of the agenda yesterday.Yet another international conflict had been fought to a conclusion, but the steeples hadn't gone away (you know).
So while the Republicans in the White House could say that their war was over, for the moment anyway, the Dáil was on tenterhooks waiting for similar news from the ones in the North.
True, Joe Higgins attempted to reopen the argument about Iraq's unfound weapons, and the prospect of an invasion of Syria. But the Gulf debate was as hollow yesterday as that toppled statue of Saddam, and the Taoiseach sounded unusually confident on the subject as he dismissed the prospect of any new invasions.
He was a lot less relaxed when Fine Gael and Labour turned the debate to the issue of drunkenness and violence on Irish streets.
Heckled over Garda numbers, a clearly riled Mr Ahern suggested the Opposition "shut up for a minute", a suggestion that had the opposite effect. It was as well the Opposition didn't have drink on them, or they'd have invited him to step outside, adding to the problem on the streets.
When he wasn't angry, Mr Ahern was contrite about rising crime. "We're not very proud of it," he said.
What he was proud of was the Belfast Agreement, implementation of which he described as his "great political objective". This prospect hung, however, on the meaning of the latest IRA statement. And with Holy Week upon us, Pat Rabbitte implied that the thinking behind IRA statements was one of the five glorious mysteries.
Reviewing the literary style of P. O'Neill, "the mythical signatory of statements," he suggested his output "bore all the hallmarks of deep theological training, and. . . required the skills of a highly Jesuitical mind to interpret".
Even non-Jesuits would have to be able to understand the war-is-over message, Mr Rabbitte said. But expressing the same sentiment, Enda Kenny accepted that the exact words "war is over" might not feature.
Anyone who doubted that the war in Iraq was over only needed to check the protests outside Leinster House.
Gone were the red paint and the chemical suits, and in their place was a group of retired farmers demanding pension rights, but clearly new to this sort of thing.