ABOVE left, the Tanaiste is presenting the shamrock in Glasgow, and above right, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands is not presenting the shamrock in Sydney.
Mary Harney is with our Consul General in Scotland, Dan Mulhall and the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Pat Larry. Larry, whose parents came from Co Mayo, has been involved in local politics for 40 years and is shortly retiring. Very much old Labour, he is writing his memoirs, but such is the unease with which they are anticipated that they will not be published until after the May 6th elections to the Scottish parliament.
Sile de Valera presents an empty bowl to the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. Her box of shamrock was impounded on entry at Sydney Airport. Faced with the choice of a three-month quarantine period for the national leaf or its destruction, she chose the latter. So she was shamrockless amid all the Irish and the PM, who is belatedly playing up an Irish background, had to made do with his empty replica of a Bronze Age bowl.
At least ile de Valera didn't have to deal with another woman like the one in Seattle last year who asked her: "Can you explain to me the significance of the dead weed?" She was surprised, however, at the parliament building in Melbourne to encounter an august statue of Queen Victoria holding a balloon with the legend "Happy St Patrick's Day".