He was a volunteer, he said, and not a conscript, so he was pleased to be Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. John Reid made his first official visit to Dublin this week where he had talks with Brian Cowen, attended a dinner hosted by the British Ambassador and Lady Roberts in the British residence, had dinner with The President, Mrs McAleese, met IBEC, and did some sightseeing. At Glencairn, he said that when he first took on a ministry, he studied how previous holders had discharged their duties. In the transport portfolio, the great success story was Mussolini, who had made the trains run on time. Tony Blair told him that this wasn't what was required - yet. When given Northern Ireland, he studied the history but found that the explanations kept starting further and further back in time. Guests on Tuesday night included John O'Donoghue, Michael McDowell, Liz O'Donnell, Ruairi Quinn, Maurice Manning and RTE's Marian Finucane and Pat Kenny. Reid, a widower, was accompanied by his partner, the glamorous
Brazilian-born film-maker, Karine Adler, who hit the headlines in England last weekend. She makes what are called sexually explicit arthouse films but the latest controversy centres on a £1.2 million sterling house she has bought for the two of them in Westminster. Reports indicate that the relationship between Cowen and the new Northern Secretary, who is, after all, a Scottish Catholic, are much more cordial than they were between Cowen and Peter Mandelson. But then, as Reid said last Tuesday, his first visit to Ireland was as an infant to his grandmother in Daingean, Co Offaly.