THlS week, to facilitate the Tanaiste Dick Spring's white ribbon campaign for peace, the Ceann Comhairle, Sean Treacy, lifted the ban on the display of emblems in the Dail chamber. Few can remember when such a confession was last made and the permission of the whips had to be sought.
The idea for the ribbons came from a third secretary in Iveagh House, Eugene Downes, and a group of junior diplomats set to making hundreds of them last Friday so Dick could distribute them in Grafton Street in the afternoon.
Dutifully most Ministers, but not all, and many deputies, but certainly not all, turned up, in the media, at functions and in Leinster House this week wearing white ribbons. They were given out at the desk in the hall. Iveagh House was awash with them, no doubt mindful of the boss's wishes.
What Dick most certainly didn't have in mind and what the Ceann Comhairle may not have noticed is that some deputies - among them the FF chief whip and Louth Deputy Dermot Ahern and FG's Mary Flaherty, who recently visited Irish prisoners in British jails - sported green ribbons which are the symbol of support for Repubcan prisoners. Some of the white ribbon brigade were less than, pleased. "Does this mean we'll see the Faster Lily in the House next?" fumed one.
Others were more sanguine. Once the ban is lifted surely anything goes. That is why it existed in the first place, although charity emblems always appeared to be exempt.
One symbol which no one was objecting to on Wednesday was the display of ashes on foreheads. This year there appeared to be even fewer than usual.