MIRIAM LORD'S WEEK:Fruit and veg Minister spreads a little happiness; rumbling over Croker aul' sod; a blasphemous shade of blue in Justice; repatriation once again chorus from Martin and Michael D
“Thanks to Trevor Sergeant’s blog, we’ve enjoyed the thrills and spills of his rollercoaster year in the organic plot, gasping as he forced his rhubarb and wincing when his brassicas were nibbled . . .
Unusually for Trevor, he didn’t include a salad recipe. Cutbacks, probably . . .
AS A long and fraught Dáil session comes to a close with everyone in bad humour and a summer of discontent in prospect, it’s a relief to hear some good news for a change.
Last Saturday, Minister for Food Trevor Sargent boosted the sagging spirits of his fellow politicians when his peas took first prize at the Rush Horticultural Show.
Trevor tells of his triumph in his Kitchen Garden website: “I chanced my arm and entered a three-pod set of Enorma broad beans, eight strings of blackcurrants and a six- pod set of Rondo peas. Considering there were 11 other pea class entries I was delighted to see a “first prize” sticker beside my plate of peas.” (Some begrudgers have been heard to mutter it’s the only thing the Greens are likely to win, including the next election.)
Cock-a-hoop, the delighted Minister gurgles: “A little praise goes a long way, just like the smell of comfrey tea!” Maybe he might deploy its calming influence at today’s Green Party special conference in Dublin, when the subjects up for discussion are the McCarthy report, the Lisbon Treaty and renegotiation of the programme for government.
But no matter what happens today, back in Balbriggan, everything in the garden is rosy for Trevor.
His strawberries are flying. (Thanks to his blog, we’ve enjoyed the thrills and spills of his rollercoaster year in the organic plot, gasping as he forced his rhubarb and wincing when his brassicas were nibbled). “Each day, I pick a couple of freshly ripened strawberries to take in a lunchbox to my Department of Agriculture office,” he writes. Those strapping carnivores who inhabit his department, the beef and tae-loving farmer types who rule the roost, must think an alien has landed among them when they see Trevor arriving in every morning with his little Tupperware box of strawberries, lettuce and comfrey tea.
We mention lettuce, because Trevor has issued another vegetable alert with a press release “encouraging consumers to opt for the Irish Butterhead variety of lettuce when preparing salads during the summer months.” Not to be confused with the Irish Butterhead variety of politician.
Unusually for Trevor, he didn’t include a salad recipe. Cutbacks, probably.
He must have been worried that Snipmeister Colm McCarthy would include his department on the snip list. To this end, it seems the junior minister is making preparations for a drop in income.
He’s selling his surplus produce in the Balbriggan fish and farmers’ market.
Alien sod in Croker, ~British call tones in Leinster House
Fianna Fáil’s Mark Daly came in for some stick during the week when he complained about the GAA importing British sod for the playing surface in Croke Park. The thought of contaminated sliothars and footballs skittering across the once-hallowed turf in the closing stages of the All-Ireland Championships was almost too much to bear for the Kerry senator.
Mark won’t be best pleased so about the latest development on the communications front in Leinster House. The account for phone calls from the building to external landline numbers has gone from Eircom to BT Ireland. BT offered lower tariffs, yielding “a significant savings in call costs.”
Calls to mobile numbers will be handled by existing providers, so that might soften the blow for the patriotic Senator Daly.
Lenihan does his patriotic duty, dining for Ireland
At 2pm on Thursday, while some members of the media were taking delivery of the McCarthy report, others were trying to divine the whereabouts of the Minister for Finance.
It turned out that Brian Lenihan was just around the corner from the journalists gathered in his nearby office, having lunch in Eamon O’Reilly’s One Pico with EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes.
They were a party of six, the four officials at the table included Kevin Cardiff, boss of the department’s financial services unit and Brian’s adviser on banking. Kroes was in town to outline her concerns over European governments pouring billions of euro into troubled banks.
Our man lurking in the room tells us it was a very serious looking meeting, with Brian Lenihan – answering the call to patriotic action and dining for Ireland – doing most of the talking. We don’t know if they stuck to the excellent value set lunch, but they pushed the boat out and ordered some wine.
Our man, a noted oenophile, then went all technical on us: “They were having a drop, but weren’t lashing into it.” The red mullet and comfit duck was particularly good on Thursday. And the cod was first class. (But don’t tell Neelie.)
Michael D and Martin paddle the same canoe
Minister for Stately Homes and Aul Ruins, Martin Mansergh, and Labour’s Michael D Higgins are happily paddling the same canoe when it comes to the fate of a controversial historical artefact. They have expressed their delight at NUI Galway’s decision to do the decent thing with the two-century-old canoe – which had been hanging from the Quadrangle rafters for decades – by returning it to Canada, its country of origin.
Michael D was to the forefront of those calling for the repatriation of the “iconic canoe”, while it has emerged that Mr Mansergh also had a keen personal interest.
The Birchbark canoe was rescued by NUIG’s Dr Kathryn Moore, who recognised its significance and sent it to Canada for restoration, where it was confirmed as one of the oldest of its type in the world.
Once there, however, it aroused the interest of a native American community who questioned whether it should go back to Galway.The Grandfather Akwiten canoe, as it is known, was one of three built by the Maliseet native Americans for British lieutenant-governor Sir Howard Douglas, who arrived in New Brunswick in 1824. It subsequently passed into the hands of Lieut Stepney St George, who transported it back home to Headford Castle in Galway following his stint with the Imperial Services in Canada.
In 1852, it was donated to the then Queen’s University in Galway by a subsequent tenant of Headford Castle, Edward Lombard Hunt.
Which brings us to the Mansergh connection. Lieut Stepney St George was son of Richard Mansergh St George, who is one of the Minister’s ancestors.
Dr Mansergh has praised the generosity shown by NUIG in repatriating the canoe.
Interestingly, an article in the Journal of the Galway Family History Society records Stephney St George as making desperate efforts to try and secure relief during the Great Famine’s early stages. As chair of the Headford Relief Commissioners, he wrote a series of letters to the authorities seeking help after public works stopped.
In one letter he implored the British government to respond “without delay if you wish to save thousands from the horrible death from starvation”. He died soon afterwards himself of fever.
Bring back Ganley call echoing in cyberspace
Courtesy of the miracle of cyberspace, a mysterious new website devoted to Declan Ganley has appeared.
The BringGanleyBack website and petition is “the project of people who believe Declan Ganley has the right to represent his supporters. In presenting this petition to Declan Ganley, we hope that he will respond and accept this petition as a mandate to remain involved in Irish political life and the debate on the Lisbon Treaty Re-Run.
“This is a grassroots response to a perceived need. It’s democracy at work.” The website is a very professional and slick production but it does not identify the people behind it.
Back to school for big movers in Brussels
Irish officials in the EU commission are getting ready to go back to their old schools later this year when they will come home to tell students about life working for the union.
Martin Territ, the EU’s man in Dublin, was in Brussels recently to organise the officials taking part in the Back to School programme which has already been inflicted on the children of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia and Portugal.
Co-incidentally, when the 80 or so Irish officials return to the schools, the Lisbon referendum campaign will be in full swing. No doubt the visitors will be mindful that the majority of No voters were women, and they’ll be hoping to bag a few EU brownie points among the mammies.
All the big fish have signed up for the programme. Director general for trade David O’Sullivan intends to go back to St Mary’s College in Rathmines, although he may have to cut his visit short to accompany commissioner Ashton on a trip to India.
Catherine Day, the Comission’s secretary-general is returning to Mount Anville while John Bell, the head of the private office of commissioner Meglena Kuneva, is going to St. Killian’s. John is a past pupil of Synge Street, but as the school can lay claim to quite a few commission officials he’s heading to Clonskeagh instead.
So if the second vote rejects the treaty again, José Manuel Barroso will have some very senior people to blame.
That won’t come as much consolation to Micheál Martin, Dick Roche and the rest of the Government.
Just as well for Ahern blasphemy Bill not yet law
Dermot Ahern will be sweating buckets between now and Wednesday, when President McAleese consults the Council of State on the controversial criminal justice and defamation Bills.
Actually, i’ts wrong to say he’ll be sweating. He’s more likely to be gently perspiring, as it won’t be his fault.
Dermot spent 14 hours steering the Bills through the Dáil and Seanad, forcing senators to endure two late night sittings in the Upper House, and for some, a late night sing-song in the bar between votes.
You see, at the end of the day, it isn’t Dermot’s fault. He may have rebuffed all calls by the Opposition for more time to tease out some of the more worrying aspects of the legislation and dismissed their warnings that rushing it through would be a mistake, but he was relying upon advice from the Attorney General.
Nevertheless, it’s just as well the blasphemy Bill hasn’t gone through quite yet. The air around the Minister’s office in St Stephens Green must have turned a blasphemous shade of blue when word emerged that Her Excellency is taking a closer look at the legislation before deciding whether or not to sign it into law.
Promotion might see Kitt changing his mind
Is Tom Kitt changing his mind about retiring from politics at the next election? On Wednesday, the former junior minister was elected chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on on Arts Sport Tourism Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. He replaces new MEP Pat “the Cope” Gallagher.
A long-time Fianna Fáil stalwart in South Dublin, Tom announced he would not be contesting the next election after he was passed over for a Cabinet position. However, since then, he has seen the party’s fortunes plummet in the polls and a heavy defeat for the late Séamus Brennan’s son in the recent South Dublin byelection. The appointment has led to speculation that Fianna Fáil’s guaranteed vote-getter in the Dublin South has been prevailed upon to stick around for the next election, in the interests of the party.
Holiday rumpus just a lot of hot summer air
It was with amusement that old Leinster House hands listened to the Opposition begging for shorter holidays in the run-up to the summer recess. It’s a traditional ritual – they scream blue murder, the Government says its going anyway and everyone get the hell out of Dodge. The Dáil did what was expected of it before the House rose on July 10th, and the Seanad followed suit this week.
Jerry “Butsy” Buttimer was chief among those calling for another week to discuss the Criminal Justice Bill. In doing so, along with many of his colleagues, he proved that leopards can change their spots. The irrepressible “Butsy” is a secondary school teacher. Can you imagine how popular he’d be with his fellow teachers if he were ever to suggest a similar course of action where the school year is concerned?
By the way, Jerry and company needn’t be too worried about remarks by Colm McCarthy that abolishing the Seanad would save the country €25 million a year. It would be a nightmare to put into action.
The Seanad is tied into so many aspects of the Irish Constitution that getting rid of it would involve drafting a referendum question of Lisbon Treaty proportions.
Unless somebody else knows better?
Joan Burton’s clarion cry missed on the plinth
In the aftermath of the publication of the Snipmeister’s report, Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton was quick off the blocks and down to the Leinster House plinth to throw in his tuppence ha’pennyworth. Next was Labour leader Eamon Gilmore. He did the same.
But there was something not quite right. Something, or someone, was missing.
Then the penny dropped.
Joan Burton, the Labour Party spokeswoman on finance and a doughty performer on the economic crisis, was nowhere to be seen. Or heard.
It transpires Joan had booked her annual two-week family holiday in France months ago. There was no point in cancelling: the crisis will still be here when she gets back.
And so, as Eamon was expounding on the finer points of Snip, Joan was boarding a ferry to Rosslare. Will she be able to last the fortnight without breaking her silence?
Go on, Joan! Crack open the wine and horse into those snails. It’s going to be a long autumn and an even longer winter.
This column is now in recess