Quoting a well-known jockey, the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, told the nation that the recent Kildare football win was "better than sex". What he will say should they take the Sam Maguire is eagerly awaited. And does he feel the same about golf? Will Bill be shocked by Charlie's sexy way with words at the fourball in Ballybunion this afternoon?
Charlie was back at Croke Park on Tuesday for the opening of the £3.5 million GAA Museum under the new stand, in the presence of the Dublin team's No 1 fan, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. With its seven hours of historical footage, numerous photographs and graphics and illustrated history, the museum hopes to attract up to 70,000 visitors in its first year. The Taoiseach was much impressed by the depictions of the great games, particularly, he said, the outstanding Dublin victories. September was the best month, and like his brother he loved to see games draw - they shortened the winter.
Croke Park may still be restricted to Gaelic games, but this didn't stop the representatives of other disciplines attending the launch and the lunch. At one table, alongside Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel, the acting Chief of Staff, Maj Gen Bill Dwyer and the former president of the GAA, Jack Boothman, were Noel Murphy, president of the IFRU, Pat Quigley, president of the FAI and Nick Davies president of BLE, the athletics board.
Despite having given the GAA £20 million in last December's Budget, and sustaining some criticism as a result, the Minister for Finance wouldn't stay for lunch in the sumptuous new hospitality area. Some of us, he said, have a country to run, as he departed for Merrion Street to face crashing markets and endless supplicants.