THE poem for which Labour and DL members ceased carousing and actually listened last Saturday night at Dublin's Riverside was Beyond the I, recited by the poet himself, Michael D. Higgins. He wrote it, he said, when Baroness Thatcher was still selling guns to Chile and her son was collecting the commission. It speaks of hearts beating together and concludes with: And a great unity/ brings peace/with all creation,/de- filed/no longer/by the I.
Niall Toibin asked who would have thought we would live to see the day when a British Prime Minister would speak Irish in Leinster House, but would we see the day when Bertie Ahern spoke Irish in Leinster House. "Fair play to Tony Blair, his Irish was as good as Bertie's English."
Comedian Dara O Briain wound up by telling all to remember that a merger was not just for Christmas, and the leader of the expanded party, Ruairi Quinn, said how much he looked forward to a very happy marriage. "I am committed to making it work; I have some experience of this kind of thing."