Not exactly another quiet weekend in US politics.
Donald Trump wasn’t terribly fond of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to start with – the scene of his very public roasting by president Barack Obama in 2011.
Having shunned the annual event for years, the night he shows up half a dozen shots are fired, and the president and his entourage are whisked to safety.
“It’s a dangerous life,” opined Trump at a press conference later in the evening – pledging that he would deliver his planned verbal onslaught at a later date.
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“I said to my people: ‘this would be the most inappropriate speech ever ... I’ll have to save it,’” he promised.
How much danger Trump was in is hard to say, but the violence left attendees badly shaken and America again asking itself: “What is wrong with people?”
The Taoiseach, along with other international leaders, was quick to condemn the actions of the suspected gunman – who was subdued and taken into custody.
Of course, once the dust settles, little seems to have changed for Trump on the Iran war front. He pulled back his negotiators over the weekend, saying they weren’t going to travel halfway around the world to receive unsatisfactory position papers from the Iranians.
So another week dawns with the Strait of Hormuz closed to oil and gas shipments – and much anxiety pervading the world.
The old Brent crude was still lodged at well over $100 a barrel this morning and will likely stay in that territory barring some dramatic breakthrough. Iran is reported to have tabled a new plan that would reopen the vital waterway – but nuclear talks would have to follow a US move to abandon its own blockade.
The markets don’t know what to make of it.
The alarming security breach in Washington brought some brief distraction from all that.
McDonald: I will lead SF into next election
Events at the Hilton Hotel also somewhat overshadowed Sinn Féin’s big weekend in Belfast where its members gathered for its ardfheis.
Leader Mary Lou McDonald, who went up the road perhaps a little tentatively, took on the immigration issue that has made for a challenging few years for the party.
She told RTÉ News that the people who have been shouting down her position on the issue were keen to see Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael remain in Government. She also denied undermining the trade union movement by supporting the fuel protesters.
McDonald was very clear in her conviction that she will be leading the party into the next general election.
Former Sinn Féin byelection hopeful Gillian Sherratt, meanwhile, took to social media to dismiss a “narrative” around the party’s selection in Dublin Central.
Sherratt, a disability rights campaigner and the mother of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who died aged nine after waiting years for spinal surgery, was thought to be Sinn Féin’s favoured candidate for the byelection in Dublin Central.
However, she was beaten at a selection convention by Cllr Janice Boylan, who had been McDonald’s unsuccessful running mate in the 2024 general election. Some observers believe this was a snub to the party leader from the Dublin Central base.
Sherratt said attempts to portray the selection convention as some sort of scandal were “getting incredibly old”.
Also drawing attention away from the Sinn Féin gathering was the worrying attack on a PSNI station a short distance away in Dunmurry just outside Belfast.
The PSNI believes a device that exploded in a hijacked car was the work of the “New IRA” – and follows a similar incident in Co Armagh last month. It is being treated as attempted murder.
Payments for heat pumps, efficient cars ‘being considered’
The latest energy crisis will be consuming more of the time of officials at the Department of Finance, according to the Minister.
Simon Harris says he has tasked the Tax Strategy Group with drawing up measures that would reduce the cost of electricity over the longer term.
This could involve added investment in the grid that would reduce the exposure to waxing and waning of wholesale prices.
Harris is also reportedly considering one-off payments that would go towards heat pumps and efficient cars.
Unions meet Taoiseach over long Covid scheme
Also on the agenda for the Government this week is the lingering effects of a previous crisis
Unions are meeting the Taoiseach on Thursday to discuss support for frontline health workers still suffering the effects of long Covid.
Many remain on half pay after a special payment scheme that had kept those affected on full pay ran out at the end of last year.
