BEING St Patrick’s weekend, the Cabinet are away doing (delete where applicable) thankless drudge work/damn all; working to exhaustive schedules/lounging beside a pool; and drowning the shamrock/drowning the shamrock.

A PIER is a disappointed bridge, James Joyce once wrote. We’ve seen a lot of disappointed bridges in the past 10 years since the Good Friday Agreement was hailed as having signed, sealed and delivered a future for the North.

THIS column needs to summon every political cliché to its side this week.

WHEN he is droning on and on about biofuels and carbon emissions and global warming and energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, you feel like grabbing him by the lapels and saying: “Bertie, give us a break will you?”

WHO is the star of this week’s column? Take a wild guess. If you happened to die and are now pushing up daisies, you might not have noticed him this week.

THERE are some laws of nature immutable and predictable. Gravity. Death. Taxes. Kerry winning All-Irelands.

Sinn Féin have taken a brave step on an historic day for the North, says Political Editor Harry McGee.

FOR Sale. Going cheap. Soul of a political party. High mileage but runs like new. A few dents but structurally intact. Driver thrown in. Good for another five years. No tyre-kickers.

SO, Pat Rabbitte told John Bowman on Questions and Answers that he wouldn’t put Fianna Fáil back in Government.

IT started life as a once-off musical collaboration, an eclectic group of artists came together to record a legendary concept album.