I understand it’s been a good-humoured week for many in Ireland, what with St Patrick’s Day, the rugby international, and the prospective break-up of the increasingly ludicrous United Kingdom.

Alex Ferguson’s retirement has provoked an extraordinary response right across Europe, a wave of emotion almost comparable to the day Seve Ballesteros died, exactly two years earlier.

* MOCC ONS: Keep little toes warm on chilly January days with Mocc Ons, the moccasin style slipper socks from the company that also manufactures Sock Ons.

So far, oils have resisted the mass market, and for anyone raised on a diet of bland moisturiser cream, using one for the first time can be a revelation.