Awaiting the word of Bishop Bertie

THE Taoiseach was like a bishop on the eve of announcing diocesan changes when he made a pilgrimage to the national ploughing championships at Grangeford, near Tullow, in Co Carlow yesterday.

Bertie Ahern’s every move and spoken word was studied with anxious intensity by political curates, hoping to be given a parish of their own, and by incumbent “PPs”, wanting to hold on to posts.

Talk about today’s reshuffle in the cathedral chapter of Government dominated conversations as speculation reached almost religious fervour in crowded tillage fields and shopping arcades.