Parnell and Kitty are as good as it gets at last Cabinet meeting

“WELCOME to my holiday home,” beamed Brian Cowen — framed as he was by an 18th century mansion — when somebody suggested that he was about to skive away for the rest of the summer.

The minister certainly was dressed up for the holliers. The Offaly deputy had replaced his sober suit for a blazer and a light pair of casual slacks. All he was missing was a bucket and spade, and a form guide for the Galway Races.

It was the annual away match for the team of 15 ministers. Most of them seemed weary — but relieved — after a particularly hard season. Their top-of-the-league form of the past five years had deserted them of late.

Another scoreless draw on Sunday — a la the latest opinion poll — does not bode all that well for the coming season.

Every year, the Government holds at least one of its meetings outside Dublin, usually in the constituency of one of its members.

This year it was in the womb of Dick Roche’s constituency, the garden of Ireland, jewel in the crown, hotspot for illegal dumping.

Avondale House, is a plain period house in spectacular wooded surroundings near Rathdrum in south Co Wicklow.

It was, of course, the birthplace and base of an even more famous — and loquacious — politician than the effervescent Minister for Environment.

A plaque above the door tells you he was born in 1846 and there’s a huge portrait of the unmistakably hirsute Parnell inside the front door.

Colour wise, there is never too much to say about Cabinet meetings, even when transported to such romantic surroundings.

There’s the usual motorcade of sleek limousines coming in the driveway, an overwhelming garda presence, and a couple of ministers doing set-pieces for the media.

And when it comes to Avondale, it was Parnell, and Kitty O’Shea, and em, wonderful surroundings. At least, Cowen was trying to be helpful to those colour writers running out of gas.

“Avondale’s Bald Eagle,” he declared apropos nothing. That, we assume, was a reference to a Scottish eagle who strayed into the estate a couple of years ago, not to Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern who was standing beside him.

But the Finance Minister will be in for a tough landing tomorrow. He may have been lording it in the manor yesterday. But the Irish Examiner can guarantee that by the end of the week his circumstances will be so reduced that he will be slumming it in a tent on the eastern outskirts of Galway city.