A House hushed to silence

THE trademark ruddiness of John O’Donoghue’s face must have deepened and contrasted ever more starkly with the pale pastel hues decorating the Georgian walls of his Leinster House fiefdom as he pleaded with Eamon Gilmore not to damn him into oblivion on the Dáil floor.

Time was ticking down to the deadline for Mr Gilmore’s demand for a summit of the five Oireachtas party leaders so they could agree on a solution to the expenses scandal paralysing Irish political life.

The Ceann Comhairle believed he was engaged in a desperate, though still winnable, battle to save his career – he did not realise events had already condemned him to humiliation as the Labour leader decided to set in train the end game that would see Mr O’Donoghue carry the infamy of being the first holder of his office to be forcibly toppled from the Speaker’s chair.