Lenihan steps into history at Beal na mBláth

THERE were no floods, forked-lightning, hellfires or seismic shifts.

The sky did not darken and no one was smote down. The only plague of insects was a swarm of flying ants.

Instead, amid sunshine and birdsong and the uninterrupted spinning of our planet on its axis, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan stepped onto the podium and into history as the first Fianna Fáil minister to deliver the keynote speech at the annual Michael Collins commemoration in Béal na mBláth.