A softer, cudlier Mary Harney

AH yes. The first iconic image of the week. Mary Coughlan emerging through the front door of Leinster House as the new Minister for Agriculture on Wednesday. But was she waving excitedly? Or was she just drowning.

In the five months between announcement and execution, Bertie Ahern’s reshuffle had cleaned out the thesaurus for words meaning “major”. Radical. Genuine. Dramatic. Revolutionary. Life-changing. Roll up and take your pick.

Ok, there was a very long run-in which lent itself to plenty of meeja hype and which some FFers now admit wasn’t all that tactically cute. But for all of Bertie Ahern’s protestations, both opposition leaders scored with their questions echoing the famous “where’s the beef?” quip of one-time US Presidential candidate Walter Mondale.