My crystal ball reflects some very odd New Year political happenings

NONE of us knows, of course, what the future will bring. Did Charlie McCreevy ever think, this time last year, that he’d be pulling his next Christmas cracker in Brussels?

Tue, 28 Dec, 2004 - 00:00

Fergus Finlay

Fergus Finlay is a former political activist and adviser to three governments, the former head of the children's charity Barnardos, a writer and a broadcaster.

Did it occur to Gerry Adams that he’d be singing Silent Night to Ian Paisley? Did Martin Cullen realise that Bill Clinton wasn’t going to be the only politician to find himself in political trouble over a woman called Monica?

And what about 2005? Here’s my attempt (with apologies to Old Moore) to read the tea-leaves for the coming year. Naturally, any similarity to characters living or dead is entirely coincidental.