The hangover’s just beginning for Gilmore

Perhaps coming on stage to the sounds of a song about dealing with a massive hangover and then referencing the Titanic was not the ideal opener for Eamon Gilmore.

Throw in a mid-afternoon riot and you could be suspicious that the Labour Party conference had not gone too well. But you’d be wrong.

Like Mrs Doyle in Father Ted, Labour seems to love the misery; it is their glue — nothing binds you closer than the adhesive of austerity.