Crowning achievement leaves Joan Burton with big decisions

DESPITE Joan Burton unexpectedly losing Ruairi Quinn, her education minister, she needs to do a crash course in the three Rs — reshuffle, rewrite and rejuvenate. The Tánaiste-designate is in the unusual position of having seen her three predecessors as Labour leader swept out of the Cabinet by her rise.

Quinn saw the way the wind was blowing and left with a touch of vainglorious swagger; Eamon Gilmore is engaged in a slightly unseemly — and extremely risky — public pitch to be given the cushy job in the European Commission; and Pat Rabbitte appears to be digging-in for a ding-dong.

Given the references to Joan’s own Game of Thrones around the Cabinet table, it is ironic that the HBO show was dominated by the ‘war of the five kings’.