Can Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil bury hatchet?

“You can just tell, almost as soon as they start talking. They’re posher,” so explains the die-hard Fianna Fáiler on how you can spot a supporter of the oul’ enemy, Fine Gael.

It’s a class and sensibility thing, he says, explaining how at a dinner party a number of years ago he was chatting across the table to a woman “from a well-known Fine Gael family”. The conversation ranged from life in general to the arts and literature.

After a while he mentioned his connection to Fianna Fail. “Oh my goodness,” she said, “you don’t seem to me to be a typical Fianna Fáiler.”