Hype springs eternal
Sorry, Freudian slip there. What I meant to say, of course, is that it was one of the most extraordinary days in the history of Dáil Éireann, a day which left the Soldiers of Destiny with, according to one report, “shock, bewilderment and humiliation written across their faces” or, if you prefer — and actually according to the same report, just seven paragraphs later — a “look on their faces (showing) varying levels of shock, anger and sheer despair”.
We can take it they weren’t very happy then, although we can’t help wondering what on earth might have been written on or even across their faces if, say, they’d just been driven out of Government buildings by a coup, tanks on the lawn, the bar in flames, the Taoiseach under armed guard.
