Pinstripe Presidency hits purple patch
Even the Irish press corps turned up in pinstriped suits for the Taoiseach's presentation of his programme to the Parliament in Strasbourg.
Everyone from political advisers to the Taoiseach appear to have invested in new clothes for the six months at the helm of the EU. It prompted some employed by the European Commission to wonder if there was a special "Irish Presidency issue" in pinstriped suits.
Finance Minister McCreevy had a fine purple stripe in his suit when he presided over the euro-group ministers. Like any lad in a new suit he was nervous.
Well known in European media as well as Irish circles for throwing caution to the wind and giving journalists a decent story to write about, he clung onto a four-paragraph statement for dear life. Irrespective of what questions he was asked he replied with a sentence from the statement.
When he returned to the, by now, ragged script for the fourth time after the fourth question some of the assembled media broke into nervous laughter. He wasn't really going to try that again, they thought. But he was.
By Wednesday morning he had recovered some of his ebullience and had changed the shirt and tie to another matching purple duo to off-set the fine stripe in his grey suit.
He almost rose to the bait when a financial journalist as much as accused him personally for being responsible for the overnight increase of the euro against the dollar. But he recovered himself in time by saying he was simply repeating the agreed statement.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Brian Cowen was getting an easier time in the European Parliament.
He was addressing the Constitutional Affairs Committee and concentrating on Irish efforts to agree the document by June. His script said sensible things but the range of questions gave him more leeway, and led him to take an almost school teacher tone with the parliamentarians. It was difficult to blame him. The inputs varied from demands for him to say who was to blame for the breakdown in the Constitution talks in December to advising him how to negotiate his way to a conclusion now.
Arts Minister John O'Donoghue raised a few eyebrows when he mentioned being colonised for 800 years during his speech to guests invited to attend a concert in Brussels last week.
The Irish mostly wriggled in their seats as he repeated the phrase for the third time though some took the view that if we, the Irish, could put up with 800 years of colonisation, "they" could put up with a few references to it.
The first prize for performance so far though must go to the Taoiseach in Strasbourg. He went through his own recital of what the Irish will do for Europe for the next six months, and then sat through over 40 longwinded questions.
Resplendent in shades of pink he won PR points for responding to MEPs by name and even engaged in good humoured banter with the Reverand Ian Paisley who said the good thing about the Irish having the EU Presidency is that it would keep Mr Ahern out of the North.
The Taoiseach replied that just like Dr Paisley holding down two jobs in the Assembly and in the EP, he would be able to keep a firm grip on Europe and the North. Perhaps that played a role in the Reverand Paisley's decision on Monday to resign his EU seat.
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