Relations haven't been the most cordial over the last two years between the minister and the secretary general at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Paddy McKernan, but when David Andrews left the Cabinet on Wednesday all was sweetness and light at a morning reception for senior diplomats and staff in Iveagh House. Great pleasantries were exchanged over the champagne.
The host, McKernan, spoke for 10 minutes on the theme of courage and determination, and said Andrews had shown these qualities in East Timor, the North, on the campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council and on the nuclear treaty amendment. He also (without, Quidnunc believes, a trace of irony although this was the cause of one of their fallings out) paid tribute to the way Andrews had presided over one of the biggest expansions in the Department's history. The former minister in his reply thanked the secretary general for his work and said that DFA was staffed by people with a huge degree of professionalism and patriotism. He had been in the department on two occasions and would undoubtedly miss it, but he thought the really difficult time for him would be when he left the Dail.
McKernan, who is renowned as a witty speaker, remarked that both he and Andrews shared a passion for fly-fishing in Connemara and maybe sometime they could do it together. That sure got a laugh from the assembled mandarins.