There was a bit of banter in the Dail last week when Labour's Pat Upton was moving the Bill on extending licensing hours and abolishing our unique Holy Hour. At one stage he said that the only reason it had been introduced was to ensure civil servants returned to their offices after lunch. The Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, asked an adviser, a civil servant who seemed none too pleased at the slur, if he thought this could possibly have been the case. The adviser replied, by way of note from the mandarin's pen in the chamber, that while it may have been so, the politicians of the 1930s clearly decided that the Dail bar should be excluded.
These notes were passed on to Pat Upton, but not the follow-up story. It appears that one day long ago Myles na Gopaleen had a few too many at lunch and ended up spread-eagled on the steps of the Custom House, his place of employment.
The late Brendan Corish, then parliamentary secretary in the department, was returning from the Dail and saw what he thought was a man in distress. He tapped him on the shoulder. "Ah," said Myles. "Corish Iompair Eireann."