Both the Cabinet and the legal eagles up at the Castle should be packing their swimming togs the week after next. The Cabinet is off to the recently-acquired Farmleigh stately home in the Phoenix Park for a one-day meeting on Monday 26th, the last before the hols, and, it has been suggested, if the weather holds up they should make the most of it and have a dip in the outdoor pool.
Two days later, the Flood tribunal decamps to the sunny isle of Jersey to hear the evidence of 82-year-old Joseph Murphy senior, the millionaire owner of JMSE, the firm at the centre of the inquiry. The Irish consul on the island Pamela O'Neill has been warned to expect some 30 happy campers, including legal teams, media and officials on Wednesday week, for what Mr Justice Flood said would be a two-day hearing. But the witness, who lives on Guernsey, is not in good health. His lawyers say he has short-term memory loss and a condition that will necessitate frequent breaks in his evidence. It reminds them all of James Gogarty. His evidence lasted 16 weeks. But some of the denizens of Dublin Castle mightn't be too unhappy spending the summer on the beaches of Jersey.