Dáil Sketch/Frank McNally: Hardly a day passes that the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil doesn't have to rule things out of order. Yesterday, it was the turn of the Leinster House Christmas tree.
No sooner had Dr Rory O'Hanlon attempted to switch its lights on, as he does every year amid much ceremony, than it was obvious the lights would not obey his command on this occasion.
It was a clear breach of house rules, which state that when the Ceann Comhairle presses a button, the Christmas tree shall become illuminated forthwith. But lacking a precedent, nobody knew how to react. Party leaders looked on helplessly, like children who'd been told that the grinch has stolen Christmas, while Mary Harney appealed for a "handyman".
The obvious candidate for the latter role was Enda "Sparks" Kenny, whose achievement in reconnecting Fine Gael to the national grid still baffles the ESB.
But instead it was the Taoiseach himself who intervened. Calling on the experience gained when searching every tree in North Dublin for Ray Burke, Mr Ahern examined this one from all angles (again finding nothing amiss).
Then it was Trevor Sargent's turn to have a go. The Green Party leader approached the tree as if he was going to hug it, but he too failed to bring enlightenment. Meanwhile, the lone piper who had performed at the start of the ceremony piped up again with what sounded like a lament.
As the impasse continued, nobody could ignore the bad omen for the peace process. This was, after all, an attempt to devolve power: from the Dáil's main supply to the tree lights. But the carefully choreographed sequencing arrangement had come unstuck in the full glare of the media.
It was a familiar feeling when John Dennehy - chairman of the houses services committee - called a halt to the process, promising that the Government would find another way forward.
Inside the Dáil, the gloom continued. Even the time-honoured convention that, at moments of crisis in the peace process, the opposition have to be nice to the Taoiseach failed to operate yesterday.
There might be peace but, thanks to the Jerry McCabe issue, there was a shortage of goodwill.
As night fell, however, there was some good news. Out on Leinster House Lawn - with all media attention gone - the Christmas tree had quietly lit up.
There might be a moral for the North here somewhere.