Quidnunc's face lit up, as did several others, when she saw EU Commissioner and former British Labour leader Neil Kinnock take out a cigarette after the lunch last week hosted for him by the director of the EU office in Dublin, Colm Larkin, and his deputy, Raymond Keane. It showed a continental attitude to the no-smoking signs on the wall which sadly is often lacking as we adopt US terror tactics.
Commissioner Kinnock was here for the rugby international and doing a little business as well. He was his usual entertaining self and now that he and Glens have top jobs - she's an MEP for South Wales - is well and truly recovered from the dreadful days of election defeat.
It would be dishonest of him to say that nothing can erase what the Murdoch press did to him on that occasion, he said, but he couldn't get over what it did to the British people. There were press barons who believed they could ensure who would be prime minister, not just at elections but between elections. They tried to destabilise the political system and they are now trying to get rid of John Major. Although he is his political opponent, he believed in democracy? not power without responsibility as had been demonstrated by the concentration of partisan ownership.
Mr Kinock also told us, to general approval since we Irish would be the ones to suffer, that he is against reducing the number of EU commissioners. He thinks we can continue with the present system, one or two commissioners per country, without incurring the problems of the UN general assembly.