THE Dail is on holidays next week and ministers take off to the far corners of the globe to fly the green flag. A few are staying around on business, mostly vital EU matters. The Minister for Tourism, James McDaid will be reviewing the Dublin parade on Wednesday, with the President, Mrs McAleese at Christchurch. After Mass at the Pro Cathedral and the parade, with her family, she will host a St Patrick's Day reception at the Aras for the diplomatic corps and members of North-South bodies.
The Irish will be out in force in Washington, but whether they and President Bill Clinton, will achieve anything on the Northern impasse is most uncertain. One pleasant task for the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, however, will be the formal opening of the big new Doyle Hotel at the prestigious Dupont Circle. It has been open unofficially for a while and the bar is attracting Irish people who live locally.
Meanwhile, our ambassador's wife, Bernadette O hUiginn, is making a name for herself as a sculptor. One of her pieces, Lunar Pause, in bronze and limestone, is on show at the Seven Artists of Irish Descent exhibition in an art gallery on Connecticut Avenue. Last month her work was on show at an exhibition in Union Station marking African-American Awareness month. That piece commemorated the noted African-American Frederick Douglass who was a freed slave and visited Ireland where he met Daniel O'Connell, whom he greatly admired.