OUR leading public figures must be seriously contemplating taking the next couple of weeks off. The social and political schedule is so intense that many are wondering how they are going to cope. There's the arrival of the Czech President Vaclav Havel on Friday, the state dinner hosted by the President, Mrs Robinson that night, and Michael D's lunch for, writers and artists at the Dublin Writers Museum the next.
There's the Derby on Sunday and on Monday July 1st the arrival of the USS JFK in our waters for which occasion 22 VIPs, including John Bruton and Dick Spring, Government Ministers, party leaders, chiefs of the security forces and aviation supremos will be flown from Dublin by fixed wing aircraft straight on to the deck. They'll view the ship, the training exercises, have lunch and meet the 5,000 plus crew.
Then the VIPs rush back to Dublin Castle for the Taoiseach's dinner marking the hand over of the EU Presidency from the Italians. All 20 European commissioners, led by Jacques Santer and including our own Pee Flynn, will be flying in by air taxi from Brussels that very day, and no doubt will be careful to avoid the air activity over the JFK. After dinner there's an open air concert and fireworks in Temple Bar.
On Tuesday the Commissioners hold a series of meetings and the British Ag minister Douglas Hogg arrives to discuss BSE. The first of the 10,000 members of the public who won Lottery tickets visit the JFK, but may have to run the gauntlet of protesters on their way. On Wednesday night there's a black tie dinner on board, for which the ladies have been advised to wear flat shoes, and on Thursday 1,200 are invited to a July 4th party.
This very same week, starting July 1st, the Dail winds up for the summer and there will be a series of votes as various business is wound up. How will they manage?
Crowded house
In case of fire secure your papers an assemble at the Carson statue. The instructions in the guest rooms at Stormont House amused the Dublin delegation who spent several nights there recently. But, said one official it was hardly our papers they were worried about.
On Wednesday this week and for several days last week the Stormont estate, as they call it up there, was awash with Ministers from the Republic. Taoiseach John Bruton attended on Monday 10th and thereafter there was Tanaiste Dick Spring and Ministers Nora Owen, Proinsias de Rossa, Mervyn Taylor and Hugh Coveney as well as the AG Dermot Gleeson.
Indeed, the size of the Dublin presence was so great all the politicians came with their own entourages, making nearly 40 people in all at the opening that it was remarked they must have thought history was in the making. One of their number justified the large attendance on the grounds that the NIO was on home turf and if Dublin wasn't there in reasonable numbers they could lose control of something of which after all they were joint sponsors.
In any event there was plenty of opportunity for networking. The Northern party negotiators and the Ministers and officials from London, Belfast and Dublin were all holed up inside the wire, with the media and Sinn Fein outside. There was little to do but get to know each other, and that they did.
It did not go as far as some wit suggested, however. When it was announced that the blood transfusion service was available within the complex, there were several wisecracks about exchanging blood and becoming blood brothers.
Bhamjee jumping
THERE is more than a little amusement around Leinster House that the colourful Labour deputy for Clare, Moosajee Bhamjee, is, as they put it, "under house arrest". Although Dr Bhamjee was only one of six whose absence without pairs last week caused an embarrassing first defeat in the Dail for the coalition, there was more glee over him than anyone else. As a full time psychiatrist he made a habit of attending the Dail only one day a week for Wednesday's vote.
Labour leader Dick Spring fitted in time between Stormont on Wednesday and the Florence summit on Thursday to address, or indeed dress down, his deputies on Wednesday evening and, in the presence of whip Brian Fitzgerald, ordered that everyone must be present three days a week henceforth. This will mean difficulty for many, given the demands of Government, the Presidency and the North on the pairing system.
The diktat had some amusing results. Dr Bhamjee was heard to pronounce on the sanity of the voting system since he had voted so often in one day. Then so many jumpy deputies turned up to vote when the division bell rang on Tuesday at the Security and Legislation committee that the chairman, FG's Charlie Flanagan, had to remind them about where they were.
Meanwhile FF deputies say they plan to call a second vote after the 8.30 division each Wednesday to ensure that Dr Bhamjee will miss his usual train home to Clare. But as some wit said, after Clare's defeat at hurling last week there should be plenty of work in his line now.
Golf links
PRESIDENT Clinton flies to France next week for the G7 summit, but what Tanaiste Dick Spring wanted to know while in Washington last week with the President, Mrs Robinson, was when was he coming to play golf in Ballybunion as he promised last December?
Dick was a little alarmed to find Bill had recently broken 80 for the first time. But among golfing Presidents, Bill is given only "passable" rank in a new book, Presidential Lies. The Illustrated History Of White House Golf Jack Kennedy is judged the best.a Gerald Ford is second. Clinton is just behind Richard Nixon but the authors say his real score is impossible to determine because of his habit of awarding himself so many "mulligans" or free shots for mis-hits. Spring says it is a "racing certainty" Clinton will come to Ballybunion, but cutely avoids saying when.
On manoeuvres
ARMY press officer Comdt Wally Young is the latest figure to join the exodus from the Defence Forces, although in his case he is not beings tempted out by the offer of early retirement he will be setting up his own media and communications consultancy.
Wally has run the press office for four years and seen a virtual turnaround in Defence Forces public relations policy. During his time the Army adopted a policy of, openness that makes the PR policies of Government departments and An Garda Siochana look like they were drawn up by the KGB.
The open door policy to journalists has had major paybacks for the Defence Forces during the difficult period of rationalisation and cutbacks. During his 26 years in the Defence Forces he was aide de camp to two Chiefs of Staff and lectured at the Military College.
Better days
LABOUR Senator Pat Magner his now £10 richer. During the divorce referendum campaign former FF senator Des Hanafin bet him £5 that the referendum would be lost. When Pat collected his fiver, Des bet him a further £5 that the result would be overturned by appeal. This week Pat collected his second fiver, on which Des had written "Debt paid to Pat Magner from Des Hanafin on the result of the Supreme Court case."
Pat paid tribute to his former colleague on the anti divorce side in the Seanad for the manner in which he. had conducted his campaign and his appeal. Although they differed, he saluted him for his courage and courtesy, and said he was an example to all.