LESS than two weeks after the Cabinet decided to seek Opposition views on establishing a civic honours list to acknowledge the great and the good in Irish society, the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, has assumed an honour.
To great surprise in political circles, an official press release from his department, reporting his comments about the International Monetary Fund, was headed "Statement by the Hon. Charlie McCreevy".
Before readers assume this is the end of the republic as we know it, a department spokesman was quick to emphasise that parliamentary terms familiar in the House of Commons were not about to become customary here. It surfaced in Kildare Street because McCreevy was at the IMF in Washington this week where protocol dictates that all ministers are referred to as "the hon". There was no truth in the suggestion that the minister, despite all his billions, was developing delusions of grandeur.
But others may be. There is serious talk about an honours system. But what could such worthies be called? Knights of St Patrick? Commanders of the Bath? Or the Bog? In Leinster House this week Quidnunc heard suggestions of laoch and ridire, i.e. hero and knight. Oh what glory for some.