The only member of Government whose St Patrick's Day peregrination is taking place in a media vacuum is junior minister, Noel Davern, who is off to the Middle East to visit Irish soldiers and gardai serving with the UN.
The Cyprus-Lebanon-Damascus trip is probably the politicians' most feared Paddy's Day gig. Two years in a row, when the unfortunate Sean Barrett was minister of defence, scenes from the celebrations were re-enacted in the courts. In 1995 remarks to the Minister by a garda on UN duty in Cyprus led to the officer being ordered home by the Commissioner and a subsequent High Court injunction to stop the order (eventually overturned). In 1996 an officer with the UN Battalion in south Lebanon was court-martialled after refusing to stay away from the hall where the Minister was hosting celebrations.
On the basis - as one senior Army officer put it - that lightning can't strike three times in a row, last year's visit by Minister for Defence, Michael Smith, when there was real lightning, and thunder and snow, at Camp Shamrock, was adjudged a great success. The UN General Secretary, Kofi Annan, dropped in at the party in Damascus for, it was said, he had heard the Irish gigs the previous two years had been so good, he couldn't stay away.
However, on the equal basis that it is not wise to tempt fate, it has been decided that Davern's trip will take place away from the media glare and reporters who expressed an interest in travelling with him have been politely advised that they cannot be accommodated.