One thousand socialists from 20 states, including nine prime ministers, gathered in Milan this week for the biennial Congress of the European Socialists. Ireland was represented by Labour leader, Ruairi Quinn, who was elected one of the eight vice presidents, and the island's only two socialist MEPs Bernie Malone and John Hume were much in evidence.
Hume received yet another honour and spoke at the opening session. Malone said she was pleased that employment was so prominent in the Socialists' election manifesto launched in Milan and on which the national parties will put a local stamp for the June elections.
The socialist leaders attending ranged from the hard left - like Italy's Massimo D'Alema, of Democratic Left, many of whose members are former communists, to the soft left of Britain's Tony Blair and including France's Lionel Jospin, Germany's Gerhard Schroder, Portugal's Antonio Guterres, Denmark's Poul Rasmussen, Greece's Costas Smitis, The Netherlands' Zim Kok, Sweden's Goran Persson and Austria's Viktor Klima. There were also Czechs, Swiss, Hungarians, Poles and Romanians.
Milan is the centre of European fashion, so there was much interest, although not all of it favourable, in a new accessory, which was on show at the mayor's reception on Monday. Delegates were presented with a hook to hang round their neck in which they could rest their glass while eating. Most were too careful of their best clothes to risk it.
Amid all of this fraternal mingling, some of the Irish comrades suffered a nasty fright when they stepped out for a stroll around Milan. Blaring out at them from several lampposts they saw the name Gerry Collins. Surely not, they said. Yes indeed.
The posters were advertising a meeting which the Munster MEP is to address with Alleanza Nazionale (AN), the far right movement that came out of the fascist party. The AN is shortly to join FF in the Union for Europe, their parliamentary group.