Yesterday was a landmark, an anniversary of a moment that would define the whole future of the State and our lives.
Yes, it feels like 100 years since the Brexit referendum of 2016, with more circular debates about backstops and Canada-plus and Norway-plus-plus than there have been arguments about who was with Pearse in the GPO.
As has become a regular occurrence in the past few months, the portcullis architecture of the House of Commons commanded attention rather than Leinster House or an authentically recreated Mansion House.
Except there is one difference. The process is not supposed to be open-ended. Another 65 days to go before Brexit. Supposedly. I still suspect that, despite the protestations, Britain will not exit on March 29th, and the pause button will be pressed.
We had another day of the British going nowhere on Brexit. The latest bit of magical thinking from Westminster was Theresa May’s plans to change the backstop to bring the DUP and hard Brexiteer Tories back on side.
The chances of that being successful are just north of zero. The British government floated the idea at the weekend of a bilateral treaty with Ireland that would supersede the backstop. That was roundly rejected by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Simon Coveney.
Similarly, any attempt to revisit the withdrawal agreement (which dates from March 2018) will be resisted - EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier again repeated that in Brussels yesterday.
As Denis Staunton reports in our main piece this morning Mrs May "declined to rule out seeking changes to the text of the withdrawal agreement and has dropped her assertion that any such agreement will include a backstop".
With a raft of amendments being tabled by MPs who wish to allow parliament retake control of the process, the Daily Telegraph reports this morning Jeremy Corbyn has finally relented to pressure from his own party to call for a second referendum. But I'm not so sure if that is the case.
A small chink opened in the European united front yesterday when the Polish foreign minister suggested the backstop be limited to five years. But as Derek Scally and Fiach Kelly report, this idea was quickly rejected by the German foreign minister and by Coveney.
First Dáil meets (again) in the Mansion House
And so to the real first 100 years – yesterday’s very faithful recreation of the first Dáil in the Mansion House.
It looked as close to January 1919 as it possibly could, and every major political leader and parliamentarian was present for what was an important occasion, replete with symbolism and significance.
In a well-crafted speech President Michael D Higgins placed the occasion in its political and historical context.
“The establishment of Dáil Éireann was not only a revolutionary act of national self-determination. It was an act of defiance against an empire that ruled over vast territories and diverse peoples, an assertion that sovereignty belonged not to the crown, but to the Irish people alone,” he said.
“Given the great forces ranged against that claim, the first Dáil represented an act of extraordinary imagination and courage, a courage that would be called upon to be matched and surpassed by the Irish people time and time again in the turbulent and difficult years that followed.”
For his part Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, to use a phrase not in vogue in 1919, followed a similar meme: “The meeting of the First Dáil was a bold exercise in democracy, an assertion that the struggle for Irish independence had the support of the Irish people, and derived its legitimacy from them.”
Pat Leahy also quotes the Taoiseach as saying that moment changed the course of our history. It did indeed.
Not in the way Paul Murphy envisaged though. There was another reason to attack the Labour Party besides water charges and its betrayal of the proletariat by going into government with Fine Gael. Leahy reports the Solidarity TD criticised Labour for not demanding a socialist revolution as had recently happened in Russia.
“The working class must wait no longer,” he said.
Best Reads
Miriam Lord was at the Mansion House yesterday too. Here is her wonderfully atmospheric piece on the day.
Our main lead is germane to the centenary given the promise made by Leo Varadkar to protect our children. This is a worrying statistic from Temple Street Children's Hospital.
Thug an Ceann Comhairle agallamh do Éanna Ó Caollaí don Irish Times. Seo é.
Fintan O'Toole continues his excellent series of columns exploring Brexit.
Playbook
The first of the health-sector industrial actions takes place today, involving a dispute by ambulance drivers, represented by the Psychiatric Nurses Association. Negotiations continue, but it is going to be an uncomfortable six weeks for the HSE and Minister for Health Simon Harris.
Much of the big-picture politics this week will not be in Dublin but elsewhere. Not only in Westminster but in Davos with the Swiss skiing resort paying host to the annual January shindig of the great and the good. Leo Varadkar and Paschal Donohoe will both be there. As will Donald Trump. Maybe he’ll tell us this time if he will grace us with a visit this year.
Dáil
14.00: Leaders’ Questions.
15.02: Taoiseach’s Questions.
15.47: Parliamentary Questions for Minister for Education Joe McHugh.
18.05: Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Probation Judgments and Decisions) Bill 2018. Also Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018.
20.00: Private Members’ Business. The Social Democrats-Green Party Group brings a motion on the national broadband plan.
22.00: Dáil adjourns.
Seanad
14.30: Commencement matters.
15.30: Motion regarding the arrangements on the address to Seanad by GAA president John Horan on January 29th.
16.45: Statements on the Government’s Brexit Preparedness.
18.15: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 - Committee Stage (resumed). 70 hours of debate so far. Another 70 promised as Independent senators continue to filibuster.
Committees
16.00: Communications, Climate Action and Environment. The Strategy and Activities of Inland Fisheries Ireland.
16.00: Select Committee on Budgetary Oversight. Scrutiny of Tax Expenditures.
16.00: Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy.
