Daniel Wiffen<\/a>.<\/p>\nVerona was star-struck. She very politely interrupted Fine Gael\u2019s Joe Neville. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honour, that I …\u201d she began, squinting through the sunlight coming through the glass cupola. \u201cI\u2019m looking up and I think I might be able to see Daniel Wiffen up there. My eyesight is not as good and the light\u2019s shining. I\u2019m not sure who\u2019s with you but you\u2019re most welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Brendan Griffin,\u201d said Joe Neville. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the former deputy Griffin,\u201d said Thomas Byrne. <\/p>\n
\u201cOh, excuse me,\u201d said the Ceann.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a former minister of state,\u201d added Joe. <\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Martin Kenny couldn\u2019t resist. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a Wiffen and a Griffin!\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a big round of applause for Daniel. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve met him many times,\u201d said Deputy Neville. Brendan Griffin, that is. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut to have an Olympic gold medallist there looking down on us is indeed an honour for us all,\u201d he added, congratulating the swimmer on his sporting achievements and thanking him for lifting the nation\u2019s spirits with his inspirational talent.<\/p>\n
The Co Armagh athlete was in Leinster House as part of a delegation from the Federation of Irish Sport. Former minister Griffin was there in his new capacity as a senior adviser with Hanover Communications in Dublin. Wiffen was joined by fellow Olympian Gr\u00e1inne Walsh (the boxer is currently out of action with an ACL injury) and by table tennis Paralympian Colin Judge.<\/p>\n
![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GYNGPZLSVFHV7DGCAXMYJFFLWU.jpg\")
Mary O\u2019Connor, chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sport, boxer Gr\u00e1inne Walsh, Labour TD Alan Kelly, Paralympian Colin Judge, Olympian Daniel Wiffen, Senator Evanne N\u00ed Chuilinn and Claire Louise O\u2019Donoghue of the Federation of Irish Sport <\/p>\n
They were hosted by former RT\u00c9 sports broadcaster and journalist Senator Evanne N\u00ed Chuilinn. The group \u2013 once they ran the gamut of selfie-seeking politicians \u2013 was joined in the restaurant by Sinn F\u00e9in TD Pa Daly, Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Peter \u201cChap\u201d Cleere and Fine Gael Senator Mark Duffy.<\/p>\n
Battlestar Galacticos<\/p>\n
Whatever about the Republic of Ireland v Israel match (the latest is that the match will be played behind closed doors in a neutral venue overseas), the FAI was subject to a big boycott last month when some of Ireland\u2019s finest footballing talents failed to show for a glamour tie featuring the Leinster House Galacticos playing against themselves and a few officials thrown in to make up the numbers. <\/p>\n
Every year, the FAI invites Oireachtas members to play a match on the pristine Aviva turf before the blazers brief the politicians on grassroots football in Ireland, spending plans and growing the game at local level. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s always a lively and enlightening encounter. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody togs out \u2013 it\u2019s a nice, cross-party thing and people kick lumps out of each other. It\u2019s great,\u201d one of the participants told us.<\/p>\n
This year though, while players from the Government parties arrived in Lansdowne Road, Sinn F\u00e9in, the Social Democrats and Labour boycotted the game and FAI briefing. <\/p>\n
\u201cTheir names were already up on hooks in the changing room with their individual kits laid out on the bench but they didn\u2019t turn up.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to our match day whistleblower, \u201csome of them wanted to play but they weren\u2019t allowed by their parties because of the Israel match. But what had that to do with grassroots football?\u201d<\/p>\n
Our informant took particular umbrage over a senior member of the Labour Party, who is a keen football supporter, attending the first half of the friendly between Ireland and Qatar at the Aviva the following night.<\/p>\n
The FAI-Oireachtas tie went ahead on the day, with Abbotstown officials and a few department aides making up the numbers. <\/p>\n
The playing politicians included the Minister of State for Sport, Fianna F\u00e1il\u2019s Charlie McConalogue, along with deputies Peter \u201cChap\u201d Cleere, P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan and Erin McGreehan, and Senators Niall Blaney, Joe Flaherty and Teresa Costello. <\/p>\n
The FG lineout included deputies Frank Feighan, Barry Ward, John Cummins and Brian Brennan, and Senators Paraic Brady, Garret Kelleher and Cathal Byrne.<\/p>\n
Highlight of the game was Blaney leaving O\u2019Sullivan and Kelleher for dead before coolly slotting the ball past \u2019keeper Flaherty, who was described as \u201chaving the reflexes of a sleeping sloth\u201d. <\/p>\n
More celebrations<\/p>\n
And so back to ambassador Kara Owen\u2019s first summer garden party at her Glencairn residence on Thursday night. <\/p>\n
Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien wasn\u2019t there, but his ears must have been burning. His memorable memory lapse at last year\u2019s event, when he kept referring to outgoing ambassador Paul Johnston as \u201cJonathan\u201d until guests roared up at him to stop, was recalled by both the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee, in her opening speech and the ambassador in her reply. <\/p>\n
He\u2019ll never live it down.<\/p>\n
The good relationship between neighbouring countries was further cemented in the speeches, with Kara getting huge applause for her excellent Irish. Her teacher Ailbhe N\u00ed Mhaoilearca watched on with pride. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn fairness, she\u2019s a great student \u2013 one of my best.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was much talk of Ireland\u2019s impending presidency of the Council of the European Union among the political, diplomatic and media types in the crowd. It may be a taste of things to come, but a visit to Dublin in just over a week by European Parliament president Roberta Metsola was a source of great fascination. In a week when Brussels is locked in discussions over the size of the EU\u2019s spending budget, Metsola is travelling with a 71-strong entourage for her overnight visit. <\/p>\n
It had been hoped that the Sycamore Room in Government Buildings could be used for talks with her Irish hosts. But there isn\u2019t much hope of that now. And then they all have to be billeted somewhere. Maybe a community centre might make a hall available.<\/p>\n
![\"British](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4PXP5HFQ2ZAFDBECIEV4CZRTQU.jpg\")
British ambassador Kara Owen hosting the king’s birthday part at Glencairn House in Dublin <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, amid all the talk of where the relationship between Ireland and Britain stands now, the ambassador revealed one way of judging it. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaving been with an Irishman for over 20 years, I\u2019ve learned a simple truth: the greater the gr\u00e1, the greater the slagging,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so I\u2019ve conducted some deep research of my own \u2013 across media, across comedy, everyday life \u2013 and I can confidently conclude that, based on the levels of slagging directed at Brits and Britain, you must love us very, very, very much.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure it will translate into any support in the World Cup, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a notable Galway contingent at the event \u2013 friends of her husband, William. They included Geraldine Stack, a solicitor based in Meath who was there with one of Willie\u2019s west of Ireland college friends. She cut quite a dash \u2013 floating around the lawn as if she had just stepped from the pages of an Agatha Christie mystery, wearing a midnight-blue cloak and an enormous blue picture hat. <\/p>\n
Michael D Higgins\u2019s former adviser at the \u00c1ras Claire Power was wearing a new hat. She is now the director of Poetry Ireland, so still looking after poets, really. <\/p>\n
The former president is now on the cusp of finishing his second album after his debut Against All Certainty became the highest- grossing spoken word album in Ireland. The follow-up is often called \u201cthe difficult second album\u201d. In the case of Michael D and the spoken word, perhaps not so much.<\/p>\n
Guinness supplied the beer and the company\u2019s \u201cstoutie\u201d machine printed the image of Glencairn House on the head of the pints. Guests were invited to enjoy \u201ca pint on the house and a house on the pint\u201d.<\/p>\n
The finger food on offer included sausage rolls representing England (beef and Stilton), Scotland (haggis and lamb shoulder), Wales (Glamorgan veggie) and Northern Ireland (Pork and Armagh apple with the ambassador\u2019s family recipe for smoked ketchup).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big birthdays all over the place \u2013 official and normal. The annual garden party and Trooping of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[229363,115942,18,117,43448,14370,19,17,8417,54811,45898,4768],"class_list":["post-533079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-colin-judge","tag-daniel-wiffen","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-grainne-walsh","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-king-charles","tag-michael-mcdowell","tag-rossa-fanning","tag-verona-murphy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116741946646575415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/B6MNNITH55EIJJKIAUQFQX5BAM.jpg\")
Former minister of state Brendan Griffin and Olympic gold medallist Daniel Wiffen <\/p>\n