Where in the World...

I was just about to start a guessing game about where all the members of government would be going this St. Patricks weekend. Unfortunately the Irish election blog beat me to it.

The list:

* Taoiseach Bertie Ahern: Washington
* Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern: Washington
* Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell: Savannah
* Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan: New York
* Minister for Finance Brian Cowen: Chicago
* Minister for Transport Martin Cullen: San Francisco
* Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey: Dallas and Houston
* Minster for Education Mary Hanafin: Boston
* Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív: Phoenix
* Minister or State Patthe Cope Gallagher: Atlanta and Philadelphia
* Minister for the Environment Dick Roche: Toronto,
* Minister for Arts Sport and Tourism John O’Donoghue: London
* Minister for Health Mary Harney: Norway, Sweden and Denmark
* Minister for Social and Family Affairs Seamus Brennan: Italy and the Holy See
* Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt: Warsaw
* Minister of State Brendan Smith Manchester
* Minister of State Seán Power: Birmingham
* Minister of State Conor Lenihan: Edinburgh
* Minister of State Mary Wallace: Vienna
* Minister of State Brian Lenihan Paris
* Minister of State Noel Ahern: Bucharest
* Minister of State Seán Haughey: Moscow
* Minister of State John Browne: Hong Kong, Shenyang, Shanghai and Beijing
* Minister of State Tim O’Malley: Tokyo and Osaka
* Minister of State Frank Fahey: India
* Ministers of State Michael Ahern: Kuala Lumpur and Singapore
* Ministers of State Batt O’Keeffe: Vietnam
* Ministers of State Tom Parlon: South Africa
* Attorney General Rory Brady: Buenos Aires

Fortunately we still have Willie O'Dea, the country's resident Charlie Chaplin look-a-like, and gun-toting Minister for Defence. We'll have a dictatorship before the weekend is over I'm sure. With Michael Martin as the inept sidekick.