How old is Danny Healy-Rae?That’s a question from a reader, baffled by the Kerry TD’s contribution to Wednesday’s debate on Irish defence and neutrality. According to our Nealons Guide to Irish Politics, the bould Danny will be 72 next month. And here he is, praising Eamon De Valera for not abandoning Ireland’s neutrality during the war:“Dev stood up to Churchill in the second World War and I as a young fella, when I listened to his speech at the time . . . England had oppressed us for more than 800 years and he told Churchill where to go and that he wasn’t taking his dictation when he was asked to forgo neutrality and get involved in the war and open the ports for England. “And I, forever, and many people will always thank Éamon de Valera for taking that stance, for standing up to the powers of the world at that time and holding our neutrality.”Éamon de Valera with Winston Churchill (left) in 1953. Photograph: Royal Irish Academy If he was a chisler during the war, which ended in 1945, he’d be pushing on a bit now.But he’s looking good on it anyway and making plenty of contributions in the Dáil, which is more than can be said for his brother Michael, who has made very few appearances since resigning his junior ministry following the fuel protests.Danny also spoke on Tuesday afternoon when 2½ hours were set aside to hear statements on National Biodiversity Day. He was interested to hear fellow independent Barry Heneghan talk about his efforts to have the native Irish hare returned to Bull Island in Dollymount. The last confirmed sighting of the native species there was 10 years ago.“It would be brilliant,” Barry told the Dáil. He is seeking a State-funded project to reintroduce the hare to Dollymount.The Dublin Bay North TD also spoke of the need to protect the native Irish honeybee.“I love being a beekeeper. I’ve been stung worse in politics,” he said. “The honey bee is being well looked after but it is a solo bee – it’s the bumblebee that we need to protect. No Mow May needs to be used and the Irish public needs to get out and reintroduce those bees.”Danny, a supporter of fox hunting and coursing who has always voted against legislation to outlaw bloodsports, is very fond of the Irish hare too. When TD Paul Murphy tried to bring in legislation banning hare coursing a number of years ago, Danny told Newstalk that people involved in coursing need permission from landowners to net the hares with an understanding that they will bring them back. “I was brought up to love and care for hares . . . I know where they are in our farm,” he said at the time. A hare nuzzles up to its companion in long-term car parking at Dublin Airport. Photograph: Fran Veale The Dublin South West TD didn’t doubt his love for hares but remarked that supporting coursing was a funny way of showing it. But Danny certainly looks out for them and knows where they are on his farm. He began on Tuesday by saying: “I just want to inform Deputy Heneghan that I welcomed four young hares into my field the other morning. Grand specimens!”May those lovely creatures never endure the ordeal of being caught in a courser’s net.Love across the political divideWhen a Fianna Fáil political staffer met a future political staffer for the Social Democrats, it wasn’t a case of love across the political divide but a story of love across the salad bar in Leinster House. Aaron McAllorum was a civil servant in Kildare Street when he met Kim Leonard, who was then working for Fianna Fáil senator Ann Ormonde. She later joined Senator Marc McSharry’s team. Seventeen years and two gorgeous children later, Aaron and Kim have finally decided to tie the knot and are getting married next Friday.He left the civil service soon after they met to become parliamentary assistant to the Soc Dems’ founder and joint leader, Catherine Murphy. He is now with Aidan Farrelly, Catherine’s successor in Kildare North. Kim, meanwhile, moved on from Leinster House. She works with Manuela Spinelli at Euro-Toques Ireland, the organisation of chefs and producers that champions the best of Irish cooking and local produce. And if that name rings a bell it’s because Manuela was the Italian woman who acted as Giovanni Trapattoni’s interpreter when he managed the Republic of Ireland soccer team. Whether the Soc Dems contingent will be doubly celebrating next week remains to be seen – the party had high hopes for candidate Daniel Ennis in the Dublin Central byelection. Aaron vividly remembers the moment he first met Kim in the Dáil canteen. It was a Thursday afternoon. Their eyes met. And he said: “I’d give that coleslaw a miss. It’s been there since Tuesday.” Meanwhile, Albert Dolan, the Fianna Fáil TD for Galway East and the youngest member of the parliamentary party, has announced his engagement to Caroline Murphy, a dentist from Eyrecourt in Galway. They met when they were youngsters studying French and reconnected a few years later. “We actually started seeing each other during Covid,” he told us, as we had visions of another Golfgate-style political controversy erupting again in Galway.“After the restrictions were lifted.” Albert says they haven’t set a date for the wedding yet. He proposed to Caroline in the traditional way, going down on one knee in the beautiful setting of Meelick Weir in East Galway.Great for the photos.Micheál schools President MacronThe Taoiseach is having a great time on his grand tour of Europe in advance of Ireland taking over the EU presidency for six months in July. We can’t wait for the moment he tells the Dáil: “As I said to Pope Leo…”Paris was one of his stops this week when he met President Macron at the Elysee Palace. During his visit, Micheál Martin taught his host a couple of new Irish words. A few weeks earlier, Macron was at the festival of books in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, where he met Irish language teacher Darragh Ó Caoimh. The two men had a lovely chat and Darragh presented the French president with a book of Seamus Heaney’s poetry. Macron told him he only knew one word of Irish and that was “Taoiseach”. The exchange made its way back to the Irish embassy and to the Taoiseach when he hit town on Thursday. Ever the múinteoir, Micheál decided he had to improve Emmanuel’s vocabulary.French president Emmanuel Macron (right) welcomes Taoiseach Micheál Martin ahead of their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday. Photograph: Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Over lunch in the Elysee, he taught him how to say “Sláinte”. And then he taught him another word: “Bainne”. Micheál explained later how this “accidentally” came about. So there he is in, being waited on hand and foot in the Elysee by very efficient French servers when he “looked around for the milk for the tea” and asked: “Is there any bainne left for the tea?”And Emmanuel chirrups “bawn-yah!”, delighted to have learned another Irish word.Micheál, asking for a drop of bainne in the Elysee Palace. What’s he like?A meeting of Gaelic and Gallic flairMicheál told his tea story at an event in the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) on Thursday evening when, together with Conradh na Gaeilge, he presented a copy of An Foclóir Bearla Gaoidheilge (1732) to the CCI. The first English-Irish dictionary, also known as Begly’s Dictionary, was published almost 300 years ago in Paris and its new home is in the Institute’s Old Library collection. The Taoiseach also gave the keynote address at the ‘Tearmann Thar Toinn: The Irish Language in Europe’ conference. It was organised by Darragh Ó Caoimh, who is a senior tutor from Maynooth University’s Centre Irish language centre when hob-nobbing with the president of France. Ambassador Niall Burgess and his wife Marie Morgan were also there for the presentation. Niall, a former general secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, is retiring in a few weeks. At a presentation upstairs in the library attended by the Taoiseach and many of Niall’s friends and colleagues in France, Niall and Marie were presented with original copies of the travel guide Samuel Beckett bought in Greene’s Bookshop in Dublin when he decided to go to France. Sobering comparisons to famineThe Taoiseach came in for ferocious criticism in the Dáil this week when new figures from Daft.ie showed rental costs soaring between December and March after the Government’s reforms came into force. This, coupled with data last week showing evictions in Ireland at record levels, was bad news for the Coalition. While the sobering figures presented the Opposition with something of an open goal, the Taoiseach and his Housing Minister James Browne criticised some TDs for going over the top by comparing the dire situation faced by many tenants now to famine times. Independent TD Brian Stanley went a bit overboard on Tuesday during Sinn Féin’s Motion on Evictions and Rent Hikes. “In support of the motion, I have to say, Minister, that the laissez-faire policies that you’re pursuing have led us to this. And if you’ve read history, which I’m sure you have, in the 1840s, they led to mass evictions and mass starvation. It was pioneered by Sir Charles Trevelyan – British autocrat and this time…” Christopher O’Sullivan, the Minister of State for Heritage, Nature and Biodiversity, had to interrupt. “Mass starvation is being pioneered by who? What are you saying?”Deputy Stanley was just about to tell him. “This time, it’s being pioneered by your party – Fianna Fáil, by Fianna Fáil. Hands off rent, charge whatever you can get and the more get evicted and the more homelessness there is, and the bigger demand, the higher the rent the landlords can charge.”We hope there was no Singing of the Fields of Athenry at last week’s Ard Fheis.Dee Forbes casts a shadowMacaviDee’s a mystery cat, she’s called the hidden paw…And right enough, in pads the hidden presence of MacaviDee Forbes, former RTÉ director general who was central to much of what happened during the Ryan Tubridy flip-flops barter-account days in RTÉ, but unfortunately wasn’t there for medical reasons when her valuable insight into what happened under her watch was sorely needed. She may be long gone from Montrose, but MacaviDee casts a long shadow. So it was only a matter of time before she was mentioned in Wednesday’s Media Committee showdown with the current DG Kevin Bakhurst and his DDG (deppity DG), Adrian Lynch.Bakhurst said Dee Forbes made the decision to classify wildlife presenter Derek Mooney as a producer, which meant he was left off the list of the highest paid presenters until it was revised this year by her successor. Money Goes Wild on One was how some wags were describing the blameless Mooney’s situation.Unfortunately, MacaviDee wasn’t there to confirm this and explain why. Although one couldn’t help thinking – as the DG stressed there are “no side deals” with presenters and the politicians went in hard on broadcasters who are employed to present shows while also providing work through independent companies – that the performers in Leinster House also have lots of side deals going on.From stand-ins for the Ceann Comhairle to Committee Chairs and much more besides, there’s top-ups aplenty on offer for the lads and lassies in the Dáil.