Big birthdays all over the place – official and normal. The annual garden party and Trooping of the Canape to celebrate the official birthday of the British monarch was held at ambassador Kara Owen’s residence in south Dublin on Thursday. His normal birthday is in November.And while Thursday’s soirée was to mark his official one, the official official one is actually today (Saturday).Glad to clear that one up.King Charles III was 77½ this week. This makes him older than Michael McDowell. Belated happy big birthday (but not a roundy one) to Senator McDowell, who has just turned 75. The veteran politician and senior counsel had a big do a couple of weeks ago at his Ranelagh pile, which meant most of the guests – including a large contingent of Law Library grandees, didn’t have too far to stagger home afterwards.Last weekend, it was the turn of another legal bigwig to celebrate a milestone birthday. Some people were joking at the Attorney General’s party that if he were a cake, he’d eat himself. Which sounds a tad harsh. However, it seems that a very special confectionery tribute was the centrepiece of the bash to celebrate Rossa Fanning’s 50th. The AG was immortalised in cake. Not quite a life-size version, we are told, but apparently very realistic in a cakey sort of way.And congratulations also to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, whose big roundy birthday at the start of this week was rumbled by Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy. Helen McEntee has just turned 40. On Wednesday afternoon, she arrived in the chamber for the second stage of the Occupied Territories Bill as Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke was leaving following a session of statements on tourism. On his way out the door he turned and said something to his Fine Gael colleague. The Ceann Comhairle was earwigging. “I wasn’t meant to hear that, but sure, happy birthday as well,” said Verona. “There you go. Your secret’s out.”Good sportsSport was a big issue in the Dáil this week, with debates on Opposition motions calling for the upcoming Nations League matches between the Republic of Ireland and Israel to be called off.Former minister of state Brendan Griffin and Olympic gold medallist Daniel Wiffen But it wasn’t all soccer-related.Midway through the debate on excluding Israel from sporting fixtures, the Ceann Comhairle got a tip-off from Minister of State Thomas Byrne that there was a VIP in the public gallery – Olympic swimming gold medallist Daniel Wiffen.Verona was star-struck. She very politely interrupted Fine Gael’s Joe Neville. “It’s an honour, that I ...” she began, squinting through the sunlight coming through the glass cupola. “I’m looking up and I think I might be able to see Daniel Wiffen up there. My eyesight is not as good and the light’s shining. I’m not sure who’s with you but you’re most welcome.”“It’s Brendan Griffin,” said Joe Neville. “It’s the former deputy Griffin,” said Thomas Byrne. “Oh, excuse me,” said the Ceann.“He’s a former minister of state,” added Joe. Sinn Féin’s Martin Kenny couldn’t resist. “It’s a Wiffen and a Griffin!”There was a big round of applause for Daniel. “I’ve met him many times,” said Deputy Neville. Brendan Griffin, that is. “But to have an Olympic gold medallist there looking down on us is indeed an honour for us all,” he added, congratulating the swimmer on his sporting achievements and thanking him for lifting the nation’s spirits with his inspirational talent.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 Gráinne Walsh (the boxer is currently out of action with an ACL injury) and by table tennis Paralympian Colin Judge.Mary O’Connor, chief executive of the Federation of Irish Sport, boxer Gráinne Walsh, Labour TD Alan Kelly, Paralympian Colin Judge, Olympian Daniel Wiffen, Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn and Claire Louise O’Donoghue of the Federation of Irish Sport They were hosted by former RTÉ sports broadcaster and journalist Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn. The group – once they ran the gamut of selfie-seeking politicians – was joined in the restaurant by Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly, Fianna Fáil’s Peter “Chap” Cleere and Fine Gael Senator Mark Duffy.Battlestar GalacticosWhatever 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’s 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. 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. It’s always a lively and enlightening encounter. “Everybody togs out – it’s a nice, cross-party thing and people kick lumps out of each other. It’s great,” one of the participants told us.This year though, while players from the Government parties arrived in Lansdowne Road, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and Labour boycotted the game and FAI briefing. “Their names were already up on hooks in the changing room with their individual kits laid out on the bench but they didn’t turn up.” According to our match day whistleblower, “some of them wanted to play but they weren’t allowed by their parties because of the Israel match. But what had that to do with grassroots football?”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.The FAI-Oireachtas tie went ahead on the day, with Abbotstown officials and a few department aides making up the numbers. The playing politicians included the Minister of State for Sport, Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue, along with deputies Peter “Chap” Cleere, Pádraig O’Sullivan and Erin McGreehan, and Senators Niall Blaney, Joe Flaherty and Teresa Costello. The FG lineout included deputies Frank Feighan, Barry Ward, John Cummins and Brian Brennan, and Senators Paraic Brady, Garret Kelleher and Cathal Byrne.Highlight of the game was Blaney leaving O’Sullivan and Kelleher for dead before coolly slotting the ball past ’keeper Flaherty, who was described as “having the reflexes of a sleeping sloth”. More celebrationsAnd so back to ambassador Kara Owen’s first summer garden party at her Glencairn residence on Thursday night. Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien wasn’t there, but his ears must have been burning. His memorable memory lapse at last year’s event, when he kept referring to outgoing ambassador Paul Johnston as “Jonathan” 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. He’ll never live it down.The good relationship between neighbouring countries was further cemented in the speeches, with Kara getting huge applause for her excellent Irish. Her teacher Ailbhe Ní Mhaoilearca watched on with pride. “In fairness, she’s a great student – one of my best.”There was much talk of Ireland’s 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’s spending budget, Metsola is travelling with a 71-strong entourage for her overnight visit. It had been hoped that the Sycamore Room in Government Buildings could be used for talks with her Irish hosts. But there isn’t much hope of that now. And then they all have to be billeted somewhere. Maybe a community centre might make a hall available.British ambassador Kara Owen hosting the king's birthday part at Glencairn House in Dublin Meanwhile, amid all the talk of where the relationship between Ireland and Britain stands now, the ambassador revealed one way of judging it. “Having been with an Irishman for over 20 years, I’ve learned a simple truth: the greater the grá, the greater the slagging,” she said. “And so I’ve conducted some deep research of my own – across media, across comedy, everyday life – 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.“I’m not quite sure it will translate into any support in the World Cup, though.”There was a notable Galway contingent at the event – friends of her husband, William. They included Geraldine Stack, a solicitor based in Meath who was there with one of Willie’s west of Ireland college friends. She cut quite a dash – 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. Michael D Higgins’s former adviser at the Áras Claire Power was wearing a new hat. She is now the director of Poetry Ireland, so still looking after poets, really. 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 “the difficult second album”. In the case of Michael D and the spoken word, perhaps not so much.Guinness supplied the beer and the company’s “stoutie” machine printed the image of Glencairn House on the head of the pints. Guests were invited to enjoy “a pint on the house and a house on the pint”.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’s family recipe for smoked ketchup).