Fleet Street had a quiet enough holiday period, but still came up with school secretaries forced to sign on at yuletide and the seasonal threat from Paul 'Jingle' Bell. It just wouldn't be Christmas without it. 

The Indo also treated us to a blood-curdling interview with NBRU chief Dermot O'Leary, while Congress was out on executive pay.

Fórsa was in on the festive fun, commenting on the (eventual) enactment of legislation to allow public servants work beyond age 65. And our 2018 call for a shorter working week is still getting welcome traction in some unlikely places.

Earlier, two of the union's organisers were among those highlighting FG's habit of taking credit for worker protections they initially obstructed (new measures against zero-hour contracts in this case).

Sadly, we also got news that banner-maker, thespian, trade unionist, raconteur and all-round Good Guy Jer O'Leary shuffled off his mortal coil on Stephen's Day. RIP, my good man.

Interestingly, the political correspondents report on today's INMO executive meeting, which will consider industrial action over pay. The Minister for Money wrote about that in yesterday's Sunday Business Post (paywall*),

Elsewhere, the Government is banning single-use plastics in the public service, Tony O'Brien muses on a merger of the health department and HSE (paywall*), and driving test waiting lists are back in the headlines.

If you're suffering from Zen cold turkey you've come to the right place. Nature will treat us to many inspiring sights this year (as always) but this amazing short film of cane toads hitching a desperate ride on the back of a python will be hard to beat.

But I'm also going for TS Eliot's Journey of the Magi (read or listen). Allegedly written in half a day ("I opened a half-bottle of gin, and by the end of the morning both the poem and the gin were finished"), it's topical (if a day out) and also gives me the last word on the Christmas celebrations. Eat your hearts out Hazel and Roisin!

Finally, and as Dessie used to say in his Semperit days, have a Goodyear everyone.

Bernard

* Hard copy available in Communications Unit.