D'you know, I'm getting more interested in Angela Merkel by the day... 

Anyway… I was talking to German architects earlier this week and happened to mention that their leader, Angela Merkel, had been in town a couple of weeks back. With characteristic Germanness, they weren’t aware of the fact. What was she doing in Ireland, they wanted to know? I explained she was promoting a ‘yes’ vote on the Lisbon Treaty which, if we – the Irish - didn’t endorse it would mean that Europe would be facing into some kind of dark chasm.

‘What is this Lisbon Treaty?’ they asked, ‘who ever even never heard of it?’