The plinth hit a purple patch in the afternoon. What happened verged on the historic – even if we’re getting a bit blasé in the milestone department these days.
Because, for a while after lunch in Leinster House, unanimity reigned among the main parties. A window of wanton consensus opened up in Irish politics – and Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Labour stepped through it. That's a rarity.
Party leaders and spokespeople trotted out in front of the cameras and microphones to mark the Government’s release of the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage.
Gerry Adams, along with his justice spokesman Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, pledged Sinn Féin's wholehearted support for a Yes vote. "This can only make this State a better place," said Adams, as opposed to his more usual "Look at the state of this place". This time he was shoulder to shoulder with the Coalition.
Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins was hot on his heels. His party would be engaging in "a very robust campaign around the country" and was "fully behind" enshrining same-sex marriage in the Constitution.
Needless to say, he produced his party’s trump card early on – Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. Fianna Fáil, he reminded everyone, has “a proud LGBT record” stretching back to the day in 1993 when MGQ decriminalised homosexual acts.
Some of the party's members in the Upper House may have a different view. Three of the four senators who voted against the Civil Partnership Bill in 2010 were from the party. Two – Labhrás Ó Murchú and Jim Walsh – are still in the Seanad. But Niall was quite certain that this time "there's no equivocation about this".
Back with the Government, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald was briefing media outlets about the nuts and bolts of the referendum and about the forthcoming Children and Family Relationships Bill. The Bill provides for gay couples and cohabiting heterosexual couples with the right to apply to adopt children.
If there was one note of discord on the plinth, it was the Opposition’s view that the Government had been slow off the mark in introducing the Bill. Collins called for the legislation “post-haste”, pointing out that “some people” were trying to confuse the separate issues of a referendum on the question of marriage equality with legislation aimed at strengthening the rights of all children under family law.
The Children and Family Relationships Bill was one of former minister Alan Shatter’s big projects while he was in office: he worked on it for nearly two years.
Yesterday, though, he was in the news for a different reason, having lost his court appeal against the Data Protection Commissioner's decision that he breached data-protection laws by divulging information about Independent TD Mick Wallace on RTÉ's Prime Time. Had things been different, you can be sure he would have been out talking on the plinth. It wasn't to be.
Where the Bill is concerned, Frances Fitz has adopted that particular baby.
Also much in evidence around the environs of the plinth were John Lyons (Labour) and Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael). Two gay TDs, they were keen to point out the differences between the new Bill – which the Minister said yesterday would be done and dusted well in advance of May's marriage referendum – and the stand-alone constitutional question.
It’s strange when it seems almost every politician in Leinster House is in favour of something. Dangerous, perhaps. Thankfully, Senator Rónán Mullen redressed the balance somewhat yesterday when he emerged to do some interviews too.
While very much in favour of equality, he has serious reservations about the whole same-sex marriage thing, which he feels will be damaging to children. Although the law pertaining to children and their families is in the forthcoming legislation, as opposed to the referendum.
Nonetheless, Mullen is very concerned. He speaks with some authority, having spoken at considerably length back in 2010 when the Seanad debated the Civil Partnership Bill. Some commentators and politicians unfairly accused Rónán of filibustering during the 36-hour debate, when he spoke to all 77 amendments, quoting Hamlet at one stage, before the government guillotined the debate.
Mullen strenuously denied he had been engaged in a filibuster. He doesn’t do that. After all the talking he voted against the Bill. But the lack of other publicly dissenting voices around Kildare Street yesterday was unusual. At least Mullen, calling upon the experience he gained during the Civil Partnership Bill, can redress the balance. More voices may join him in time.
With the referendum wording published, the campaign began in earnest. There may not be a concrete date for polling day yet but it’ll be in May. That’s a long way away. Four months of competitive and confrontational cherishing of the childer.
May now might be time to do that round-the-world trip you always wanted. Or join a contemplative enclosed order. And as the rows rage outside, you can sit with your thoughts and ponder that day when unanimity struck and wanton consensus reigned.
