There were some sore Fianna Fáil heads around Leinster House on Thursday morning. People had been out late. Partying, apparently.

The rumour mill went into overdrive.

There could only be one explanation for this (at least as far as some people were hoping.) The Soldiers of Destiny had been celebrating the performance of their former leader at the banking inquiry, reliving the good old days when the bar lobby reigned supreme in Leinster House and Brian Cowen was its prince.

But while his Fianna Fáil colleagues were pleased with solid Cowen’s performance, they didn’t take off with him for a victory tour of local watering holes after he finished. Instead, the former taoiseach headed straight back to Offaly after the inquiry.

So far, the lacklustre investigation has yielded little in the way of new information. It looks like the Government schemers who fancied the inquiry might cast Cowen and Co as dastardly villains have been far too clever for their own good.

It’s true that Fianna Fáil in government was at the centre of this catalogue of catastrophe and its principals got a lot of things wrong, but Brian Cowen made sure to remind everyone that Fine Gael and Labour were urging them at the time to loosen their stays even more, as opposed to tightening the financial belt.

Unscathed

With Cowen emerging relatively unscathed, Fianna Fáil heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday.

It’s no wonder Micheál Martin was in such good humour when he dropped into the 60th birthday bash for his Bantry-based Senator, Denis O’Donovan.

It was a triple senatorial celebration in the Grafton Lounge – North Dublin’s Darragh O’Brien had just turned 41 while Donegal’s Brian O’Domhnaill is tying the knot shortly “with a woman from the next parish”. His fiancee is Canadian.