YOU can't help feeling a certain sympathy for the Democratic Unionist Party for having to issue a statement shortly before 7am last Thursday, declaring they were "unable to support" the agreement reached between the British government and Brussels.
But it reflected the frantic pace of events since Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson had their fateful meeting 'on the Wirral', on October 10.
The specific venue for their discussion was Thornton Manor and, looking it up on the internet, I discovered that the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon have all stayed there.
Since what's good enough for the royals might also suit a republican like me, I checked the website Booking.com.
This gave the cost of a one-bedroom apartment for two adults next Saturday night as €329 (about £284) with "extra-large double bed". Sorry, but that's a little outside my price range, folks.
In the joint statement by the two prime ministers after their Thornton Manor talks, the line which attracted most attention was that "they could see a pathway to a possible deal".
That word "pathway" caught the media's imagination. Using the term "road" would make it look too easy, whereas the word "opening" would be lacking in ambition.
"Pathway" conjured up the image of two friendly nations exploring new ground together.
It's what the playwright Sean O'Casey would call "a daarlin' word" and, if it was some civil servant who came up with it, that person should be a candidate for promotion.
Rather less focus was placed on the next sentence, which read: "Their discussions concentrated on the challenges of customs and consent."
That's where this reader, at least, started to feel a little depressed, reflecting that it was all very well to portray two prime ministers joining together to bring an end to the wearisome Brexit saga, but the devil would be in the detail.
It was a relief therefore, when it turned out that a creative approach, in line with previous media reports, was being taken to the customs issue.
Instead of a bitter and hostile break-up, there would be an amicable divorce. Northern Ireland would de jure leave the EU customs union but remain in it de facto.
Given the repetitive to-ing and fro-ing between the EU and UK it was gratifying to see the old sparring partners from London and Dublin getting together to sort things out.
Yes, there have been painful moments in a relationship that goes back 850 years to the Norman invasion of 1169, but we do understand each other - up to a point, anyway.
It is still too early to say whether it will all work out in the end, but Leo Varadkar has certainly benefited in domestic political terms.
An Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll conducted immediately after the Wirral get-together showed that the Taoiseach's satisfaction rating had soared by 15 points to 51 per cent. Dream territory for any politician.
I am writing this ahead of the Saturday parliamentary deliberations but even a rejection of the deal by MPs is unlikely to halt the momentum that started on the Wirral.
Whatever the weekend outcome at Westminster, there is growing speculation about early general elections on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Until recently the widespread feeling was that it would not take place in the south until late spring of next year.
Since the Wirral Walkabout, however, that feeling has changed and there is an increasing focus on Friday November 22 or 29.
The latter date is the one pencilled-in for the holding of four by-elections to Dáil Éireann.
The vacancies were created by the May 24 elections to the European Parliament when four TDs won seats in Strasbourg, leaving vacancies to be filled at Leinster House.
Fine Gael would have a fair chance of winning one of those four seats in a by-election but the other three would be more problematic.
So it might not be a great day for the party that leads the current government.
However, a general election where the Taoiseach's reputation was at a high level could turn out quite well, especially in border constituencies.
But we must remember that, as one of Johnson's predecessors, Harold Wilson famously said and as Brexit has proven again and again, "A week is a long time in politics."
Ddebre1@aol.com