A clear winner...
KATHERINE Zappone was walking the streets alone in New York while Micheal Martin was delivering a keynote speech at the UN just 20 minutes away.
Ms Zappone has been engulfed in a number of political controversies this summer.
Her cancelled appointment to a UN Special Envoy led to a vote of no confidence in Simon Coveney — which was defeated.
She has not been seen in public, but we tracked her down and confronted her over the weekend.
The ex-Minister for Children left her plush apartment in Manhattan shortly before 11am on Friday while the UN General Assembly was in full swing down on First Avenue.
She was dressed down compared to the way she used to appear when she was a minister, wearing a pair of blue jeans, runners, a white blouse and light grey jacket.
She topped this off with a pearl necklace and a pair of her favourite earrings that she has been pictured often wearing in the past. We approached Ms Zappone and asked her if she would like to speak to us but she refused.
The ex-politician lives on the swanky Upper West Side in New York city, just a few blocks from Columbia University, a member of the Ivy League of top US colleges.
The doorman of the 14- storey apartment block she lives in, Eddie, also chatted to us.
Politician
He said: “She’s a nice woman, I didn’t know she was a politician.” Ms Zappone’s stroll around New York came just days after she “respectfully declined” to appear before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions on the controversial special envoy role.
Her decision not to appear before the Foreign Affairs committee was slammed by a number of prominent TDs.
Meanwhile, Mr Martin was delivering Ireland’s national message at the UN’s headquarters on First Avenue and 42nd Street.
Mr Martin did not meet Ms Zappone last week, despite being just minutes away from her home for six days.
Nor did Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, who said he was too busy.
VODKA is Ireland’s favourite spirits drink, it has emerged.
A report from Drinks Ireland|Spirits showed how while sales declined by 10.2 per cent last year, vodka enjoyed a 31.6 per cent market share in the spirits category.
This was followed by Irish whiskey (26.3 per cent market share), gin/ Irish gin (14.04 per cent), and rum (7.4 per cent).
Gin has become increasingly popular in Ireland in recent years.
Sales fell 6.6 per cent between 2019 and 2020, but grew by 184 per cent between 2014 and 2019.