Last weekend was big for celebrity birthdays. Taoiseach Micheál Martin turned 66 on Sunday, sharing the date with Madonna (68).

When you think about it, there are many parallels between the two ageing but still sprightly performers. Both were stars early. Micheál in Ógra Fianna Fáil and then winning a seat aged just 28; Madonna with Like a Virgin. Both are notoriously healthy eaters. Madonna (People magazine tells me) follows a strict macrobiotic diet of brown rice, rolled oats, wholemeal pasta and bread, vegetables and fruit, beans, seeds and nuts, along with fish and meat “every now and then”. Micheál, who patrols the Dáil restaurant keeping an eye on people’s diets, would love this. She should invite him over for dinner.

Both are flourishing in the late phase of their careers. Madonna has won 11 nominations for the MTV Music Awards for her recent album, while Micheál triumphed in the 2024 election to lead his party into Government for the second time and is now leading Ireland’s EU presidency, which he loves.

True, there has been the odd flop. Jim Gavin turned out to be a disastrous presidential candidate last year. Madonna’s 2003 anti-war album, American Life, ran foul of the patriotic mood in the US after 9/11.

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