On Monday night the outgoing executive of the Olympic Council of Ireland [OCI] held one of its final meetings. Already reduced by post-Rio resignations and divided by their feelings for Pat Hickey, much of the meeting was bogged down in a row that had no life outside the room. The minutes of previous meetings presented by Dermot Henihan, the OCI’s general secretary, were contested. One executive member says they were “barely legible”. When that was resolved there wasn’t much time for any other business.

In any case, their time is nearly up. Nominations for next month’s elections closed on Wednesday and were expected to be made public on Friday. Members of the executive received an email on Wednesday to say that everything was in order