This paper examines the interaction between the processes that determine verb initial order in Irish finite clauses and the processes that determine predicate-initial order in verbless clauses. It argues that, regardless of how predicate initial order is determined in verbless clauses, a head movement must be postulated which raises at least adjectival heads (and optionally prepositional heads) from the predicate to a higher inflectional position. The relevant evidence comes from patterns of ellipsis and coordination. The larger context for this discussion is the issue of whether verb initial order (in Irish) should be derived by head movement or by remnant VP-movement