WHEN the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. This could be the new motto for Maire Geoghegan Quinn, who led a media posse through the fruit and veg in Galway Shopping Centre yesterday.
"There was never such interest in lettuce before," she teased, as photographers clicked their cameras and RTE moved in for the close up.
The woman who left politics because of media intrusion into her family life was clearly enjoying all the attention, and the opportunity to poke some fun back.
Her husband, John Quinn, weighed potatoes and placed them in the shopping trolley as a smiling Maire looked through the fruit. She said at the outset she was giving no interviews but, professional as ever, she composed herself for a moment before offering RTE a quick soundbite.
"I'm shopping and looking after my family today, and enjoying the freedom," she said.
Then she moved on to the toiletries section, pausing to examine the selection of shampoos. "Are you going for the `Wash and Go'?" asked The Irish Times.
She laughed heartily before replying. "You're a chancer, now, so you are," she said.
But one response she did give seemed to indicate she would not turn from the path she has chosen. Asked if the wave of sympathy for her in west Galway might cause her to change her mind, she called back over her shoulder, "I'm not open to persuasion."
The reply was clear, firm and given without hesitation. It signalled an end to what may be Maire Geoghegan Quinn's last media circus - until she publishes her memoirs.
The Galway deputy has a long memory, and is known to have kept a diary of her life in politics. Her 22 years in Dail Eireann encompassed some of the most turbulent adventures and misadventures in contemporary Irish society. If she does decide to kiss and tell, it will be a blockbuster.
And the prospect of a revealing glimpse at the machinations within Fianna Fail during the past 20 years was the focus of much speculation in Galway yesterday.