Banotti arrival warms up FG troops

It was billed as the final big rally, the last tonic for the troops before polling on Thursday. But the mood among the elderly Fine Gaelers gathered to greet Mary Banotti outside a pub in Castlebar yesterday was crotchety.

Beneath a nightclub sign promising "late night honky tonk", they banged their hands together to keep warm and complained of the turnout.

"You wouldn't think we put three TDs in the Dail in the last election. It's a bloody disgrace," said one.

The arrival of John Bruton and his wife Finola relieved the gloom a little. They pressed forward to shake hands, many of them addressing him as Taoiseach.

You knew Mary Banotti was on her way when the band struck up. Not a showband, as you might expect in these parts, but a group of drummers with witches' hats and painted faces. "They remind me of the Apaches," said one of the canvassers.

Ms Banotti duly arrived and made her way through the wellwishers to the hall, its entrance framed by a giant painting of a bedenimed backside. Aras," cracked one woman, perhaps ironically.

Things have improved by now and the central rows of seats are filled with a few hundred supporters. Enda Kenny cracks the jokes as MC and the other two Fine Gael TDs, Michael Ring and Jim Higgins, get to speak.

Mr Higgins tells the audience it's only "right and fitting" that Fine Gael has someone in the Park. "And wouldn't justice be done if we had the grandniece of Michael Collins, the greatest patriot in the history of the State, there?"

Mr Higgins says Fine Gael has had five out of 11 Taoisigh, but the prize of President has eluded it. But now it was "tantalisingly close".

John Bruton, the Carlsberg Taoiseach - "probably the best government in the history of the State" goes the introduction - says Ms Banotti's election would mark a decisive move forward towards Ireland's future in Europe.

"What better way to say that Ireland is looking to the future than to elect a member of the European Parliament as our President?"

"Everything about Mary Banotti is European. Even her surname symbolises Ireland's destiny in Europe and its contact with the outside."

Another reason to vote for the Fine Gael candidate is that we all know her.

"There's only one Mary Banotti," Mr Bruton exclaims, in case any impostors have been seen recently.

Finally, after half a dozen warm-up speeches, it's time for the candidate to address the hall. The election can be won, "no ifs, ands or buts," she maintains.

Instead of Mary Robinson's "come dance with me" she promises "tabhair dom do lamh" as her presidential motto. And Fine Gael's version of "tiocfaidh ar lamh" will be "the firm hand of friendship" to both communities.

At the end of her address, she is given a standing ovation, though there's none of the cheering that greeted Michael Ring's speech. Local party members give her flowers and a Foxford rug.