Hostile questions do not deter FF faithful

Senator Dan Kiely had written more than 1,000 letters beseeching Listowel area cumann members to turn out for the candidate. Radio Kerry's lobby was already buzzing with the faithful at 10 in the morning. They poured into the street after the interview, a sea of tweedy caps and woolly jumpers, a selection of Jackie Healy Rea-type hairstyles, and up front, the men in suits. The mood was high.

"Strong, wasn't she?" commented a fan, and they all smiled dreamily. What more could you ask? This was Fianna Fail on a roll. But even the Fianna Failers can't account for everything.

A Tralee woman, Anne Hegarty, was out to buy pyjamas when the candidate hove into view. Unfortunately for the latter, Anne Hegarty is a woman with a mission. The mother of four wanted to lambaste someone about the new sex education programme. And, praise the Lord, here was the governing parties' candidate.

"It's not a particularly explicit programme in the North," the candidate said, "and all the parents were asked could they live with it."

"Well, it's very, very explicit here," Ms Hegarty said firmly.

"I honestly haven't tracked that now," Prof McAleese said a bit uncertainly.

"Mary, Mary, you're wanted over here," came the plaintive cry from Denis Foley, playing sweeper and defence. But Ms Hegarty pressed ahead: "Well, you should be more familiar with the situation down here - you are the Government candidate."

Still, looking on the bright side, the good news was that their woman was the 2/7 favourite in Ladbrokes nearby. And they milled around her, showing great delight in the close-ups.

"Yes, I like her," said a prim little woman. "She has the education, after all."

"What's going on?" asked a woman driver who yielded to the candidate's cars.

"Oh, I wouldn't have let her out if I'd known," she said with a big laugh when told. "She's a bit narrow-minded for me."

In Listowel, Dan Kiely's hard work paid off handsomely. They queued to shake her hand in the Listowel Arms. A Roscommon woman told her she had danced near McAleese's ancestral home. "I danced at the Four P's myself," she laughed, an allusion, thought the woman, to a ballroom in Carrick on Shannon. And though battling serious illness, John B. Keane summoned up his old charm to come to the Arms and shake her hand.

"I came down to welcome her to the town," he said, "but I'd come to welcome the others, too. I missed Dana because I was on a bit of a holiday."

As usual, the candidate had unearthed links with the territory. "Though my husband worked with Aer Lingus and we could have travelled anywhere, we chose Kerry for our honeymoon. . ."

For her link with Tralee RTC, Prof McAleese had to resort to the Sigerson Cup, a GAA competition won by them this year - a cup also captured by a team that included her husband, Martin, back in 1971. A few hundred students sat and listened politely but afterwards the questions were hostile.

Noreen O'Mahoney - last year's students' president - said it was "disgraceful" that the voting day could not be changed to accommodate students, who came from all over the State.

The candidate said she had no power over the date - "I wish things were otherwise". O'Mahoney was unappeased: "But if you're backed by the Government, obviously you have influence. If you're so interested in getting around the third-level colleges, why not get together with the other candidates and do something about the polling date?"

The candidate also had to defend the profusion of McAleese posters around the town: "We see them as having a value - they are valuable, are useful." And there the questions died.

"She's a good talker," said Noreen O'Mahoney afterwards, "and I think the students probably had a lot more questions but given the way my question was passed off, I'm sure they saw no point in asking any more."

Outside, though, the adulatory grassroots were waiting, fired enough to lift her on their shoulders and carry her all the way to the Aras themselves.