THE hustings loom. Knocking on doors, baring the soles of the feet, even the soul itself. It's not easy, but then if you don't like the heat you should stay out of the kitchen. Mr Jim Kemmy TD, a former mayor of Limerick - his beloved city - is ready for action.
A stone mason by trade, and a walker betimes, he has a literary bent. He likes to chronicle the progress of the city, and has done so, memorably, in his book The Limerick Anthology. I joined him once on a section of the walk he was doing from Cork to Limerick.
His companion was Bishop Edward Darling. They called it the Church State walk, if you don't mind, and received great support from Mr Pat Hickey and his Limerick Walkers' Association. The redoubtable Mr Kemmy, not a lightweight by any stretch of the imagination, breezed through it and hardly stopped for breath. The bishop was no slouch either.
At the recent Labour Party conference in Limerick, Mr Kemmy wrote in the catalogue welcoming delegates about some of his experiences: "There are, of course, other occupational hazards. In the general election of November 1982 I was bitten twice by a terrier. And to make matters worse, I lost my Dail seat into the bargain! But electioneering is not all complaints and headaches, and there are some benefits to be gained from the whole experience.
"During my campaigns, I often find myself in pleasant, out of the way places. I also renew acquaintances with people I haven't met for 20 or 30 years. And depending on the time of the election, I see Limerick in a variety of moods and colours. As a mason, I enjoy studying the variety of brick and stone buildings when I approach to knock on the front doors. The Limerick city skyline is dominated by the neo Gothic spire of St John's Cathedral and continues to have a fascination for me. As I make my way through the streets and avenues of the city, I like to recall the topographical references in poetry and prose by Limerick writers who walked these thoroughfares before me," he wrote. And that's exactly what he has done in his anthology, which is up there in the bestseller list.
IT looks at Limerick through its sporting history, its poetry, its writers and its history. In his preface his writes: "Over the years in reading books and articles about Limerick and its people, two pieces of writing have remained firmly in my mind. John Ferrar, Limerick's's first major historian, and Kate O'Brien, the city's most famous novelist, lived about two centuries apart but they had a common bond of enthusiasm and tolerance in their writings."
And he quotes Kate O'Brien: "As I write these words, I am long out of sight of St John's spire, but I imagine and I hope that Limerick is fast asleep this minute, and the Shannon running quietly past Barrington's Pier. I read in the Times this morning that someone was dead, `late of Castleconnell, Co Limerick'. It is surprising how often Limerick is named in this great London newspaper. Over the years I have come to the opinion that the place averages three appearances to six issues! Extraordinary.