AS Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney contemplate who should be among the Taoiseach's 11 nominees to the Seanad, spare a thought for the 100-plus candidates traipsing the country now in search of a stroke of the pen from a county councillor.
FG's Fergus O'Dowd, who missed a Dail seat in Louth by 381 votes, reckons he will have travelled 10,000 miles when polling closes the first week in August and that's the norm. O'Dowd, a brother of Niall O'Dowd, the peacebroker and Irish-American publisher, is an environmental, anti- Sellafield campaigner and former Mayor of Drogheda.