"Well done. I hope you have a double. It might be a lucky week for you." Bookie, Kevin McManus, was remarkably happy about paying out £100, the amount Dana Rosemary Scallon had just won at the races in Galway.
She had bet £20 on Swiss Tune because the horse's name had "tune" in it. The bookie gave her the very favourable odds of 5/1. She refused to describe her win as an omen, but her supporters were taking it as such.
They were certainly encouraged by her welcome at Ballybrit. When she arrived there yesterday afternoon, accompanied by her husband, Damien, and four children, Grace, Ruth, John-John and Robert, she was quickly surrounded by well-wishers.
Two well-dressed middle-aged women came up to assure her of their support. Asked why they were voting for her, one said: "I like the way she speaks for people on the margins. She'll be someone people can relate to and feel they can write to about their concerns." Her friend said: "She won't just smile for the cameras, she'll smile for everyone. I like her stand for family values and for religious values."
Earlier, Dana went to Mass in Galway Cathedral and afterwards canvassed worshippers. Maire Ui Bhraonain, from Moycullen, who organised her trip to Co Galway, said the priest was not aware she would be at the Mass, and the organisers did not want to exploit it for electoral purposes.
"I've become anti-establishment," Mrs Ui Bhraonain told journalists. "I was raised in a very conventional way but the establishment has moved away from me. There is no politician who represents me now." Ms Ui Bhraonain said she was now involved in the anti-abortion movement.
However, the priest in Moycullen, Father Sean Foy, had been told she was attending Mass in his church. "Last week I said if I wanted to draw a crowd I should have a show, I should have the Spice Girls. Well, instead we have a nice girl," he told the overflowing congregation, adding that she would do the reading.
As she arrived, the text was given to her by Mr Maurice Whelan, principal of the local national school and one of the organisers of her visit.
It was from Jeremiah, and included the verse, Proclaim! Praise! Shout! The Lord has saved his people. The Psalm, also read by the candidate, took up the same theme of deliverance: When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage it seemed like a dream/ Then was our mouth filled with laughter, on our lips there were songs.
Father Foy told The Irish Times that there was a very strong antiabortion group in Moycullen, which had organised her visit. "I couldn't be involved," he said.
Dana emerged from the church to find Eamon O Cuiv outside with a number of Fianna Fail activists, loudspeakers, and some very large posters of Mary McAleese.
"We'll let her have a go on the mike if she wants," he said, before urging people in Irish and English to vote for Mary McAleese and to vote Yes in the referendum.
She declined the offer of the mike, though she chatted to him for a while.