On the campaign trail: Immigrants, tourists, shoppers - no one is safe from the Dana and Marian Harkin charm offensive in Galway, writes Lorna Siggins.
"Dana, you are so beautiful. My dad is just obsessed with you. Ever since the Eurovision. You are gorgeous. You are a pet," a young woman screams, grabbing her to give her a kiss. Dana smiles and hands over a leaflet.
"I am going to put her in a bottle and carry her round," the MEP quips.
Dana and her team do an impressive canvass. A group that includes her brother, John Browne, her sister, Susan Stein, and several young women armed with leaflets moves out from Eyre Square to the west of the city. All the young women have the same mission - to run ahead and ask people if they would like to meet Dana.
Women flock to her, hug her, promise to give her their number one. A woman whose 20-year-old daughter requires full-time care wants to ask her about the carer's allowance. "We are starting a lobby of women and carers in Europe. Carers are just not supported," replies Dana.
Minutes later, her canvassers steer her to talk to a woman from the Congo. One of the team has fluent French and has a quick chat about the campaign. "She has a vote," Dana is told. The MEP admires the woman's dress, gives her the Bill Clinton arm grip, and takes her hand.
A young student stops to observe the encounter. "Here we go, again . . . all kinds of everything." He grins and walks away.
As Dana walks down the street, she expresses disappointment at the format of RTÉ's Questions and Answers the night before. Western issues such as Shannon Airport and its future were not discussed.
She is similarly disappointed at the "lack of debate and information" on the European constitution. "The Taoiseach of this country is going to be pushing this through in a few weeks and there has been no discussion. Similarly, there has been no discussion on the citizenship referendum, she says. "It has just been bounced on us without information, and there is total confusion."
What is her stance on it? She pauses. "I will vote Yes, but I feel the timing is wrong. I will vote for it because we are a small country with scarce resources, and there is a breeding discontent about housing lists, health.
"Irish people are not racist, but there is a sense of injustice. We are far better to have a policy where we have an allotment of places for people. And there are always going to be the hard cases, which we should never turn away. People who are refugees and who are here already are having a hard enough time," she says. "They don't need an added difficulty."
Canvassing a few streets away, Dana's Independent rival, Sligo-Leitrim TD Marian Harkin, is much less ambivalent on the issue. She intends to vote against the Government's amendment and is very critical of the referendum's timing.
"To rush to amend the Constitution without having had an all-party committee and a Green Paper, and to do this at the behest of other EU states, is a big mistake," she says.
She says she does not believe in "hedging" on the referendum issue like "other candidates" in the constituency. "What sort of politician would I be if I wasn't straight about this?"
Her uncle, John Gilmartin, nods. It is her honesty that appeals to younger voters, he says. Though retired as a Garda superintendent and out of uniform, Mr Gilmartin is a major asset to the Sligo woman when canvassing in Galway. As he walks with her up Quay Street, just across the Corrib from where he once worked, people stop to shake his niece's hand and chat.
A teacher who once worked in Europe wants to know what political grouping Marian Harkin will join if she is elected. A couple from Tullamore, Co Offaly, won't be able to vote for her, but congratulate her on her placing in recent opinion polls. "You need 20 per cent though, Marian, 20 per cent," the man insists. "Well, two 16 per cent placings does give my canvassers great encouragement," she says.
However, she doesn't take too much notice of polls. "In my first European campaign, back in 1999, I was on 9 per cent one week and yet we still beat a junior minister," she says, remembering that fateful count back then in Bundoran when the Fianna Fáil candidate, Minister of State Noel Treacy, failed to take the second seat and when she was just pipped by Dana Rosemary Scallon.
This time the North-West count will be in Letterkenny. The constituency extends to Clare, and Fianna Fáil's Tony Killeen has attacked her that morning on local radio in the Banner county over Objective One status. A young man who was too busy to talk to her when he spotted her first chases her back up the street and apologises. He is from Ennis.
She is delighted. "You know that James Breen is backing me," she says, referring to the Clare Independent TD. "I know him, he's my neighbour," the young man says, shaking her hand and wishing her luck. He hasn't his mind made up, he admits, but "I'd prefer to see an Independent".
Ms Harkin knows she is going to meet as many tourists as voters. Two English couples wonder how she is going to finance it all. "I took out a bank loan of €70,000 and asked my credit union for €20,000," she says. They look aghast.
As John Gilmartin continues to greet friends and acquaintances, Ms Harkin is approached by Michael Coyle of Galway Chamber of Commerce. He wants to know what she is "going to do for infrastructure" in the west.
She reminds him of her criticism of the Government for its underspend in the Border, Midland and Western region, and the consequent growing east-west economic divide.
Mr Coyle has the facts at his fingertips. "At 9.30 a.m., every passenger train in this State is east of the Shannon."
As she continues her quick walkabout before heading up to Dublin to the Dáil, nobody mentions the unofficial blessing earlier in the week from the Tánaiste, Ms Harney.
The Progressive Democrats leader said she believed PD members in the north-west would support Ms Harkin, and would probably support Fianna Fáil's Eoin Ryan in Dublin.
Is she going to join the PDs? "Is Eoin Ryan going to join the PDs? That's my answer," she says with a laugh.