Compiled by Shane Hegarty
Would you like a flake with that?
The award-winning blog, Ice Cream Ireland, has set itself the task of getting as many photographs as possible of candidates holding a cone. So far, the total is up to four - with the flake in this particular "99" being the picture of Bertie Ahern posing with a cone while on a walkabout in Killarney.
Run by Kieran Murphy, who has ice cream shops in Killarney and Dingle, the website has also grabbed pictures of Labour's Breeda Moynihan Cronin with a dairy-free raspberry sorbet and the Greens' John Hickey brandishing a caife (espresso and kahlua ice cream with chocolate shavings). And there's a picture of Jackie Healy-Rae with a good old-fashioned vanilla. Somehow, you would never picture him as an espresso and kahlua kind of man.
Quote unquote
"He's substantial enough in size and stature."
- Labour's Ruairí Quinn, at the Texaco Children's Art Awards, admits that he'd paint colleague Willie Penrose, in the nude, if a gun was held to his head.
The grey tigers
Most interest groups find it difficult to get heard above the noise of this general election, so Alone, the charity for the elderly, has made a spoof election ad to get its message across.
It features Doreen Keogh, best known as the Irish neighbour in The Royle Family, standing as "Betty from the Grey Tigers party" and giving a protest speech despite the continuous barking of her dog "Bertie". She asks the voters to remember the concerns of the elderly when they go to the polls and to cast a vote so that "your Granny would be proud of you". It's a persuasive argument. No one likes to disappoint their Granny.
Lose some, win some
Paddy Power is running a book on which candidate running in this election will get the fewest votes. Dartmouth Square's owner Noel O'Gara is 7/1 favourite to come last in Dublin South-East and the entire country. Second favourite: Noel O'Gara again - this time 10/1 to fail spectacularly in Laois/Offaly, where he is also running. Other front runners include TJ Fay in Cavan Monaghan and Christy Carr in Cork East. They will do well to match the 2002 performance of non-party candidate Aidan Ryan, who gained just 19 first preference votes in Limerick East - a stunning 0.04 per cent of the vote.
Still rockin!
To the Rock The Vote website, where the leaders are being very lax in updating their personal blogs. The exception is Enda Kenny, who once again slips into the lingo of the young folk. He previously commented that the Irish "work our butts off". This time, he's throwing some shapes about FF. "In their panic, Fianna Fáil have come over all macho . . . chancing their arm with fear on the economy: 'our government gave you all this and the new government will take it all away'. Who are they kidding?!"
There's nothing like superfluous punctuation to win the hearts of the youth. Give that man a backwards baseball cap.