A poor showing in the opinion polls has put a limp in Fine Gael's step, writes Mark Hennessy
Faced with a choice of beef, salmon or chicken, Fine Gael members, no matter how they tried, could not get away from digesting Friday's opinion poll when 1,000 of them gathered in Dublin's Burlington Hotel on Saturday night.
The repast provided by the Irish Times/tns mrbi poll did not go down well. "I just don't understand this," said one general election candidate.
The party's presidential dinner, planned for months, had been designed to send grassroots members home with a pep in their step for the campaign ahead of next summer's expected election. Instead, the faithful milling around the Burlington's lobby expressed concern among themselves about the poll's findings, although they attempted to present a more positive face to outsiders.
The mood darkened a little further when news of the Sunday Tribune/IMS poll began to circulate, showing Fianna Fáil at 42 per cent - despite all the recent controversy surrounding Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
"Too much weight is falling on one man: Enda. The other senior guys are not pulling their weight," complained one TD attending the event.
Saying the prayer, Tipperary South TD Tom Hayes urged his audience to remember that it was "still a beautiful world". He added: "Forget the polls and enjoy your meal."
Fine Gael's "enforcer", the Carlow/Kilkenny TD Phil Hogan, joked that they had decided to add another prize to the dinner's free draw: "It's a dinner for 25 in Manchester, but you must be good pals with the people in the room, deal only in cash and have no bank account."
The Manchester event, claimed Hogan, showed that the "CJH culture" inside Fianna Fáil was still alive, compared with the "honest leadership" offered by Enda Kenny. Seeming to forget for a moment the golden rule of politics - that the public is never wrong - he went on: "He knows the difference between right and wrong. People can choose. In spite of whatever surveys of public opinion, people can choose a genuine public servant, or self-service."
Aware, no doubt, that his audience was a little deflated and in need of a lift, Enda Kenny produced the kind of speech which was once common in town squares and outside churches.
He had spent a "16-hour day" in Cork South-West last week in the company of the party's two candidates there, sitting TD Jim O'Keeffe and former TD P.J. Sheehan - who have fought as often with each other as with opponents down the years.
"I had the two of them in the back of my car, and we had the fourth miracle of Knock when I heard P.J. say to Jim: 'I could have been your best friend for many years.' Unfortunately, due to the contours of the road down there, Jim had nodded off, and I don't think he heard a word," Kenny said laughingly.
Although accepting that attacks in public on Bertie Ahern seem fated to cut little ice with voters, Kenny did not dilute his message in the company of his own: "The message coming from the centre of government is not the message with which I was raised. It isn't the message for the country that I want to live in. I intend to change that."
Curiously, much of his imagery drew heavily on the performance - or lack of it - of Mayo's footballers against Kerry in the All-Ireland final this year. "Mayo did not perform to my expectations, but the next Mayo team that will take the field - Pat Rabbitte and myself - will not lie down," roared Kenny.
The audience, who usually, being Fine Gael, are a little reluctant to be too demonstrative or rowdy, rose to their feet to cheer their man on.