The Greens were out, Sinn Féin was out, Fine Gael had been out, but you wouldn't want to be looking for a Fianna Fáil canvasser, writes Lorna Siggins in Galway
Patrick Pearse, the men of 1916 and the way they might turn in their graves right now. The euro, the State pension and asylum-seekers. Appalling nurses pay and you wouldn't want to go into the regional hospital in Galway. The EU is getting far too big.
Niall Ó Brolcháin, Green Party candidate in Galway West in the last election, is a patient man. It was a stiff, cold moonlit night in the suburb of Knocknacarra and a householder wanted to get a few things off her chest. She seemed to be a "don't know" verging on a No to Nice, but he couldn't get a word in edgeways.
She asked him did he want a cat and continued the monologue. "And by the way," she paused, "can you do anything about the fecking bins?"
For the night that was in it, Ó Brolcháin and fellow party workers hadn't been expecting too much. Ireland was playing Switzerland, children were getting fed before bed. Surprisingly, however, every second door was answered. What's more, people wanted to talk.
Two women had made up their minds and told him so. They were voting No. Ó Brolcháin smiled and asked in each case if they would mind telling him why.
"A protest against this Government," the first woman said.
"If you don't mind me saying so, that's not a reason," Ó Brolcháin said tentatively.
"I know, I know," she said, with the weary reply of someone who felt it was her only option.
"We haven't had too many responses like that. This time, people are much more aware of the issues, but they are still very confused - and it is confusing," Ó Brolcháin told The Irish Times as he and his party colleague, Kieran Cunnane, set a brisk pace through Knocknacarra Park.
A computer consultant with three young children, he is a familiar face in the city, having polled over 3,700 votes, including transfers, in the last general election.
For five weeks, his team had been out working the city, before any other party. In the last couple of weeks, they had co-operated with the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) to ensure that there was no overlap. They had also kept in touch with Sinn Féin for the same reason.
Out west, the liaison was more formal, with a Connemara Against Nice grouping including the Greens, Sinn Féin, Republican Sinn Féin and Seosaimh Ó Cuaig of Údarás na Gaeltachta. There had been some reports of Fianna Fáil activity "back west" but not in the city centre and suburbs. "They are afraid to go out," Sinn Féin's Daniel Callanan claimed.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Rural, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Éamon Ó Cuív, said the party had a presence every day at lunchtime in Galway's Shop Street and councillors and Údarás members were focusing on their areas.
Leaflets were being distributed at churches and in shopping centres, but it was hard for TDs and senators to get out when the Oireachtas was sitting.
Fine Gael had hosted a meeting in Galway on Monday night. Labour was split, with Alderman Catherine Connolly canvassing against the Treaty on the PANA stand. The Progressive Democrats didn't return a call from this reporter. In Mayo, the picture seemed to be similar, with the larger parties opting for the warm atmosphere of local radio studios and public meetings.
Fine Gael poll-topping TD Michael Ring was more forthright. "I am not going to do any dirty work for Fianna Fáil."
However, Fine Gael senator Jim Higgins said he had spent a full five days canvassing, in between Seanad sittings and other engagements. "I am just trying to get across that there is no threat to our neutrality, that Ireland is not going to lose out over commissioners, that agricultural subsidies will remain in place for the next few years and that enlargement will open up huge markets for us and we have nothing to fear," he said.
At the same time, he found people were confused by information from the Referendum Commission.
Quotes from the commission's advertising campaign and from the Government's own information guide were on the lips of one very confident couple back on the Green canvass in Knocknacarra.
They had returned from working in the Netherlands for some years, they told Niall Ó Brolcháin. They were for enlargement and were voting Yes. "And you know that the Dutch government fell today over the enlargement issue?" Ó Brolcháin asked.
There was a pause. He was invited in. For the next 35 minutes, they engaged him in a debate on everything from enhanced co-operation to the size of the commission to aspects of the Seville Declaration and tax harmonisation.
Afterwards, Ó Brolcháin wasn't sure if he had won the toss. But if it comes down to two votes in Galway West . . .