DESPITE the three-line whip in operation in all parties to get the vote out in Tuesday's by-elections, some 400 Fianna Failers made it to Connemara last Saturday to celebrate Maire Geoghegan Quinn's 21 years in the Dail.
Guest of honour, former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, spoke well about Maire's role in the peace process. Also there were MEPs Pat the Cope Gallagher and Mark Killilea, Deputies Brian Cowen, Noel Treacy, David Andrews, Sean Doherty, Brendan Smith, Liam FitzGerald, Eamon O Cuiv, Seamus Kirk, Tom Moffat, Michael Ahern, John Ellis and brother Michael, who is also celebrating his 21st. and Tom Kill and Senators Frank Fahey, Ann Ormonde and Don Lydon.
Party leader Bertie Ahern sent his regrets from the canvass in Donegal and so did Daniel O'Donnell, the hero of the country and western set.
The dinner was interspersed with hours of speeches and ended as a real Connemara evening of dancing, singing and storytelling. The next day out, they said, would be in May when her novel is published. Then there's her diaries, which will hopefully cause a furore, with revelations about the workings of the many cabinets in which she has served. The Coalition partners are already wary - Maire was more hostile to them than most of her colleagues.
Maire made her future plans pretty plain. There was a woman president, she said, a woman party leader, a woman on the Supreme Court and before long, please God, there would be a woman Taoiseach. "Yes,"shouted a wag from the back of the room, "Mary O'Rourke."