McAleese campaign plotted like a military operation

Mary McAleese's life for the next four weeks is mapped out in green and red felt-tip on a large white board in her campaign headquarters in Dublin's Lower Mount Street. A Michelin map of Ireland is pinned on the wall next to it. The only thing needed to complete this military operation is a set of colour-coded drawing pins. The trail takes her where lesser candidates might fear to tread. On the list in blue felt-tip is Albert Reynolds's heartland: Longford town and county. The itinerary includes the Aran Islands and at least five more visits to Montrose for radio and television interviews.

Press officer Martin Macken believes the campaign is cranking up a notch or two after the week that McAleese topped the first opinion poll since the race started.

She is "a natural campaigner" he says, and the plan is to keep her out of the office and on the road as much as possible. The five staff in the Dublin office, led by director of elections, Noel Dempsey, start at 8 a.m.

The team reviews media coverage and carries out research. She usually writes her own speeches, Mr Macken says, but "for reasons of time we give her help". But, he insists, there is no "script factory". Her election posters - carrying the much scoffed-at slogan, "building bridges" - went up on Wednesday night. The "backbone of the tour", according to Mr Macken, will be local radio interviews where those potential voters who do not meet the "natural campaigner" in the mart or mall might hear her on the airwaves.

Her advertising campaign is being handled by Dublin agency Arks, which devised Fianna Fail's election advertising. She "went down a bomb" in Navan shopping centre this week, Mr Macken says, and the ploughing championships visit was a triumph on the day she topped the poll.

In the week that Adi Roche defiantly repeated her intention to throw open the doors of the Aras to the children of Ireland, Ms McAleese opened them to virtual visitors. She said a presidential website would "provide a place for Irish people to relate their stories and in turn to have those stories listened to".

The McAleese roadshow includes a driver, her husband Martin, and usually a local Fianna Fail or Progressive Democrat TD representing the constituency she is visiting. A camera crew from Windmill Lane also trails her at times, shooting footage which will probably be edited into a party political broadcast, scheduled for the end of the campaign.

The party is hoping there will be a lot more footage like this week's to choose from and that the warm glow lasts until polling day.