The presidential debate in UCD was jointly hosted by the Literary and Historical Society and Labour students, so it was predictable that Adi Roche confronted a number of aspiring Michael McDowells when she answered some of their questions. Scattered strategically around the crammed lecture theatre, which was so full that Fergus Finlay, her joint campaign manager, could only find a seat on the floor, they asked her to justify her claims to be pro-European in the light of her opposition to the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty; whether she would shake the hand of a dictator; and could she justify her use of a quotation from Mary Robinson on her election literature.
Flushed with nerves, she outlined her opposition to a military alliance in Europe; her reliance, if elected, on guidance from the Department of Foreign Affairs in diplomatic matters; and the endorsement of the former president, Mrs Robinson, of her nomination as European person of the year.
This brought applause from the majority of the audience.
Other, apparently less rehearsed, questions dealt with Ireland's re-entry into the Commonwealth and the deletion of Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. She does not support either.
She also told a questioner she was not receiving any money for her campaign from Bono and Ali Hewson, dear friends though they are.
Earlier, she had set out her stall for the youth vote by seeking to be "the youngest president of the youngest country in Europe".
Reading from a prepared script, she said that the country, half of whose population is under 25, was being asked to make a statement about the confidence it had in young people.
"This generation of Irish people knows that this is a country which has the confidence to hold its head high," she said.
"This generation of Irish people is Irish and proud of it; European and proud of it; citizens of the wider world and proud of it." And she was of that generation, she said, thereby differentiating herself from the other candidates.
Earlier she had addressed a group of even younger people, the pupils of St Tiernan's Community School in Ballinteer, none of whom was likely to have a vote.
In an unscripted speech, punctuated only by occasional gulps for air, she recalled her early involvement in the campaign against a nuclear power plant at Carnsore Point.
She took the pupils, ranging in age from 12 to 16, on a journey around her personal conversion inspired by warnings about nuclear power from Australian aborigines, native Americans and Albert Einstein.
"All I wanted was to have a career to travel, to meet a nice young man, get married, have children and live happily ever after," she told one pupil. "The only bit that came true was meeting the nice young man and marrying him."
What changed the rest of her plan was seeing the film The China Syndrome.
This alerted her to the dangers of nuclear power and then Carnsore Point was planned by the government of the day, protests were organised against it and she realised there was more to life than a career.
Nuclear power did not feature in her walkabout in Dundrum Shopping Centre, where Dick Spring joined Eamon Gilmore of Democratic Left and Labour's Eithne Fitzgerald as part of her entourage.
One woman in Bewleys chatted to her and wished her well. Was she going to vote for her? asked The Irish Times. Adi Roche was a very fine person, but she had been going to vote for Mary McAleese because she felt political experience was needed for the job.
In Quinnsworth the candidate and Dick Spring were asked to take out Tesco cards.
She had already done so, she said. "I'm sure Kristi will in Tralee," the Labour leader said.
"I wouldn't claim to be a regular shopper myself."
In Tallaght Regional Technical College she walked around the restaurant shaking hands and talking to students individually. Her handlers seemed cautiously optimistic about how the campaign was going.
Then on to The Square shopping centre for a quick whirl around the shoppers, offering a pat on the arm here or a word of advice on vegetarian diet there before crossing the city again to canvass commuters in Blackrock.