Ahern campaign:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's campaigning up to now may have lacked some of the star appeal of past election battles, but Drogheda yesterday proved that he can still draw the crowds. Mark Hennessyand Seán MacConnellreport.
Following his welcome for Stormont First Minister Ian Paisley in nearby Oldcastle, Ahern headed for the Scotch Hall shopping centre in the Louth town in buoyant good humour.
Greeting party supporters, he threw himself into the canvass with vigour, getting the warmest response seen during his national tour so far.
It may have had something to do with the fact that there were so many Dublin accents in earshot.
Drogheda has become part of the capital's commuter belt over the last five years, with Dublin natives fleeing in search of cheaper housing.
Caught searching through her shopping, one woman was startled to find the Taoiseach on her shoulder, before her friend quickly produced a camera mobile phone.
"Oh my God, oh my God, I met Bertie," she shouted.
Hitting the streets, Ahern's group occasionally blocked traffic, though he was greeted with handshakes through half-open car windows, rather than abuse, for it.
In the town's second shopping centre, the warm welcome for the Fianna Fáil leader, accompanied by local TD, Seamus Kirk and running mate, Frank Maher, continued.
Inside Connolly's Delicatessen, Ahern, head bowed, entered into deep discussion with a woman sitting at the counter, as she tenderly held his hand throughout.
Once finished, he headed outside to his Mercedes for the road to Castleblayney and the Monaghan town's mart.
Here, Carol McKevitt, daughter of convicted "Real" IRA leader, Michael McKevitt, approached to protest about the incarceration of her "political prisoner" father.
"My dad is in a prison cell in Portlaoise because the FBI was authorised to operate on Irish soil. I wanted to know who authorised it. He said he didn't know anything about it," she told The Irish Times later.
Bertie Ahern swept into the mart just as the auctioneer, Frank Murray, was about to close the sale of a heifer to a crowded sales ring.
"Give a welcome to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. This week we saw Ian Paisley become a born-again Christian, Tony Blair quit and we have Bertie going for three in a row," he said.
Ahern delivered a four-minute address on how Fianna Fáil would keep agriculture as a core priority at the centre of a new government.
He was joined by his Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, and Minister of State Brendan Smith.
The heifer, which was left standing unsold in the ring while Bertie delivered his spiel, went for €600 as soon as the line of Mercs pulled away.