The top of Grafton Street was windier than a presidential election campaign yesterday as the Labour Party launched a State-wide recruitment drive. Frank McNally reports.
Gusting northwesterlies threatened to blow the party literature into Stephen's Green, while volunteers at the recruiting table clung to the red paper tablecloths like children struggling with a kite.
Gaiety Corner was an apt choice for Labour's latest initiative, after a week in which its handling of the presidency nomination had all the co-ordination of a pantomime horse. But it was an unrepentant Pat Rabbitte who appeared alongside the Green (not for the first time this week) to explain why Labour had decided not to run. "What's the point of standing in the presidential election to get 30 or 35 per cent of the vote?" he asked.
He insisted that the Eamon Ryan debacle had not damaged relations between the potential coalition partners: "We have a lot of money in the bank with the Green Party."
But he didn't sound nearly as hopeful about relations with Michael D. Higgins. "I had a clear understanding since last July that Michael D. would not be a candidate. . .That didn't stand up at the last minute."
On the evidence of Grafton Street, the events may have damaged the recruitment campaign. Perhaps mindful of Michael D's treatment, members of the public seemed reluctant to come forward and nominate themselves, despite the encouragement of Ruairí Quinn, Emmet Stagg, and the strong winds.
An inordinately high number of those approached turned out to be tourists.
The party claims recruitment has boomed since Mr Rabbitte's election in October 2002 and that, crucially, Labour is now fighting back in the college campuses, where for years it has been on the run from Sinn Féin. So when Fergal Reid, a non-aligned history and politics student from UCD who happened to be passing, stopped to quiz the Labour leader, here was a prime target.
Mr Rabbitte started well, answering a firm "no" to any coalition with Fianna Fáil. But on Fergal's second question - how he would square his party's policy on neutrality with Fine Gael's, Mr Rabbitte turned Jesuitical. The student listened politely, but he departed the scene with his own neutrality still intact.