Mexican waves, waspish one-liners, bockety knees, missing dogs and multiple visions to beat the band.
Michael D Higgins was having a terrific opener.
A joyous photograph of the President flinging his arms skyward in sync with the crowd at the Liam Miller testimonial match set the early tone for his day. It made everyone smile. It preceded the official start of his campaign for the presidency in a re-election exercise that has been meticulously plotted from a long way out.
At least that’s how it looks. He has some operation behind him.
After witnessing the 77-year-old candidate’s performance, you’d be afraid for the other five.
But for all the high-flown rhetoric, the standing on impressive records and the promises of creative engagements to come, it was Michael D’s personality that shone the strongest.
The man who wants to continue as a “President for All of Us” set a precedent for all of them by his assured handling of a potentially difficult public appearance after seven years of being cosseted by the state in Áras an Uachtaráin.
In the course of a press conference in his campaign headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, he also revealed that he is doing yoga. At this point, a number of colour writers fell off their chairs and were carried, senseless, from the room.
There is no getting over the image.
There were some difficult questions to be asked and answered. However, in the very long run-up to the contest proper, Higgins has had lots of time to prepare his answers. He safely sailed through the questions about how the presidency is funded and staying in expensive hotels when travelling abroad on behalf of the nation. Questions about his remarks following the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, or the unfair advantage he would seem to have over his rivals were addressed head on.
As was the slightly delicate but very relevant topic of his age and how it might impact on his ability to carry out his duties.
He was forthcoming and disarming in his replies. On age: “I knew some people, in fact, who were very ancient people when they were chronologically very young. And, tragically, some of them didn’t change.” The claque of supporters at the back of the room burst into applause.
He is feeling better than he did seven years ago. “I had my knee done,” he declared, before dropping the yoga bombshell.
His headquarters is in a very nice building on Lord Edward Street, not far from Dublin Castle. It was buzzing with staff on Wednesday and the merchandise is ready to roll.
First campaign speech
He made his first campaign speech with five long Michael D display posters forming a backdrop. One had a message at the top, the next at the bottom and so on. This meant that his head was at different heights in the display, like a whack-a-mole game.
The room wasn’t particularly large, which gave the impression that the crowd was absolutely huge. A large number of young supporters took up many of the seats while many faces from his first presidential election campaign were spotted among his team.
“As you know, I am now running as an independent candidate in this election.”
There wasn’t as much as a bashful titter from all the old Labour party hands scattered around the room. Also there were faces recognisable from the recent marriage equality and abortion referendums.
And with this being a big election, with a very definite front-runner and lots of numbers waiting to be crunched, barrister Noel Whelan was a very visible presence. He can’t resist a good election. At least most of the time – Noel flirted with the idea of challenging Michael D for the job but decided against.
As journalists assembled for the big reveal, soothing piped music was being piped into the room. The sort of music you hear in places where they talk of “mindfulness” or when a woman is giving birth in a paddling pool in her living room.
Mere commoner
For Wednesday, and the rest of the month, Michael D Higgins is a mere commoner. Except when he is the President.
He says he will be able to juggle both these roles for the duration of the campaign. Then again, it must be difficult for others when their main rival arrived in a Merc with a Garda driver and everyone goes quiet because he is the First Citizen. And he has a couple of plainclothes detectives standing watch wherever he goes.
On Wednesday, the crowd even went quiet before he came into his own launch. “Shhhh!” said somebody as he was about to appear and nobody said a word when he ambled in with Sabina. He looked slightly taken aback, as if he had been expecting a noisy reception.
The good navy three-piece suit was on for the occasion along with the paisley tie from the election poster. His campaign colours are green merging into blue. Blue is the official colour of Ireland. The only concession to his Labour past is the bright red Michael D full stop.
In for a chat
He was asked what he thought of the candidate Peter Casey’s insinuation that the incident in the Áras last Friday – where a woman (hardly an intruder) drove up the drive through the open front gate, parked outside his front door and went in for a chat – was a maybe a bit more than a coincidence.
After explaining, gently, “in fairness to the woman involved” that it was no big deal and he wished her well “and that’s how it should be, how else should it be?”, he made a stinging little remark about businessman Casey. “Maybe that candidate is not too long back from America.”
Then a complicated question about whether he has an unfair advantage over his rivals led to this quip to reporter Gavan Reilly: “I think you have more than a double hypothesis there and you might have managed a treble...”
He was ready for every question. He has been doing his homework. His speech was short and he kept saying he wanted to be brief. We’ll see how long that lasts.
‘Ethics of memory’
Michael D is strong on the vision guff: “In marking each act of nation-building, I also hope to spark a renewed sense of collective vision-making.” But it is guff of the highest quality. He is also “going to build on the ethics of memory” by “making sure that an event of the past doesn’t rob you of the opportunities of the present and doesn’t deprive you of the imaginative futures that you construct together”.
He will be very difficult to topple. Unless he topples himself, his rivals have their work cut out for them.
There was only one disappointment at the launch.
“I wish he had brought his dogs. I want to see more of the dogs,” sighed a youthful member of the team when it was over.
