The City of the Tribes is never more tribal than in the middle of race week. By now, thousands of people have abandoned Dublin and the other counties of the Pale, headed west, thrown off their so-called civilised ways and gone native. It's no coincidence that the country's greatest tribe, Fianna Fáil, always meets at this time of year in a tent, writes Frank McNally Galway.
But the terrible truth is that the tented area in Ballybrit is itself a version of the Pale. On Galway Plate day, when crowds throng every corner of the track outside, the hospitality village is an oasis of corporate calm. It is with fear and trepidation that residents leave it and take their chances among the wild Irish.
For example, no sooner had Charlie McCreevy stepped out of the village yesterday than he bumped into Hector Ó hEochagain, star of the TV series Only Fools Buy Horses and wilder than most. But coming from the equestrian heartlands of Kildare and Meath, respectively, the two men shared a common language. And they clearly got on well.
Maybe they discussed a follow-up series starring Mr McCreevy and entitled Only Fools Tax Horses. Unfortunately, before we could ask, the Minister was swallowed up by the 29,000 punters, many of them female and wearing dangerously wide hats.
The Taoiseach too ventured briefly out from the village, and among those he met was Fianna Fáil MEP Jim Fitzsimons, dapper in a straw hat and yellow corduroys. Complimented on his appearance, Mr Fitzsimons imparted folk wisdom: "Even when you're going bad, you should always look well." Good advice for Mr Ahern given the current state of the polls.
But whatever about polls, Mr Ahern is flying high with the bookies.
Ever one for caution, he had a "small each-way bet" on the winner of the Plate, Nearly A Moose, and was nearly alone in this distinction. Having backed Sum Leader on Tuesday, it can only have been the surname of the jockey, Robert Power, that recommended the 25-1 no-hoper. But the win for 85-year-old trainer Paddy Mullins was the good news story of the day, not just for the Taoiseach and the bookies.
Back in the safety of the Fianna Fáil tent, guests yesterday included festival regular Michael Bailey of Bovale Developments. Oliver Barry was there too, and Pascal Taggart, and former government adviser turned PR man Paddy Duffy.
In return for their €350 a plate, diners were presented with medallions (of beef in pepper cream sauce, to be exact). But there were also some added freebies, including packets of titanium golf balls, which boasted "optimum spin for maximum control".
This sounded like a slogan for Fianna Fáil's 2002 election headquarters and maybe it brought back happy memories for another of yesterday's guests, Martin Macken.
The former general secretary has since left the party fold and is now, in his capacity as a PR consultant, lobbying against Micheál Martin's plans to ban smoking in pubs. But there's an old saying in politics and public relations that it's better to be inside the tent spinning out than outside the tent spinning in.
Guests also included the former government press secretary P.J. Mara, whose late wife was from Kinvara and who described himself as "half-native".
Then again, everybody was at least half-native in Galway yesterday, even if it was noticeable that the balloons in the Fianna Fáil tent were red, white and blue. On Tuesday, they were green, white and orange.
Maybe this is something to do with the peace process: perhaps the party has decided that the Galway Races are a meeting place for the two traditions on the island. The place is called Ballybrit, after all.