Carrots and mash, Roche's secret weapon

A plate of carrots, coleslaw and two balls of mash were the secret weapon of presidential candidate Adi Roche yesterday. "If she can eat the canteen food here she can do anything," said law student Colm Byrne. The student at the Waterford Institute of Technology had seen the Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrat candidate the week before, but said Prof Mary McAleese did not eat in the smoky chaos of the student canteen. "She came in and talked in the auditorium. It was a real slick operation."

Ms Roche by-passed the auditorium and stood on a high bench in the entrance to address a group of about 150 students. She said she had come to make a speech about the Presidency but was going to talk about "an issue of democracy" instead.

Students were being "deliberately silenced" by the timing of the presidential election, she said, as most could not return home to vote on a Thursday. In a statement earlier, she criticised her rival Mary McAleese for her response on Wednesday to students' questions on the issue.

She was loudly applauded by the students. Then she met another woman running for office. Mairead Boland had her own bright orange campaign sticker on her lapel for election to a student society. Polling was going on in the corner. "Solidarity, sister," Ms Roche said.

Outside at the site for the college extension, foreman Noel O'Mahoney joked with the candidate as they posed for photographs. "I'll keep talking, or what if I point and you look in the direction I'm pointing."

"Point to the Phoenix Park," one of the faithful urged.

In a nearby supermarket shoppers wished her luck in her campaign.

"And you're looking gorgeous," said one woman, grasping her hand. Another asked what she would do to follow Mary Robinson's light in the Aras window. She said she would "love to just bring back the same light and reconnect it". It was a "simple symbol" which meant something to Irish people abroad, despite the cynicism at home.

The woman said she would pray for her campaign. "Between my mother and yourself there'll be lots of prayers," Ms Roche assured her.

At Waterford Industrial Park the campaign team braved a high wind and a ripe smell of pig slurry to canvass the workers as they finished their shifts. "Are we still in Munster?" one handler checked, before shouting: "Adi Roche, the first Munster woman to run for president."

As the day went on she relaxed into the campaigning, guided by Brian O'Shea, a local Labour TD, and surrounded by a small army of supporters handing out stickers. An unsuspecting sleeping baby became an Adi supporter when someone put a sticker on the child's hat.

Outside the City Square shopping centre in Waterford a woman promised the candidate her number one. "And don't mind that old smear campaign," she said in a motherly tone.

"No, we're over that," Ms Roche said.