On the campaign trail:The Fine Gael leader took to the streets of Cork yesterday to spread the Lisbon word, writes MIRIAM LORD.
ENDA KENNY was in Cork to unveil the next phase of his party's Lisbon Treaty billboard campaign. Hardly an event to set the pulse racing, but Fine Gael were excited.
It's a mobile billboard this time. Which means it was actually designed to pass people by, a feat already achieved without the addition of wheels by its static counterparts around the country.
The party leader's movements yesterday afternoon depended on the whereabouts of this admobile. His walkabouts in the city flowed from the launch of the new poster. Local deputies and party workers gathered outside the Imperial Hotel for the big event.
No sign of Enda. Colm Burke MEP, waited on The Mall, along with TDs Simon Coveney and Deirdre Clune. Nothing happened. Their admobile was missing. Somewhere in Cork. On a "visibility run", insisted a worried looking adviser.
"We could always launch Colm Burke," someone whispered wickedly. He had a point. "Quiet" would be one way to sum up Fine Gael's MEP for Munster.
A change of plan was announced. Walkabout first, followed by the unveiling of the mobile billboard, if it ever turned up. In the meantime, Senator Jerry Buttimer relayed a tip for the 3.10 at Great Yarmouth, should anybody want to get a few bob on before Enda arrived.
When he turned up, he told journalists there is no conspiracy between Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil to foist a Yes outcome on the electorate.
"This is about our country, it's about our people, it's about our children and it's about our future," he said, just stopping short of saying it was about our future's future.
He repeated his proposal - put forward first on the lunchtime news - that the three main party leaders should get together and present voters with a united front. "A tripartite message" he called it.
It seems his words hit home. The Fine Gael leader had hardly shaken his first hand before news came through that Brian Cowen and Eamon Gilmore would be canvassing together later in the evening. What's more, they would be holding a joint press conference.
In Dublin. Without Enda. Which was a bit mean.
Back in Cork, the FG leader had enough on his plate with a very irate man from Montenotte, who was waving an old Daily Mail article in his face and demanding answers. It was headlined "The Treaty Con." "What do you have to say about it?" he asked repeatedly. "What is your question?" countered Enda, while the man insisted he wouldn't be patronised.
Kenny was rescued by a lady listening from the sidelines, who screamed "Dat's my birthday!" when she heard the irate man give the date of the offending article.
Senator "Butsy" Buttimer deftly interposed the woman between Enda and his interrogator. "She got her hair done for you an' all and she's after burying two husbands," declared Butsy, by way of introduction.
The man, meanwhile, said he was from a group called "Parents for Children", adding helpfully that it was part of "Cóir and Youth Defence". Down Pembroke Street, and the words "Angela Merkel" floated on the air. A German-born Fine Gael councillor had arrived on the scene. "We have our own interpreter," crowed Enda.
It seemed cruel to break the news that, while the accents may have sounded strange to a Mayoman, we were only in Cork. With Buttimer doing the heavy lifting and Coveney and Clune wafting around the group in a fashion more fitting to their lineage, Enda's Lisbon canvass was a good-humoured, uneventful affair.
He cornered a mortified woman on her way out of a lingerie boutique. Speechless with embarrassment, she stood in front of the display of frilly knickers and bras while Enda told her earnestly why she should vote Yes.
She nearly cried with relief when he left. But we couldn't take our eyes off the notice behind Enda's shoulder: "Body shapers are back, look a stone lighter." Butsy materialised. "I've lost a stone canvassing." Suddenly, the walkabout was cut short, for the admobile had arrived. The Fine Gael party raced back to The Mall to meet it. There couldn't have been more excitement had Jerry Buttimer's horse romped home in Yarmouth. In the end, the billboard was a bit of a letdown, with its serious slogan about human rights and a very big picture of Colm Burke.
Simon and Jerry, young men both, climbed on to the trailer and stood beside the poster. They each put out a hand to help their party leader up. But pride got in the way, and Enda attempted to hop on. It didn't work. He grabbed the outstretched hands, two feet, three feet off the ground and clamped on to the edge of the trailer. Viewed sideways, he looked like the letter "U".
Strong hands were applied to the party leader's posterior and he was unceremoniously shoved upright and on to the ledge.
Apart from the Montenotte man at the start of their city odyssey, the only other dissenting voice came from a young man, who followed the group everywhere shouting "Vote No! They're destroying the bees!"
As always, the procession wound up in the English Market, where Enda posed for photographs with two severed fish heads. Politicians don't care during campaigns.
Enda said he was delighted that Brian and Eamon were getting it together in Dublin. "And it'll be even stronger when the three of us get together."
And Butsy's horse won.