Bridges for all in McAleese County

Leaving aside the planning controversies, Fianna Fail has always been the party of the construction industry, the party that measures progress by the number of cranes on the horizon. Even in the postRobinson era, it is the party of bricks and mortar, suspicious of huggy-wuggy aspirations.

So it was a relief to everybody involved when Mary McAleese chose a construction theme for her presidential campaign launch.

"Building bridges" said the slogan behind her. "A dream which will meet the future and build bridges," proposed the candidate herself.

"Fissures in our society remain to be bridged," and "communities want a bridge of understanding," she added, for anyone still missing the point.

The Bridges of McAleese County had us all on the edge of our seats yesterday. Even Bertie Ahern, the rugged stranger who walked into Meryl . . . er, Mary McAleese's, life with the promise of a Presidency of embrace, could only watch in admiration as she blossomed. But Ms McAleese didn't confine herself to civil engineering. Knowing it was good for them, she made the traditionalists squirm a little too, with words such as "vision", "embrace" and "tapestry of my life". The bridge theme was on loan from Bill Clinton, and the launch was notable for another US innovation. When the Taoiseach rose to propose his candidate, he was accompanied by a woman relaying his words in sign language.

Wait a minute, some of us thought, Bertie's accent isn't that hard to follow.

But the explanation was that Ms McAleese has worked a lot with the deaf and her signer, Imelda McRory, interpreted all yesterday's speeches for friends from the deaf community.

When she talked, towards the end of her speech, of a Presidency which would "capture and hold in its embrace this large, colourful family which is the Irish people", you could hear some people thinking: "Get back to the bridges."

But apart from the yucky bits, the faithful seemed thoroughly impressed by the speech and the deft handling of questions.

Meanwhile, the party's big cats watched from the wings, and you could almost hear them purr.

By the time she sat down she had pushed more buttons than the crew of of the Mir space-station.

The last word, however, deserves to go to Bertie Ahern, proposing Ms McAleese's election to "the house that represents all the people, Aras an Uachtarain". Extending the metaphor without planning permission, he praised her for having already built "a magnificent house of achievement in her own life."

Bricks and mortar, first and last.