"I stand before you as a fallen angel, halo tipped and a little tainted," said Adi Roche last night to a packed conference room in the Curragh of Kildare.
She had been greeted by a thundering cheer and standing ovation from the newly formed People's Alliance for the Presidency (whose unfortunate acronym describes an unprecedented alliance of Labour, Democratic Left and the Green Party).
And her "confession" brought them to their feet again. More than 150 of the faithful and not a few independent strays (including some curious Fianna Failers) turner up to see a new-look presidential candidate take off on her campaign.
She provoked one of several rousing rounds of applause by describing how she and they had made two pieces of history in the past week. The first was that she was the only Irish presidential candidate to have had a campaign formed against her candidacy, and the second was that her campaign was being launched by a people's alliance.
The platform included Labour TDs and councillors, and councillors and activists from Democratic Left and the Green Party. Mr Jack Wall, the Labour TD, wasn't ashamed to use the word "caring" in public.
He was also delighted her campaign was starting in Kildare. Dick Spring had done the same and Kildare had always delivered, he said.
Mr JJ Power, for the Green Party, said: "When I first looked at this campaign, I thought we were all going to be enveloped in cotton wool. "But it's nice to see someone coming in with battle-scars already there, someone who will be able to take whatever is thrown at her."
Former Labour Party Minister Mr Emmet Stagg said: "From what we knew of Adi Roche before, it seemed her prime motivation was to comfort the afflicted. Now we know she's pretty good at afflicting the comfortable."
He then set out to dent the platforms of the other candidates - without naming names.