Interest in June's European elections grew in the north-west with the entry into the field of western development campaigner Marian Harkin.
Another twist has now been added with confirmation that Pat Cox, the Munster Independent MEP, will be guest speaker at a fund-raising dinner for Ms Harkin in Sligo in a fortnight. The attendance of the former Progressive Democrat at such a function is being seen as tacit support.
The poll in the Connacht/ Ulster constituency will, if nothing else, be a test of voters' appetite for a candidate from outside the main parties. While the safe money is still on the status quo of two Fianna Fail seats and one Fine Gael seat being maintained, it will be interesting to see if the main parties can maintain or increase their vote share.
Despite much rumour, it is still unknown whether Dana will contest the election or whether she would run in Connacht/Ulster or Munster. People close to her made inquiries some weeks ago about renting offices in Sligo and Letterkenny, and there is speculation she may now have changed her mind.
A spokeswoman for Dana said the singer would be making a decision this weekend.
For the moment, Ms Harkin, the former chairwoman of the Council for the West lobby group, is the only woman candidate, and without any party machine or significant financial backing, she accepts she faces an "enormous challenge".
However much the main parties may now want to play down her chances, it is known that before announcing her intention to stand as an Independent, she was approached by Fine Gael and the PDs.
Ms Harkin was one of the most outspoken voices in the campaign for regionalisation and the retention of Objective 1 status for the West, Border and Midlands regions and has a high profile as a result. But it will be difficult for her to run a campaign to match the bigger parties, given that in the last European elections in this constituency candidates spent an average of between u £60,000 and u £100,000. She has taken unpaid leave from her teaching job and has opened a campaign office in Sligo town. She says she is relying on "people's good will and energy".
The choice facing voters in Connacht/Ulster will have changed considerably from 1994. Firstly, there will be no PD candidate, and Fine Gael, obviously deciding that it could not take a second seat, has chosen to let Joe McCartin, the State's longest-serving MEP, run alone.
Fianna Fail took 42 per cent of the vote in 1994 and Fine Gael just under 30 per cent. Mr Bobby Molloy of the PDs got more than 21,000 votes, or 9 per cent of the total poll.
Fianna Fail's Donegal-based Pat "The Cope" Gallagher topped the poll in 1994 with 53,000 votes, about 5,000 short of a quota. His running-mate this time will be Minister of State Noel Treacy, as sitting MEP Mark Killilea is bowing out.
Pat "The Cope" chooses not to dismiss the chances of any other candidates, but is confident Fianna Fail can take two seats. He has "tremendous admiration" for Marian Harkin, and accepts the role played by the voluntary sector in the campaign for retaining Objective 1, but insists that it was Fianna Fail's commitment to the issue that made it a reality.
"I am on the record as one of the first to have put Objective 1 at the top of my political agenda," he says. Both he and the other sitting MEP in the region, Leitrim-based Joe McCartin, who has been in the European Parliament since 1979, say it is now up to central Government to decide how the money is spent.
Mr McCartin says people are fooling themselves if they believe MEPs can influence how much money will go to their town or village. The role of MEPs, he says, is to deal with wider issues, the effects of which do not become apparent on the ground for some time.
The Fine Gael candidate says he does not see any need for new regional structures, as the State is well served by the current system, with county councils and central Government. Regional policy, he says, has to be made at national level.
Ms Harkin says that if elected, she would involve herself in issues at national level and not "play by the rules set by others" by concentrating exclusively on affairs in Brussels. Sinn Fein's Sligo alderman, Sean MacManus, will be concentrating on increasing the party's vote share from the 5.99 per cent it got in 1994. The party is focusing on Border counties in its drive for more TDs.
Mr MacManus says he believes Sinn Fein could emerge as the third-largest party in the Euro poll - Labour secured 8.5 per cent of the vote in 1994. On regionalisation, he says it must be ensured that the Objective 1 region still gets the money it is entitled to from the Exchequer, and that funds are not diverted to other regions.