"You must be fed up getting kisses," remarked the 10th woman to embrace Derek Nally as he walked up the main street of Bunclody after Mass yesterday. There was not the slightest indication that the people of the Co Wexford town regarded the presidential campaign challenge of their fellow townsman as a failure.
"Derek is OUR president," a woman outside the Church of the Holy Trinity emphasised to her friends as they queued up to congratulate the man who may have trailed in the polls but evidently not in local hearts.
In one sense this attractive town in its marvellous sylvan setting is back to normal; the posters are down and the daily buzz of electioneering excitement has ceased.
In another sense the community of about 2,000 will never be the same. "Do you know another thing that's come out of it," remarks a man in the group outside the church, "there's never been as many kids interested in an election in Bunclody. They're interested in everything political now.".
The Nally campaign lifted his whole home area to a new plane of political consciousness, a sense of involvement and engagement in national affairs.
The Bunclody Bus has already carved out an honoured niche in local legend. This was the hired bus, packed with Nally supporters, that left the town early every morning for two weeks of the campaign and travelled to distant parts of the country to canvass for him.
"Would you keep the ould bus going for another month, just to wean us off it," a local man called across the street to Mr Nally yesterday morning. Bunclody people had vied for a seat on the Nally expeditionary support vehicle, with even the sick and the elderly wanting to travel.
"My mother (aged 75) wanted to go. It was as much as I could do to hold her back," said Eileen Dunne. There was intense local perusal of the press coverage accorded to the town during the campaign. "The papers were calling us neophytes," commented a Nally supporter. "I had to look it up in the dictionary. We not only learned about politics - we learned new words too!"
The Bunclody Bus contingent embraced the entire political spectrum, according to Mr Nally. "We had strong Fianna Fail and Fine Gael supporters on it. It bridged religious boundaries and class divisions, too."
Acknowledging the warm manifestations of his local popularity, he had an astute reply for those who lamented that he had not made it to the Park: "Maybe if I was there I wouldn't be here," he reminded them.
A guide book informs us that "Bunclody makes a good centre for mountain climbing in the district". Derek Nally's attempted ascent of the political peak was too rapid and too short of time, because of his late nomination, he now admits himself: "I didn't get the nomination until the eleventh hour."
He generated a significant regional impact, getting his highest voting support in the constituencies of Wexford (over 7,400) and Carlow-Kilkenny (over 3,000). He has the populist hero stature of a local hurling star and appears to be as familiar as Santa Claus to the small children, who stop in the street to wave at him and greet him.
But he made it plain yesterday that he has no ambition to try to build on this support base in the arenas of local or national politics. Derek Nally is tired, and perhaps more chastened than he cares to admit by his brush with the ruthless manipulative tactics of modern machine politics.
Nonetheless, his efforts have left an important legacy. The community was energised and uplifted by its own spontaneous rallying in support of its former local Garda sergeant.
Even his own daughters, Laurena and Louise, who took time off work to join in the campaign, feel they have gained from the experience. They and their mother, Joan, said they found the campaign, in spite of the handicaps, immensely exciting and enjoyable.
Paddy Dillon, who loaned a shop premises as Nally headquarters in Bunclody, says the high point was the period just after the nomination was secured: "The night he came back after the nomination there was a big stir. We were waiting for him."
The people of Bunclody and north Wexford were able to feel a personal ownership of the Nally candidacy, as it was non-party and neither dependent upon nor imposed by the big political organisations. The community is in no way downcast by his performance; rather the local view is summed up by the simple greeting heard frequently yesterday: "Good man, Derek. You done very well."