HE WAS the ghost of Thurles last night. He wasn't seen, heard or mentioned. But Michael Lowry was there all right.
He was there in the gaps between the lines of John Bruton's speech in Liberty Square. Mr Bruton didn't quite disembowel former colleague, Michael Lowry, in Thurles last night but, to mix butchery metaphors, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
As Mr Bruton and his entourage trailed their coats into Mr Lowry's heartland, we were told that Mr Lowry was canvassing the other end of the constituency. There would be no confrontation.
Mr Bruton didn't even mention him. He didn't have to. "North Tipperary needs a new voice in the Dail (hint, hint)," he told the crowd of 200. "The Fine Gael candidate, Tom Berkery, represents the new Tipperary, the Tipperary of the future (nudge, nudge). I can assure you that, over the next five years in government, Tom Berkery will have the ear of all government ministers whenever needed (know what I mean)."
While Thurles had been promised a third-level institution, he suggested it was in some way necessary to elect a Fine Gael TD to ensure that this institution went ahead. "We need to keep a Fine Gael TD in the Dail to support the government. The guarantor of the TRBDI (Tipperary Rural Business Development Institute) is Tom Berkery.
Not only was the ghost at the feast invisible and unmentioned, there wasn't even a poster of him in the square.
Mr Berkery addressed the crowd, reeling off streets and townlands that he would represent. "I can represent the people of every part of Tipperary," he declared. "I don't think any person has sexual. . sexual rights to represent any part of this constituency."
The crowd went silent, wondering what he could possibly mean.
He paused.
Someone suggested "sectional?"
"Sectional, I meant sectional," he explained to everyone's relief.
Earlier at the Rock of Cashel, Mr Bruton met Mr Dick Spring for another one of those meetings "to review the campaign". They shook hands for the cameras, walked up and down with their respective candidates for the cameras and sat on a bench together.
It was familiar stuff. There was no division on the North, or on anything for that matter. "The Rainbow is as solid as the Rock of Cashel," said Mr Bruton.