IT’S HARD to believe, but there was a book launched in Dublin this week by somebody other than Enda Kenny.

The Taoiseach is turning into something of a social tart. He seems determined to emulate, and perhaps even surpass, Bertie Ahern. But even Enda would admit this was a gig too far for him.

There was a big turnout in the Mansion House for the launch of Noel Whelan's biography of Fianna Fáil. And while the assembled Soldiers of Destiny would have fainted had Enda performed the honours, they were almost as taken aback when they discovered that former Irish Timeseditor Geraldine Kennedy was doing the job.

“No friend of us,” sniffed one party member after a few glasses of red and a scalding from Madam Editor, who was characteristically honest in her assessment of the party and where it stands now.

In her speech, she expressed her surprise at being asked to launch the book.

The author said it was because she knows Fianna Fáil and had been a key player at many of the party’s iconic events.

Geraldine said that during her career as a political reporter, she often “felt like a lightning rod for Fianna Fáil”.

Noel Whelan, in his replay, remarked he often got the impression that she was seen at the highest levels of FF as “a thundering and lightning rod” and, on occasion, “a thundering something else as well”.