The rain poured down, but the affection and enthusiasm of the crowd were genuine

"THE most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle," read the thought for the day outside Whitehall church yesterday morning. It was a quote from an advertisement, not Scripture.

Being in a five bus open deck motorcade en route from Dublin Airport to the city centre yesterday morning made for one "important" experience.

Numbers along the route may have been small, but their affection and enthusiasm were genuine, touching and, where the first bus was concerned, misplaced. It contained the media. Rarely in the history of human endeavour can the press have been hailed with such wholehearted joy. "If they only knew," remarked one seasoned reporter observing this ceremony of innocents with a cold eye as we passed by.

On the upper deck camera crews, photographers and some particularly intrepid reporters were being soaked.

From the upper deck of bus number 2, Michelle Smith waved from a cocoon of umbrellas. Cars blew their horns, a helicopter circled overhead, and torrents rushed to the gutters.

"Michelle you're swell" read one of the signs held up as the bus approached Whitehall Garda station. A woman dressed from head to toe in a Tricolour shouted with delight. Crowds gathered under trees and bridges, in porches and shop doorways, and the inevitable kids ran alongside the motorcade as it coursed down Dorset Street.

Office workers waved from open windows at Parnell Street. A man held forth his open arms and proclaimed to the world "Michelle we love ya", as she passed, her husband Erik smiling at her shoulder. "Michelle and Erik, what a team" read another sign.

"Comhghairdeas Michelle, O Dublin's Firefighters" read a sign draped across one building. A group of young people promoting a breakfast cereal threw boxes of the product on to the upper decks, as the motorcade passed the Ambassador cinema.

"Laoch na Linne" was the wording draped across the An Gum offices on O'Connell Street, home of the publications department of the Department of Education. It translates as "Hero of the times/pool." There is a third meaning. One Irish version of the capital's name is Dubh Linn, meaning black pool. And Dublin's heroine was about to be feted at the GPO. Simply the best, better Than all the rest played the band.