Gerry and Bertie woo adoring audiences
Across from the Dáil, Buswells Hotel was heaving with TV cameras and microphones as the media from Sweden to Hungary and beyond, converged on Dublin for the final forays in the Nice Treaty campaign.
As the eyes of Europe were fixed upon Ireland, continental journalists sat on the floor gazing doe-eyed up into Mr Adams face, adoringly hanging on his every word.
“The Nice Treaty is about how the EU will be governed,” he said philosophically.
Mopping up the attention, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin adopted his most oratorial voice to declare that people must hold the Government and the EU accountable by voting No.
The venue may have been different from Mr Adams usual stomping ground but the result was the same when anyone sought a straight answer from Mr Adams on the minutiae of the Treaty. But never lacking
in confidence, he predicted a positive outcome on Saturday.
“We are optimistic because of what we hear on the doorsteps,” Mr Adams said.
Just down the corridor, the Green Party, the unofficial leaders of the No campaign, were overshadowed by the Adams’ travelling roadshow. Just because they’re the most well-informed and put forward the most coherent arguments against the Treaty doesn’t guarantee a packed house.
The Greens have been in demand all week from the visiting media but Mr Adams’ international household name status meant that he hogged the limelight.
Nonetheless, Green leader Trevor Sargent stuck to his guns and told those who were listening that the Taoiseach should be embarrassed the country was having a second referendum without any changes to the Treaty.
Down the road in the Earl of Kildare Hotel, Joe Higgins failed to draw a crowd. After all the only people Deputy Higgins has fought for the last 30 years are the corporate fat cats on behalf of the ordinary workers. Not sexy enough for the foreign press.
Even the Taoiseach struggled to match Mr Adams in terms of attendance. If your credibility was measured in terms of TV cameras, Bertie would lag behind Gerry by about a third.
Nonetheless, Mr Ahern played to the crowd, explaining how this referendum was immensely important to him personally. The first political campaign a young 20-year-old Bertie had participated in was the referendum in 1973 when Ireland joined the EEC.
At the time, half of his class in school had emigrated and the same number from his class in college, he explained. But since then the nation had blossomed and the vast majority of the country’s success since then was because of participation in the EU.
And there we were thinking it was something to do with Fianna Fáil.
