Bertie ploughs on regardless but will the mud stick?

THEY say a politician in trouble ploughs a lonely furrow but the Taoiseach was never one to cultivate proverbs.

Just like in 1993, when friends gathered to pull him out of a personal quagmire, Bertie’s backers turned out in tractor-loads at the World Ploughing Championships yesterday with the communal urgency of a political hay-saving exercise.

“Never mind them oul’ gobshites,” a voice in the crowd roared as Bertie arrived at the Fianna Fáil tent to be mobbed by supporters and deafened by cheers and applause.