Kenny carnival comes to town with sound of samba

TWO rivers flowed through Dublin yesterday — the Liffey and Enda Kenny’s human river of samba and expectation.

Looking relaxed and oozing confidence, the Fine Gael leader teetered on the brink of triumphalism with his noisy pre-victory parade through the capital.

The Latin American music added a distinctly exotic touch to the event, but Blueshirt diehards need not fear a watering- down of the party’s immigration stance as all samba band members appeared distinctly Celtic in origin.

For a moment, when Mr Kenny arrived at the top of Grafton Street to deliver his manifesto for young people, it looked like he might be taken for just another mime artist, but the would-be Taoiseach soon livened things up with a bizarre attempt to get down with the kids’ street lingo by warning Bertie to stop eyeing up a deal with Labour: “Dream on, baby!” he declared.

Whatever next? Taoiseach Kenny inviting MTV Cribs into Government Buildings to show how he and his homeboy Pat are keeping it real?

Then, with more than a whiff of Evita in the air, the samba music boomed out and our blond hero stormed through the big city. He swept all before him, quite literally, as a blind man walking by Brown Thomas can testify.

The Rainbow circus roared through a sun-splattered Dublin before climaxing at a rally in Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square where Mr Kenny set out the timetable for his first 100 days in power.

Contrary to the black propaganda put about by Fianna Fáil and Michael McDowell it did not read: “Day One: Panic! Day Two: Hand over control to Mr Rabbitte and his friends in Customers at the square-side cafe were given a side order of Enda whether they wanted it or not. However, the dinners, like FF, soon discovered it was an underestimated little taste that produces a surprising kick.

Then the skies opened and the opinion polls rained on Enda’s parade.