Sun shines but not yet on Mary Lou

GERRY ADAMS was all Armani- lite on the one hand, all ballot box on the other.

Dressed in stylish jeans and an open necked shirt, his glasses glinted in the warm sunshine, looking for all the world like he’d just stepped off one of the luxury yachts moored along the Liffey for the festival of tall ships.

In fact, he was there for a photo-op with struggling Sinn Féin Euro candidate Mary Lou McDonald and once the cameras stopped rolling he looked noticeably grumpy in the glorious heatwave and started to scuttle back into the shade of a party meeting across the road.