Kenny ploughs on in defence of ‘stroke specialist’ Reilly

Enda Kenny said he was disappointed about Róisín Shortall at the National Ploughing Championships and he meant it — where was that ungrateful woman when he needed her?

All that effort he, James Reilly and Eamon Gilmore had put into her training for this moment over the past 18 months — and this is how she repaid them?

The trio had ganged up on Shortall again and again throughout that time — isolating her and forcing her to plough her lonely furrow day after day at the Health Department.

And then she goes and bails just as the Taoiseach arrived in Wexford to watch the solo ploughing competition for himself with Róisín nowhere in sight? He was not pleased.

First Mayo now this — Enda’s unlucky championship touch had struck again.

Róisín may have been laying low in Dublin, but the championships were certainly not short on Shortall metaphors everywhere you looked.

All that mud — just like the mud soon be to flung around the Dáil when Róisín decides to tell her side of the story.

And the live re-enactment of the 1798 rebellion could well have given backbenchers the idea that while a selfless sacrifice may not trigger immediate revolution it can light the slow burn down to regime change none the less.

Then Mr Kenny caused such a sizzle with his frying pan in the cookery tent that celebrity chief Kevin Dundon remarked: “That’s your new career” — a job swap of which Ms Shortall would surely approve.

But it was noticeable Mr Dundon had to take control of the pan when the stir fry ingredients needed tossing after all that Mr Kenny could manage was a rather lame stroke — but then strokes are the dish of the day in Fine Gael at the moment.

Indeed, a stroke a day keeps the doctor away — well it is now keeping Dr Reilly away from Ms Shortall anyway after she objected to the amazing coincidence that two in five of the primary care homes he tagged onto her laboriously drawn-up list just happened to be in his own North Dublin constituency.

Not that Enda seemed to mind, he was too busy trying to high five every child in a three-mile radius — whether they wanted to or not.

And the Taoiseach would simply not hear a word against stroke specialist Dr Reilly, who, he insisted, had the most difficult job of any minister in Cabinet — which must have come as something of a surprise to Michael Noonan.

Though Mr Kenny’s reception fell well short of the Enda-mania that marked the political honeymoon era, the Taoiseach was warmly received in Wexford.

People would initially moan to each other as he approached, bitching about septic tanks and the household charge, but once they had a few words with him they all went away saying how nice he is.

Well, apart from one dissenter — a man campaigning against the water supply being treated with chemicals. He wants Enda put on trial “for crimes against humanity” — but even Róisín probably thinks that would be going a bit too far.