Sex, drugs and swiss roll strike a party note at Fine Gael ard fheis

Sex, drugs and free Swiss roll dominated the 77th Fine Gael ard fheis.

In a marked break with the past, far more delegates voted to legalise cannabis than opposed extending marriage equality to same sex couples.

Maybe it was something in the abundance of complimentary fine food samples being thrust forward at the entrance to the RDS, but some in the party clearly wanted to party.

Though it was probably just an unfortunate coincidence which saw Enda Kenny standing in the main hall surrounded by adoring fans in post-speech rapture as the sound system blared out the rather racy lyrics: “Because your sex takes me to paradise/Yeah, your sex takes me to paradise.”

Mr Kenny’s address had been aurally book-ended by the blandly uplifting strains of Take That, but when that phased-out, the much raunchier ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’ by Bruno Mars kicked-in.

Music can often be a problem for politicians at these gigs, as when Britain’s hardline anti-drugs home secretary Theresa May came down off the podium at a Tory conference to the sound of the very libertine ‘Get Your Rocks Off’ by Primal Scream.

But, brave new Fine Gael might not have had such a problem with that choice if the applause for a motion to legalise cannabis use was anything to go by.

And Fine Gael do deserve credit for not following Labour’s way and creating a purely TV stunt, phoney conference to get free RTÉ airtime in the run-up to the local and Euro elections, but used the event to debate issues like drugs, anti-smoking moves, joining Nato and marriage equality.

At least 10% of delegates backed cannabis liberalisation, but when it came to extending marriage rights to same sex couples, barely a handful of the hundreds of Fine Gaelers raised their arms in opposition.

Indeed, there was something of a pink tinge to the Blueshirts at this scaled- down conference as three of the 15 stalls in the main hall represented gay groups.

Glen, the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, were even afforded the prime slot next to the Michael Collins shrine.

However, the Glenistas were far too polite to mention any of that business regarding Senator David Norris’s controversial attempts to posthumously out the Big Fella last year, everyone just chatted about the lovely free food instead.

Meanwhile, on the overlooking balcony, the press gathered for a few words with Mr Kenny, and his handlers had decided against keeping us back with the customary velvet rope, but had opted for full, heavy metal, crash barriers.

The upshot was that in the tight corner it looked as if Mr Kenny and his Euro candidates had been caged for their own safety.

The Taoiseach was at pains to point out how wonderfully women-friendly his party is as it will run 100 female candidates out of 450 in the May polls.

Mr Kenny could probably have got away with it, but for the fact that while attempting to name-check the six Euro candidates, he completely forgot about Ireland South’s Deirdre Clune — who just happened to be standing next to him at the time.

A numbingly flat speech then saw Mr Kenny quote Einstein and Abraham Lincoln to no great effect before droning on about the “three pillars” of the economy. But given the sleep-inducing nature of the address, free pillows would have been of more use to the audience.