Failed Hanafin heave has Martin red-faced

"I missed you all," Mary Hanafin gushed to reporters in the manner of a faded film star who had just glimpsed the limelight once more thanks to a cameo role in a B movie.

As the huddle of journalists which had swirled around her began to separate, the exhilaration at being the centre of attention again was almost too much: “Oh, I like being doughnuted — I haven’t been in a doughnut for so long!”

Hanafin’s outfit was as red as the rage her victory must have induced in Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, whose orders not to run she contemptuously ignored as he put her candidacy under investigation in revenge for going rogue.