Special Report: Fianna Fáil - Soldiers of Destiny or fighting for survival?

Micheál Martin meets locals as he returns home to Ballinlough, Cork, having been made Taoiseach.

It is an anecdote so well-worn that it has made its way into the popular lexicon, and become a jokey shorthand for all sorts of political incidents.

According to party leader Eamon Ryan, when the Greens arrived for government formation talks with Fianna Fáil in 2007, they were told by the late Seamus Brennan: “You are playing senior hurling now lads — but you are playing with lads with All Ireland medals.”