Maybe the people will let the anorak strings go

TWELVE days more of a journey on a deeply uncertain course that will come to an end on May 24 with either a Fianna-Fáil led government and more of the same, or a Rainbow Alliance and more of the same.

I was talking to a seasoned political correspondent yesterday who remembers looking at Bertie Ahern as leader of Fianna Fáil on the opposition benches and thinking to himself: ‘This guy is brutal. He doesn’t have what it takes.’

There is a hackneyed old chestnut that the only way you can prove you have the right stuff to become Taoiseach is by becoming Taoiseach and proving you have the right stuff.