Kenny’s close shave with protesters in Wexford

It was back on the road for another day of speeches, handshakes, and close shaves for Enda Kenny as the campaign tour trundles on.

Politics is a cut-throat game.

And after four decades of playing, the Taoiseach knows that one single swipe can knock anybody down.

Kenny was yesterday trying his best to avoid those swipes when, for virtually the first time on the campaign trail, he met ordinary punters — as well as protesters.

Starting off in Wexford, Kenny popped in to a local radio station where he was questioned over the delays in establishing a technological university in the south-east, the social housing crisis, and the lack of opportunity for young people.

Kenny was well able to deflect — Fine Gael will keep the recovery going.

Keep the recovery going? It hasn’t even arrived yet, according to a number of business-people who spoke to Kenny when he stopped off in Enniscorthy.

In Elizabeth’s clothes store, shop assistant Cathy Breen was asked about business.

“It’s up and down,” she replied. It was hardly a statement of confidence in Fine Gael’s recovery.

For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE

It was then on to Egyptian barber Bega Elfeky for a cut-throat shave.

“Do you find it difficult to shave the Wexford people?” quipped Kenny, perhaps intrigued about how easy it might be to trim a few votes from other parties.

He then made a bolt down the street, stopping briefly for a coffee, before heading to Walter Bourke and Son jewellers, which has been trading in the town since 1959.

“Business is not good. It’s hard work, it’s very hard work,” said Mary Bourke, who is “the person who pays the bank”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny gets the backing of two-and-a-half-year-old Halle Casey in Wexford yesterday.

“The town is very dead. To be honest with you it needs an injection of something, and here’s looking at you Paul,” she said, peering over to one of the three Fine Gael candidates in Wexford, Paul Kehoe.

“The town is not good.”

Kehoe, the party’ chief whip, was quick to interject, hailing the planned bypass of Enniscorthy — it will be “huge” for the town and will ease congestion.

Maybe Fine Gael’s recovery will be taking the new bypass right past Mary Bourke’s jewellery store.

And, with that, the Taoiseach decided it was time to dart on.

Kenny was yesterday getting into his campaign stride, which is brisk to rapid.

New candidate Julie Hogan clearly didn’t realise the speed of an Enda walkabout.

She tottered along the streets in a very stylish but unpractical pair of nude heels.

Asked if the shoes were comfortable, she said: “I will know later.”

As Kenny made his way back up the hill, flanked by candidates Kehoe and Michael D’Arcy, Hogan was left in the dust. The night before, at a rally in Wexford town, Kenny had called on supporters to get two of their candidates over the line.

A dirty rain was falling when Kenny arrived to protesters at Andrew Doyle’s constituency office in Wicklow town.

As Kenny emerged from the office, both the media and protesters expected him to make another brisk escape into his waiting car.

But instead, flanked by a guard of honour of supporters, he took on another walkabout, with the vocal protestors in tow.

“Enda Kenny, out, out, out,” the small grouping of Right2Change protesters chanted before turning on local candidate Simon Harris.

After another day on the campaign trail, Kenny came out relatively unscathed from his encounters.

But the game is far from over.

For more election news, analysis and general banter join us HERE