Enda Kenny performed well in his TV address following Gerry Adams’s appearance, but was anyone watching?
FOUR AND a half thrilling minutes of Enda. We haven’t had this much excitement since the day we boiled an egg.
The Taoiseach did his tre-ah-ty thing on television yesterday after Gerry Adams had his say on the matter the previous evening.
This was to redress the balance, in accordance with the McKenna judgment. Thus, a grateful nation got the chance to ignore them twice in 24 hours. Result? Politicians 0, Barbecues 2.
Enda performed well, giving the nation a tantalising taste of his debating skills. The oratorical gems dripped from his lips.
Nobody interrupted him or attempted to put forward an alternative point of view. He had his opponents spellbound.
That’s how good the Taoiseach was. What’s that? He was talking to himself? Yes, he prefers it that way.
Although had he heard Gerry Adams on lunchtime radio yesterday, even jittery Enda might have fancied his chances in a television debate with the Sinn Féin leader.
The last time Enda made a televised address somebody nailed his hands to the desk. Yesterday evening, his hands never appeared in the camera shot, so they could have been glued to anything.
In urging people to vote Yes for the tre-ah-ty, the Taoiseach advanced three positive reasons why they should do so.
He also revealed that his Government carried out some impressively heavy lifting and has managed “to get the country pointed in the right direction”.
It seems we were all over the place before they did the necessary readjustments. This explains the good weather.
The Taoiseach read aloud his essay, with a hint of sing-song, from the safety of his oak-panelled office.
This conveyed a comforting feeling of strength and solidity.
He was framed on one side by the Irish and EU flags and by a marble column on the other.
Few would have seen this as they were outside flipping burgers and flapping around in Flip flops on a day when the entire country smelled like an Argentinian steak house.
Some people, clearly unhinged, went to Dublin’s Mansion House in the afternoon for a Fine Gael referendum rally. Enda was the star attraction, after the face-painting and balloons.
It was held in the dimly lit twilight zone of the Round Room.
Ministers James Reilly and Michael Noonan wore their regulation suits and ties, reducing people who just looked at them to a lather of sweat.
Minister Phil Hogan was seated in a dark spot on the outer edge of the platform.
Alan Shatter stepped out in his figure – cream chinos and white open-neck shirt. Most disconcerting.
The Taoiseach was nearly an hour late, so the doughty faithful were bored rigid with speeches for longer than expected.
Enda gave a rousing speech, punctuated by the bursting of balloons, then posed for photographs with Ibec Youth aka Young Fine Gael.
He didn’t talk to the press and left fairly smartish for his state-of-Enda address.
And the nation’s verdict? The same as it was for Gerry. “Any chance of another sossie?”
