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Bertie's speed-date with Buncrana
28.04.08
BERTIE was a wee bit
late arriving in Inishowen on Friday...but who's
counting the minutes when the moment will be
captured forever?
Television cameras, mobile phone cameras,
state-of-the-art press cameras and the humble
disposable were all clicking away from the second
the Taoiseach stepped from his chauffeur-driven
Mercedes onto the inner relief road in Buncrana.
Did anyone tell him his shiny shoes would get dirty
with the runny cement that oozed onto the kerbside
from the €21m building site. Did he care? |
"How're lads?" shouted
Bertie, donning hard hat and high visibility vest
and waving to the guys pouring the cement.
This was Bertie at his best - the people's Bertie
coming to say goodbye, and everyone wanted to be
part of the moment. Babies and young children were
put in his path - snap...for posterity; men and |
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women grabbed his hand
and said 'we're sorry to see you go' - snap, for the
family album; and then there was the no-nonsense
woman who demanded to know what he was going to do
about the ongoing pharmacy row. "We're trying to do
a deal with them..." declared Bertie, not wanting to
ignore her, while his 'people' swiftly ushered him
along.
Then there were the 'official' photos - Bertie
looking at the architects' drawings for the €21m
decentralised social welfare offices and Garda
station at Ardaravan Square and Bertie receiving the
gift of paintings from local community groups
including Cashel na Cor. |
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This was what you might
call a speed-date with Buncrana...so fast in fact
that the many intrepid photographers who gathered to
capture the event would have been hard pressed to
catch Bertie in focus.
His schedule demanded that he go straight to
Letterkenny from Buncrana, but Senator Cecilia
Keaveney encouraged him to |
call off at the
Inishowen Gateway Hotel to say goodbye to members of
the local Fianna Fáil cumainn.
But this being a speed-date, Bertie got there before
the cumainn and used the two-minute headstart to
catch a quick visit to the men's room. Clearly, it
would be one of the only minutes he would get alone
the entire day.
Out of the men's room, snap...with members of the
local cumainn and (great photo opportunity)
snap...with a couple of newlyweds. Leanne Friel from
Buncrana and her new husband William Houvane from
New York were happily enjoying their wedding
reception in the hotel when word reached them that
Bertie Ahern was in the building.
Before long, it was 'snap' once again for the
wedding album as Bertie posed with the bride and
groom and their wedding party including the
distinctly unfazed flower girl Cassie Lyons. Cassie
was more interested in clutching a bag of crisps
than Bertie's hand.
Before he left Inishowen, Bertie thanked the local
cumainn for their 'hard work' and promised to return
on holiday.
Then it was into the Merc' again. Cecilia Keaveney
handed over the usher-in-chief baton to Deputy Niall
Blaney as the cavalcade sped off to officially open
his constituency office in Letterkenny.
The Bertie tornado that had blown into the peninsula
not half an hour earlier, was now spinning its way
south of the county. He was guest of honour later
that evening at a gala ball in aid of the Alan
Doherty Fund.
Back in star-struck Inishowen, Cecilia Keaveney who had brimmed
with pride that afternoon as Bertie paid a final
farewell to her home turf, reflected fondly on his
last official visit. "As we pulled him left and
right, forward and back to meet young and old, big
and small all day on Friday, I marvelled once more
at his patience and the fact that never in the
twelve years I've known him, has he got fed up with
the constant cycle of people wishing for photos,
autographs or hand shakes."
Well, what else would you expect from a seasoned
speed-dater! For more photos from the Taoiseach's
visit click here
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