But last Wednesday's shock resignation of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as party leader meant that this event was now no longer just about those 15 counties, and the party's executive would instead use the day to announce that Simon Harris was the only candidate for the leadership of the party and the country, massively boosting attendance.

Indeed, it is rare that a European election selection convention attracts more than a handful of media, let alone 50 accredited members of the press.

But it is even rarer that the convention also crowns the new leader of the party, who will become leader of the country.

In Athlone on Sunday, the nation's press milled around awaiting the arrival of the man who would be king, though when he eventually arrived, it would be through the underground car park and not the staked-out front door. 

The Taoiseach-in-waiting still needs to park the car, it seems.

In the room, director of elections Mr Coveney joked that the ministers in attendance were "ministers for now". 

Mr Harris would arrive to a rapturous reception just after jockey Nina Carberry's nomination, but probably wished he had stayed upstairs when it came time for Maria Walsh to be nominated.

If Mr Harris thought this was going to be a honeymoon, he hadn't counted on Michael Ring. 

The former rural affairs minister had earlier excoriated the direction that Fine Gael had taken under Leo Varadkar.

"We are not a left-wing party, we are a centre party and Fine Gael has to move back into the centre again, and more to the right," he had told RTÈ's This Week.

"We need to go back to core issues, law and order, we need to be doing more on law and order," he said.

"We need to go back to small businesses and farmers and we need to forget about a lot of these social issues we have been raising over the last few years that have been annoying people and upsetting people."

Mr Ring told Mr Harris in no uncertain terms that he needed to go "back to Fine Gael core values", but said he wouldn't go any further. 

The message had already been sent, there was no doubt, though there wasn't a unanimous support for Mr Ring's comments in the room.

The nature of the event meant that Mr Harris had to wait until the nominations for June's elections had taken place before he took to the stage. 

He may be the taoiseach in waiting, but here, he is the new president of Fine Gael first and foremost.

After Mr Coveney rallied the troops, railing at "populism" and "division" and saying that Fine Gael's role in politics was to ensure the centre holds, Mr Harris was finally able to ascend to the role that he has been headed to since Thursday morning, when his surrogates and allies bombarded the airwaves with pledges of support.

He began by referencing his nomination of Enda Kenny quoting the letter George Bernard Shaw sent to Michael Collins’ s sister Hannie upon the death of her brother: “It is time to hang out our brightest colours and move forward as a nation.”

Mr Harris was keen to hammer home that despite all of his own talk of renewal, revitalisation, and reinvigoration, he was happy with the last 13 years of Fine Gael rule, even if things like pledging a firmer immigration policy have been uniquely in the gift of his party for more than a decade.

The colours, he argued, were bright and should be viewed as such. 

His strongest moment in the speech saw him decry the use of a tricolour on the casket of Garda killer Pearse McAuley last week, a late addition that brought a rousing 45-second standing ovation.

But it was not Simon the Party Man on show as much as Simon The Statesman, as Mr Harris looks to prove he can make the jump from TikTok favourite to world leader, someone who can, as he outlined himself, win back disaffected voters.

The speech itself worked well in the room, offering dashes of hope, an emphasis on law and order, and a sprinkling of Shinner-bashing.

But the test for Mr Harris won't be how well he can preach to the choir, it will be how many non-believers he can convert.

It starts now.