Paul Hosford: Leaders' visits to the Ploughing Championships have an air of electioneering
Taoiseach On Early Ratheniska, Was Harris In Laois National The Co At Simon Championships Site Ploughing
The Ploughing Championships, Micheál Martin said, is the "signature event" of rural Ireland.
Here, he contended, you can get the pulse of the country. Indeed Taoiseach Simon Harris said that it was good to get "out of the Dublin bubble". Of course, the glorious weather helped in Ratheniska, particularly for this writer, a Ploughing neophyte.
Getting the pulse of the electorate is a good explanation for why both the Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil leaders have come to this field in the middle of nowhere twice this week. Another explanation is that it's a good way to campaign if you're in election mode.
Of course, both men denied that an election will happen until long after the Christmas decorations are taken down, but minds will have been sharpened by a Thursday morning opinion poll that showed Fine Gael on 27% of support, seven points clear of Sinn Féin and nine ahead of Mr Martin's party.
Mr Martin has long believed in that old maxim that the "only poll that matters is polling day", but he's not naive and nothing if not a savvy political operator. He knows that he is behind in polls to a man who has the sole prerogative to call an election and that must not be a comfortable place.
And, so, to the Ploughing we go.
Mr Harris was on site early, joining the IFA at its tent — which was more of a warehouse — having to walk past a facade plastered with pictures of IFA President Francie Gorman and both Mr Harris and Mary Lou McDonald. Where the Taoiseach goes at events like this, throngs of curious onlookers follow, most not necessarily seeking to meet the man, but content to snap a photo of him at work.
Likewise, Mr Martin's arrival at his media appearance was slightly delayed as children from across the country were thrust in front of him.
While he rebuffed the idea that the polling was on his mind, he said that neither November nor February is a nice time to be going to the doors, saying that November is dark and February is freezing, joking that the "optimum" time to go to the public is June, but that ship has sailed.
In substance, the two party leaders echoed each other. Both said that the Apple tax windfall would be invested in the electric grid and water infrastructure. Both made mention of the nitrates derogation and how the investment in water would help.
Both refused to be drawn on whether Hungary had a hand in explosions in Lebanon.
Events like this are always effectively campaign events without the name. There's a reason political parties rent massive tents, send their frontbenches and offer vouchers for signing up to politicians' newsletters.
But on Thursday, the notion of an election hung in the air thicker than the early morning fog that had threatened not to clear.
A signature event? Of course. Just another day out? Absolutely not.