This morning I though we had lost an elder statesman such were the gushing tributes on twitter (twibutes!) from Fergus O’Dowd Louth FG TD.

Fergus had come to twitter a few months ago to talk about his weight loss on Operation Transformation. Now we get progress reports (3 Stone gone)  interspersed with concerns about transport issues etc.  The morning after the weekend in Killarney it was clear that Deputy O’ Dowd had plenty on his mind.

Having established that Garret was definitely still with us (phew Election coverage on radio is safe for a while yet) it was clear to see there were cards being marked after the FG conference in Killarney at the weekend. I wasn’t there myself mind but the vibes from Kerry were reaching me.  Some people weren’t happy at all at all.

In an untelevised speech to the party faithful before the leaders speech, Leo Varadkar had them whooping from their seats as he took aim at former party leaders, Alan Dukes and Garret Fitzgerald who have both criticised the party in recent months.

“We do not do what we do every day to seek your high opinion,” said Leo. “We do what we do to serve the Irish people.”

And then there’s the launch of New Politics – the 101 page plan for political reform. Having been skewered by Lucinda Creighton (Ireland’s newest Feminist!) a few weeks ago and Young Fine Gael last week, the plan has had very luke warm support from some other members of the parliamentary party.  It was launched today with a few issues missing, possibly to gather dust unless Enda is elected the next Taoiseach and even then who knows?   (Human Rights  in Ireland is promising more considered analysis of the document in the days to come. )

And there are some very wounded egos from not being name checked during the party leaders speech – James Reilly, Simon Coveney, Leo and Alan Shatter all got a shout out with special mention for the man everyone else wants to be leader, Richard Bruton. But as for the rest of them there was nothing.