Considering the party is about to get beaten out of sight in two byelections, the mood at the Fianna Fáil ardfheis in Dublin last weekend was chipper. By and large, delegates were pretty pleased with themselves – after all, their leader is Taoiseach, they’re the largest party in the Dáil, they’re the largest party of local government: what’s not to be happy about?

Questions about the byelections were cheerfully shrugged off with the sort of self-deprecatory banter that seems to come more easily to Fianna Fáilers than to members of the other political tribes. They are their own most withering critics, and also fiercest defenders. Questions of the basic sanity/mental capacity/psychological equilibrium of colleagues (and indeed the organisation as a whole) are freely bandied about. Those who publicly insist that their excellent candidates are working hard on the ground and getting a great reaction on the doors wonder privately: “Who the f**k is our candidate anyway? Where did we find him? Has anyone ever heard of him?” Hilarity all round.

Reports from the doors were mixed. There was amusement, agreement and exasperation with Bertie Ahern’s escapades, with a few people quietly observing that maybe it wouldn’t have been such a brilliant idea to run him for the presidency after all. But nobody wanted to go back over that particular omnishambles.

There was also warmth towards “the Bert”, with the Saturday evening crowd cheering when his image appeared on the giant screen. Lustily, too, they cheered for Brian Cowen – and for Micheál Martin, who has........

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