With just days to go until the ballot boxes are opened, tempers are flaring right, left and centre of the general election 2016 campaign.
:: Over on the centre leftish, Labour leader Joan Burton railed about the right. A so-called grand coalition of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil – the would-be coupling on everyone's lips – would be too right-wing, she warned, calling on people to think twice before casting their vote.
:: Taoiseach Enda Kenny thought twice before retracting his outspoken attack on the "whingers" in his own constituency. Finally putting his hands up, he offered a "mea culpa" – but only after clarifying that it was not people nationally he was talking about – just those who are able to vote for him in Castlebar.
:: Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald said the taoiseach was a bit of a whinger himself, before going on to attack the will they/won't they marriage of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as a "nightmare scenario".
:: The start of the last week of campaigning was the stuff of nightmares for Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who had to abandon a walkabout in Dublin's Crumlin after being harangued by angry anti-austerity demonstrators.
:: Coincidentally, his potential suitor, Mr Kenny, was also accosted by protesters as he arrived in Waterford, this time demonstrating against water charges. A minor scuffle broke out as gardai tried to contain the protest.
:: In an apparent signal that things are certainly heating up, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams apparently lost his cool during a grilling on radio. Asked if he would run again in the next election, he retorted: "Let's take one election at a time, sweet Jesus."
:: It was a sweet start to the week for the far-left Anti-Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit who called a press conference to trumpet their ascendancy, mocking their distant cousins that "for the first time ever, the socialist left has overtaken the Labour Party in an opinion poll".
