The terror on the faces of the Fianna Fáil staffers, TDs and Ministers gathered around the Taoiseach on Monday were obvious.
Like Michael Collins, Micheál Martin was facing an ambush on home turf.
As he entered the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork for his party’s think-in, up stepped Antoinette Burke, who says her seriously ill child has been failed by the State, to confront the Taoiseach and demand action.
The cameras clicked and phones began to record. There wasn’t anyone present who wasn’t thinking of Fine Gael leader Simon Harris’s disastrous confrontation with Charlotte Fallon in Kanturk during last year’s general election campaign.
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Was this about to become another politically significant moment?
“Katie needs help,” said Ms Burke, with the passion and exhaustion of someone who has been campaigning for years for her daughter.
[ Micheál Martin criticises some councils over ‘inertia’ on housing and zoning landOpens in new window ]
She said she has been trying to get surgery for her 18-year-old daughter, who has complex health needs, for 15 years.
She wants the Minister for Health – or the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, or anyone – to order the Health Service Executive to carry out the surgery. Ms Burke is also trying to raise €300,000 to cover the cost of Katie having the surgery in the United States.
“My daughter is suffering, she is in pain,” she said.
But – perhaps amazingly – Mr Martin and Ms Burke had a generally respectful exchange during which she succeeded in conveying her frustration and anger at the failure to provide her daughter with the care she needs.
The Taoiseach listened with his best concerned priest demeanour. He promised to look into the case. They parted amicably. It was a powerful and fraught moment. But it wasn’t a gotcha.
Later, questioned by journalists, Mr Martin explained that an information note supplied by Ms Burke suggested the objections to surgery by senior doctors were based on clinical grounds.
That does not mean they are any less frustrating for Katie’s mother to hear – and nor does it mean they are not open to question by other experts – but it does illustrate the difficulties politicians face on such matters.
Who are they to order doctors to perform treatments? Often these things are not as black and white as they seem.
Elsewhere, the lesser-spotted Fianna Fáil presidential candidate, Jim Gavin, made an appearance. He acknowledged that the Government’s performance on housing has left something to be desired and that he would speak out “without fear or favour”, ala Michael D Higgins, if elected president.
The Taoiseach earlier pointed the finger at local authorities for not doing their bit to solve the crisis, suggesting he has strong words in store for them. But maybe he can’t force them to do anything, either.
Later, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers emerged to issue another warning that the forthcoming budget will be significantly more parsimonious that its predecessors.
Last year, he promised voters they would be at least €1,000 a year better off after the budget. Asked what this year’s figure would be, he predicting this was “more challenging” and he was “not in a position” to do so.
After years of bumper giveaways, his forecast may turn out to be the most politically significant thing to happen in the coming Dáil term.
