INSIDE POLITICS - THE RUMBLE OF RANELAGH

Five years ago, we only had somebody shoving a custard pie into the tragic Michael Noonan's face.

In Britain, in 2005, some guy throw an egg at John Prescott and got a neat uppercut in the chin for his trouble.

But we have been spoiled in this election. If Vincent Browne's showdown with Enda Kenny wasn't enough, today we had the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between Michael McDowell and John Gormley that RTE's Dave McCullagh described as the Rumble of Ranelagh.

gormley showed brass neck. He was outraged by a reference in a PD pamplet that the Greens would raise corporation tax, and branded him a liar and a headless chicken. Those who were there, including my colleague Shaun Connolly, said it was remarkable stuff, vaudeville, vintage knockabout. Shaun will be writing tomorrow morning in the Examiner that:

"They slugged it out with the ferocity of two posh boys locking horns in the queue of a tuck shop queue."

RTE will also put the whole encounter up on their website later.