EVERY evening, TheJournal.ie brings your Daily Fix: our pick of the highlights (and some of the lows) of today’s campaign trail. Nine days to go…

GOOD DAY FOR:

• An Gaeilge - after being put to the top of the political agenda yesterday, the Irish language is in the spotlight this evening as TG4 broadcasts its pre-recorded leaders’ debate between the heads of all three main parties. The first broadcast, which began at 7pm, is being replayed at 10:30pm and again tomorrow morning at 10:30am.
• John Gormley - who, for the first time, features significantly in our real-time Twitter tracker. All publicity is good publicity, right? Well, not quite: the sentiment tracker says his tweets have been ‘slightly negative’.

BAD DAY FOR:

• Fianna Fáil: Then again, when is it a good day for Fianna Fáil? Following the Irish Independent’s poll that gave it a miserable 12 per cent of public support, Boards.ie’s analysis of transfer patterns in its own poll suggests the party will get less than 8 per cent of second preferences, and less than 7 per cent of third preferences – putting it on course for electoral wipeout.
• The Irish Army: They might not have realised, but they should apparently be preparing themselves for a stint of martial law. At least, that’s the opinion of outgoing Fianna Fáil TD Ned O’Keeffe, who says an army coup is “a real possibility” because the country is in such a “state”.

PRESS RELEASE HEADLINE OF THE DAY

An easy award to give today – at 3.15pm today came this offering, from Fine Gael: “Willie O’Dea has no idea what he’s on about, you can’t believe a word he says”.

The release itself, somewhat disappointingly, was from Olivia Mitchell – and not, sadly, the party’s new official platform.

PHOTO OP OF THE DAY:

Only one possible winner: Pat Rabbitte launched Labour’s plans for the retail sector at Korky’s shoe shop on Grafton Street, better known in recent months as being ‘the shop with the big ‘RENTS ARE KILLING OUR JOBS’ sign outside it’.

Talking about getting the boot in…

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