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Handbags, wristbands and men with ear piecesby Louise Harrisonnews@timerickpost.ie

THE atmosphere was electric in the

University of Limerick on MonclaY

night as an air of expectation built for

the first ever leaclers pre-election

debate to be held outside of Dublin.Having arrived excessivelY earlY,

and gone through a number of.:curity checks, I chatted with a lady

-:rm Listowel, as we queued to have

:r handbags searched.

Once registered, we were adorned',,'thplasticn'ristbanils anddispatched-. the lobby upstairs. The colours of':: udstbands set us aPart with the

debate audience, chosen bY an

independent Poliing company'

allocated pink and UL guests given

vellow wristbands.People hovered

unsure of what to do, until theY were

invited them to help themselves to agenerous spread of sandwiches antl

snacks. There were wide variations in

the audience Profile but these

dissipated as theY came to the

realisation they were all in the same

predicament. I found the ladY from

th. qo.ne, and we laughed over the

fact that we had forgotten to empty

our untidy handbags before we came,

and our embarrassment as securitY

staff inspected doggie Poo bags

(unused) among other unmentionabieitems. With uniformed and besuited

olficials. complele with ear pieces.

striding purposefully in and out of theauditorium, it feit like a film set'

something from the West Wing, where

undercover detectives stood onbalconies on different floors, leaningover railings watching the crowd.

The 'Magnificent Seven' entered bY

a separate door and went upstairs to a

reception area, protected by raiiingsand securitY.

Finally the time came to be seated

and "the sensible PeoPie in the

audience," as Claire Byrne described

them,occupied their allocated seating.

The UL guests, those in the Yellowr,r,'ristbands, were seated in the room

next door to the debate, where theY

watched the live stream in a more

relaxed atmosphere and their reaction

to quips such as GerrY Adams' "the

Thrle Amigos" and StephenDonnelly's

"rolling out the red carpet for Donald

Trump", could not be Picked uP bY

microphones.RTE told us that more than a million

viewers watched the debate. I don't

know il it wiil have swayed voters one

way or another, but itwasentertaining,chaired extremely well by Claire Byrne

and professionally hosted and staged

by UL.