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Par for the course

• Mark Devenport
• 22 Feb 07, 10:22 PM

After Ian Paisley on Pancake Tuesday, I spent Thursday with Gerry Adams. He's obviously very tight for time as he treated to me to possibly the shortest walkabout I have ever covered. In Armagh, it was more of a street corner about than a real walk about. The name of the game is to stop in as many places as possible for the shortest time possible, ensuring that in each place there's a candidate on hand and a local newspaper photographer to immortalise the leader in the target seat.

An Armagh GAA player got hauled into one photo opportunity - no surprise there. But in Gilford I was a little more puzzled to find local republicans strongly promoting the game of golf. It's nothing to do with their attachment to the agreement hatched in St Andrews, the home of golf.

Instead they are backing developers who want to convert the shell of the old local mill into a hotel. That's got planning permission, but the project is tied to developing adjacent land as a golf course in order to attract people to stay there. And that idea is apparently stuck in a planning bunker.

Bunkers and republicans. Now why does that ring a bell?