IT WAS hard to know on Wednesday evening if anyone could bring anything new to another presidential debate. By the middle of last week, with many of them having experienced one or more banana skins, the candidates, apart from Gay Mitchell, were all falling over each other to be as inoffensive as they possibly could be.

Given the erratic nature of people's standings in polls, the race still felt wide open, and rather than anyone trying to win it, all the candidates were mainly trying not to lose it. So no one was trying to get ahead of the others by being, God forbid, inspiring or anything, but all were trying to make sure they didn't make a gaffe that would put them behind the others.

Amazingly, a few of them seemed to think that taking on Martin McGuinness would constitute a gaffe. David Norris even went out of his way to suck up to McGuinness at Wednesday's debate, as if this would encourage McGuinness to tell his supporters to give their transfers to a gay Prod West Brit.

Indeed, Miriam O'Callaghan seemed to bemoan the general level of niceness for the first half of Wednesday's debate. Ultimately, Dana saved the day, with a dramatic and almost tearful intervention that left the nation baffled and on the edge of our seats. But the Dana moment, as bizarre as it was, was not the standout moment on the debate.

A lot happened in Wednesday's debate. Sean Gallagher, who had been cruising very well, had a bit of a hiccup when he didn't need to. When O'Callaghan asked him if he didn't agree that Fianna Fail had let the country down, Gallagher hummed and hawed around it. Presumably afraid of alienating the core Fianna Fail vote he is getting, Gallagher somehow refused to dump on the last Government. It was a very foolish thing for him to do. Even hardcore Fianna Failers will now admit that the last Government let down the country. But what they will explain to you was that it wasn't the grassroots, or even the whole of the parliamentary party that ruined the country. Gallagher could easily have said to Miriam that this country was primarily let down by a small dysfunctional coterie at the top of Fianna Fail, to whom, as John McGuinness outlined to me yet again on The Saturday Night Show last weekend, most of the rest of the party had no access, the so-called "bar lobby" who rarely listened to anyone outside of their group.

Fianna Failers will tell you that it was not Fianna Fail that let down the country, but an aberration of Fianna Fail led by Cowen and his cronies. All Gallagher needed to do was to say that yes, a faction within Fianna Fail had ruined the country, but that you couldn't blame the members all over the country and the million plus people who voted Fianna Fail in the second last general election for that.

But he didn't. And suddenly Gallagher started looking less than straight, a bit evasive, and of all the candidates, he was one we admired for being very straight -- the kind of guy who'd look you in the eye and give you a firm handshake. Indeed, it fell to Gay Mitchell and others to defend the Fianna Fail grassroots as Gallagher dug his hole.

With Gallagher on the back foot again, all the people who had started to think "Ah, I suppose he's the best of a bad lot", were forced to think again. On the evidence of the debate the other night, Gay

Mitchell actually looked like the most viable alternative. There was a certain authority about him and as the others played nice and nicer, Mitchell suddenly seemed a bit real compared to the rest of them, a streak of racy black amidst the beige. While Norris was a bit more composed and regal than he has been recently, the other two credible alternatives were probably McGuinness and Michael D. Until McGuinness had his moment.

Let's leave what happened after the debate to the side for now. Where it all fell apart for Martin McGuinness in the debate was in his use of one very simple word, a word he used twice -- "Miriam".

It was that barking of "Miriam! Miriam!" and the flash of anger that crossed McGuinness's face as he said it that was the real moment his mask slipped. It was very, very revealing and very, very stupid. Suddenly McGuinness looked like a man who was capable of being involved in a murder, a man whom you wouldn't want to make angry, because you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

When we subsequently heard that McGuinness had confronted Miriam O'Callaghan in a dressing room afterwards, that raised voices were heard, and that O'Callaghan, a tough woman who has dealt with the vicious politics not just of RTE but of the BBC too, was very shaken afterwards, we weren't surprised. Because we had seen that bark, that "Miriam, Miriam". And in that moment, even more so than when he told Private Paddy Kelly's son David that his dad's murder was in the past, and that David should essentially get with the programme and move on, Martin McGuinness screwed up.

By demanding to follow it up afterwards -- by which time he should have cooled down -- with a dressing-room confrontation with Miriam O'Callaghan was even more foolish of McGuinness. You mess with Miriam O'Callaghan at your peril. Not because of her as such, but because of the regard in which she is held "down here", as McGuinness, on Wednesday night, called the country of which he wants to be President. Attempt to bully Miriam O'Callaghan and you attempt to bully all of Mna na hEireann, all the mothers, all the working mothers. Not a good move. Just doesn't look good. But then, maybe Martin doesn't get certain things about down here.

It is telling that despite a concerted campaign by Sinn Fein to deluge RTE with complaints after the debate , only 100 were received in the 24 hours or so after the Prime Time programme. Sinn Fein can normally generate much more of a response than that. But maybe even the Shinners knew in their heart of hearts that it was not O'Callaghan who stepped over the line on Wednesday, but McGuinness.

What Miriam O'Callaghan apparently did wrong was to suggest that Martin McGuinness may have had an involvement with murders in the past. This was apparently an outrageous slur on McGuinness's character. Except that we all know that Martin McGuinness had an involvement with murders in the past. So what is so outrageous about Miriam O'Callaghan asking him about it? What would be outrageous is if Miriam O'Callaghan didn't ask him about it.

And McGuinness really has a nerve getting up on his high horse about being asked about his past. He is standing for the Presidency. All of his fellow candidates are having their past and their characters raked over. Sean Gallagher was put on the rack the other night for only paying back €19,000 out of €20,000 of some loan he got to set up a business that created 100 jobs in Louth. Mary Davis has been hounded for weeks, and was again by Miriam O'Callaghan on Wednesday, for being a quango queen. And of course David Norris has been rightfully taken to task for various errors of judgement and controversial opinions he has expressed in the past. This is the game. This is how it works. This is the kind of scrutiny they have agreed to be held up to.

But all these things -- membership of Fianna Fail, money from State boards, letters of clemency -- are mere peccadilloes, mere walks in the park, next to involvement in murder, and potentially involvement in mass murder, or serial killings .

But somehow, while there are no complaints about all the rest of them being asked about their past deeds and misdeeds, we can't talk about the possible murderer in the room. And even though the possible murderer in the room refuses to come clean on his past, he still expects to be made President. You would have to suggest to Martin McGuinness, as you would to anyone else who is that prickly about their past, that maybe they shouldn't run for President, because this is the nature of the campaign. Your story gets picked over, whatever your story happens to be.

And while Martin McGuinness would, as we all would in his position, prefer that his campaign was one of acclaim, where he was feted by the Fionnula Flanagans and the Colm Meaneys of the world, you can't avoid your story. In life, and particularly in a presidential campaign, you can't avoid your story.

And it's not Miriam O'Call-aghan's fault, or anyone else's fault, that Martin McGuinness's story is what it is. And if you don't feel comfortable talking about your story, then don't put yourself out there like this. And if you are a little bit compromised about your story, and you feel you can't talk about it for whatever reason, then don't blame Miriam, or anyone else. Because it's not her fault, or our fault.

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