As farmers head towards a national rally in Athlone, Opposition TDs, including rally organisers Independent Ireland, are limbering up to fight the Mercosur deal and the Government they accuse of not doing enough to oppose it.
Politics, they say, is the art of the possible and the position the Taoiseach found himself in this week aptly demonstrates that aphorism.
Seemingly open to supporting the historic Mercosur trade deal with South American countries on Wednesday, when Micheál Martin said "a lot of progress" had been made in efforts to provide further support to farmers, the political winds that blew from rural Irish constituencies to the shining Chinese city of Shanghai overnight put paid to that notion.
On Thursday, he was definitive, saying: "Our sense is that we don't have confidence that they (Irish farmers) won't be undercut ...so the Government will be voting no."
Ironically, the Taoiseach of a country that prides itself on its open economy and trade links said no to a multi-billion euro trade deal even as he was drumming up business in China.
Watch: Taoiseach says Ireland will vote against Mercosur trade deal
Political necessity at home trumped the wider-angle view, although the vote in favour of the Mercosur deal by the majority of EU states yesterday means it will likely still be ratified, although Tánaiste Simon Harris pointed out the result of a vote in the European Parliament cannot be taken for granted.
Mercosur has been around for a very long time.
Twenty-five years in the making, the deal will gradually reduce tariffs on 90% of goods traded between EU and the Mercosur countries - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The Government left the decision on where they stood on it until the very last minute, in the now vain hope that concessions to protect farmers would allow them to at least abstain in the vote.
Concessions won were unacceptable to the powerful farming lobby, however.
Rural-based Government TDs across the country were intensely lobbied by farmers groups in recent weeks even though Mercosur was firmly on the agenda for many already.
"The issue came up at many parliamentary party meetings and it really concerned the rural TDs," one Fianna Fáil deputy said.
"The IFA were lobbying hard and in the last week there was a huge increase in emails about Mercosur. I was getting an awful of lot of representations on it," the deputy said.
In Fine Gael, it was the same experience.
"There was a significant lobby right enough, but there was knowledge there too, that it was a difficult issue. We made a commitment in the Programme for Government and we had to stick by it which is what we did," one Fine Gael TD said.
Ironically, some Government backbenchers, especially in Fianna Fáil, are concerned they will get little credit for the Government's stance, arrived at the last minute.
"There was too much dithering," one said. "We should have been more definitive from the beginning. We are not coming out of this smelling of roses," they added.
Another TD said the Taoiseach's confirmation on Thursday that Ireland would vote against the deal was too slow.
"Fine Gael did better than us because the Minister for Agriculture (Martin Heydon) was out before the Taoiseach even if we were trying to do it by the book and get the best deal. We handled it poorly," he said.
Minister Heydon had stated, perhaps a tad jesuitically that the Government would decide the matter collectively, but he viewed Mercosur "negatively".
TDs from both parties take the view that independents will benefit most from the Government stand.
Junior ministers Micheal Healy-Rae and Seán Canney were vocal in their opposition to the deal, pushing for a no position from Ireland rather than an abstention.
Mercosur had been a key issue for the independents from back when talks on the formation of the Government began.
"It was a core part of the negotiations for the government programme," said one TD.
"We all put it there and we would not have agreed a Programme for Government without it there. We made the promise and we kept the promise," they added.
Notwithstanding the vote in Brussels yesterday, farming groups maintain Mercosur can still be defeated when it comes before MEPs for a vote in the European Parliament in the coming weeks.
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The Tánaiste said MEPs vote cannot be taken for granted and it is not a done deal yet, although he thinks the likelihood is that it will be voted through.
That is not going to stop the intensive Europe-wide lobbying campaign by farming organisations that has already commenced, led in Ireland by the Irish Farmers Association.
Those TDs will also hear lots on the matter when the Dáil returns on Tuesday.
Sinn Féin, who will attend todays rally, along with other Opposition parties have accused the Government of sitting on its hands for too long when it should have been lobbying against the deal.
Mary Lou McDonald's party will dedicate its two-hour private members time to a motion on Mercosur that sharply criticises the Government's handling of the issue.
Expect some testy exchanges when that debate gets under way.
