Somewhere in Roy Keane's first autobiography he writes about Brian Clough, his then manager at Nottingham Forest, unexpectedly punching him in the face after a mistake made on the pitch.
Ivan Yates certainty adopted the Clough approach as he launched in with a blistering charge to accuse the seven politicians before him of being chancers and charlatans.
The whirling speed of the opening moments were peppered with words like "con job", "incompetence", "auction politics" and "dishonest".
Yes the vocabulary of this debate had a defined pattern.
If the election manifestos had at moments hinted at a type of attainable utopia, there was a sense of foreboding in the air here.
This was not a time for promises, instead the hosts wanted to know about cuts.
Where would the axe fall if this moment in time followed the plummeting economic path that unfolded after the 2007 general election?
Then Micheál Martin rounded on Sinn Féin again as Mary Lou McDonald asked him to demonstrate some courtesy.
Leo Varadkar took aim at the Sinn Féin manifesto too.
Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan looked to the creation of a bigger state system while Brendan Howlin, attempted to sell himself as the wisest and most prudent of all.
And at times it even worked. In the raging storm he rarely looked flustered.
As everyone tried to settle, the Solidarity-PBP representative Mick Barry spoke of potentially larger spending figures than anyone else present have ever thought of.
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Party leaders clash over tax cuts, housing and climate
After 20 minutes most of those gathered seemed to be on the verge of breathlessness. They tried desperately to outwit the searing pace of the debate.
But of course they were unsuccessful and the shouting rose higher and higher.
Then on to housing and disagreement on whether a rent freeze would work or not.
Mary Lou McDonald quipped that Fianna Fáil was the party of the developers and Fine Gael was the party of the landlords.
Micheál Martin, who appeared quite tense at this stage, asked what was Sinn Féin the party of? You sensed the question was rhetorical but there was no answer forthcoming either way.
Then on to the topic of health.
Amid the unrelenting pace of it all, the Fianna Fáil leader urged Ivan Yates and Matt Cooper to calm it.
Sláintecare appeared to bring a healing consensus to the room before talk of the National Treatment Purchase Fund severed it again.
All the while Leo Varadkar's contributions were fitful, this was not a night for manifold acts of contrition or humility but he did admit getting the planed RIC commemoration wrong.
In fairness they probably aren't the most appropriate qualities to deploy in a bar room brawl and this was debating equivalent of just that.
And of course in many such brawls there is mention of the Black and Tans and the RIC, and this was no exception.
But actually the discussion then took a more measured and profound turn.
The topic that allowed this was the traditionally divisive one, the future of the Island of Ireland.
The grain of division was there at the end though as Mary Lou McDonald spoke of Micheál Martin's penchant for the "jibe".
In contrast, she said that Leo Varadkar had worked constructively with Sinn Féin to help restore the Northern Executive.
Mr Varadkar looked on, his decision to remain mostly above the fray perhaps not a bad call in the end.
The night ended with a slow dance and several parties hinted that they could step out with any number of partners post-election.
Sinn Féin shunned again by the big parties though.
There was a suggestion too from Leo Varadkar that perhaps he could support a minority Fianna Fáil Government though a Confidence and Supply agreement, in certain circumstances.
Micheál Martin insisted though that he would not be Leo's last resort.
The Social Democrats' Catherine Murphy sanguinely looked to a brighter future and said the next Dáil can achieve major positive change.
When the music stopped was there any new wisdom revealed? Unfortunately not.
