Declan Ganley

The clear winner from the referendum. Before Lisbon he was unknown; today he is virtually a household name. He spent buckets of money, but also spent it well. His clever use of imagery, particularly the way he never went anywhere without a copy of the treaty, drove home the idea that he was the only person who had actually read/fully understood it. Questions remain about the sources of funding for the €1.3m campaign, and about what motivated him to enter the fray. But there is no question that Libertas changed the dynamic of the traditional No campaign. His next move will be watched with interest.

The pro-life movement

It hasn't gone away you know. The Lisbon treaty had nothing, repeat nothing, to do with abortion. But there is no denying that the more hardline elements of the pro-life movement were successful in bringing it onto the agenda. It's impossible to know how many no votes were down to fears about abortion, but it was certainly one factor in the final result. Cóir's posters featuring the three chimpanzees, described by their spokesman Richard Greene as "the best of this campaign", certainly caught the eye.

Sinn Féin and Mary Lou McDonald

Her world collapsed after the Sinn Féin candidate with the most media appearances failed to live up to her own hype and secure a Dáil seat in Dublin Central last year. Some party insiders privately said they had reservations about her being the face of their Lisbon campaign while others claimed she had "got a second wind" a year after the party's election disaster. Friday's result has boosted her profile as a winner and given the party a morale boost. Donegal's Pádraig McLoughlin, the party's Lisbon campaign director, will also take a significant boost from the referendum ahead of the next year's European elections.

The hard left

After a year out in the cold following the loss of his Dáil seat, Joe Higgins, one of the most entertaining characters in Irish politics, backed a winner. As we descend into duller economic times Higgins must be thinking he will make political capital out of the slump and this could be the poll that relaunches his political career. While there is no guarantee this referendum win will translate into future support for the hard left, it has come as a boost to people like Higgins and Richard Boyd Barrett. However, a 63.5% yes vote in the People Before Profit leader's home constituency might not bode well for Barrett.

Eurosceptics across Europe

As soon as the boxes were open in Ireland, rebel British Labour MP and eurosceptic Tony Benn came onto the Pat Kenny radio show and claimed, "This referendum is very important for the whole of Europe and not just Ireland. The future of Europe is in Irish hands. British freedom is in their hands and isn't that a turn-up for the books." Benn and Eurosceptics like him across the continent will be happy that their perceived threat of a 'European super state' has been banished by the Irish decision on Lisbon. Even though Lisbon did not ask if we were in or out of Europe, a substantial number of people perceived the referendum as a vote on just that.

Brian Cowen

This was the new Taoiseach's first big test and he failed it. He took personal responsibility for the campaign, so will be personally associated with its defeat. He did well in the last week of the campaign but questions will inevitably arise about his overall performance. It took too long to the get the farmers' group on side; the No side was much better at getting its arguments across; and Cowen's implied criticism of Fine Gael's efforts didn't help woo that party's voters to the cause. Bertie Ahern shrugged off a couple of referendum defeats and the same may yet prove true for Cowen, but the honeymoon is certainly over.

Bertie Ahern

The former Taoiseach rightly got all the plaudits in Europe for his role in securing agreement on the original constitution. However, a lot of the problems with the Yes campaign stemmed from his time in the top job. The long delay in naming a date for the referendum and the distraction caused by the furore over his personal finances were a bad start, allowing the No side to build what proved to be an unstoppable momentum. His long drawn-out farewell lap of honour also didn't help. Whatever chance Ahern had of landing the plum job of president of the European Council (if he even wanted it in the first place) has surely gone now.

Ireland's love affair with the EU

More than any other country, Ireland is seen as the ultimate example of the benefits that EU membership can bring and the largesse turned us into to ardent Europhiles. But as the money has dried up in recent years, support for the EU in Ireland has been dipping, culminating in Friday's result. Whatever about Ireland's love affair with the EU, the EU's love affair with Ireland will certainly have taken a knock. Rightly or wrongly, it will be perceived in Brussels and elsewhere as a country that has done very well from Europe pulling down the shutters when the time came to give something back.

The hard right

The progressive who? This referendum could confine the PDs to the history books as speculation grows that the party will not stay intact until next year's local and European elections. The party's referendum posters were emblazoned with large portraits of its new leader, Ciarán Cannon, as it strived to make him recognisable to the public. He never featured anywhere in the debate at any level throughout the campaign. The fact that Mary Harney, instead of Cannon, was at the fore of the PD campaign in the vital days before polling says a lot.

Enda Kenny

Although unfairly criticised by Fianna Fáil for not doing enough, even though his party launched its campaign before the main government party, Fine Gael had a bad campaign. On the crucial RTÉ Questions and Answers debate last Monday night, Kenny gave a poor and unconvincing performance alongside foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin for the Yes side. An opinion poll in the Irish Times in the middle of the campaign was largely overlooked but it showed Fine Gael in some trouble. Support for the party had slipped back to its lowest rating in more than three years, and support for Kenny dropped down four points to 35%.

Shane Coleman

and Conor McMorrow