Whatever sport we might have hoped for from a day's radio coverage of the referendum count was ruined before it even started.

Europe said jump, and by mid-morning it was clear that we had jumped; it was just a question of how high.

RTE's coverage began at 10am, with Sean O'Rourke, fresh from his well-deserved PPI award for Best News Broadcaster, and Rachael English. Tallies were already showing a decisive victory.

"It's yes yes yes down the west coast," said O'Rourke, getting mixed up with Bloomsday. O'Rourke asked Joe Higgins if he was surprised that the margin was so wide, but Higgins was not allowing that.

"If it were 60-40 that would be an amazing achievement for those who were struggling for a 'No' vote against enormous odds," said Higgins, before adding: "By the way, if it were hurling or football it would be one-one, so we should be looking for a replay."

Later on Radio One, Marian Finucane found Declan Ganley in weirdly high spirits at the RDS. "I doff my cap," Ganley said, "to the greatest pol­itician in this country, Brian Cowen. As a Machiavell­ian politician, he made glove puppets of the opposition."

Ganley interrupted himself suddenly in mid-sentence. "I'm just congratulating [minister of state for European affairs] Dick Roche here," he said. "Dick, I haven't seen you during the whole campaign and that was the right thing to do. Congratulations."

Despite this jibe, Roche and Ganley had almost a love-in there, live, in the RDS. If it hadn't been radio, you'd have had to look away. They were positively flirting.

Even Marian Finucane was prompted to ask: "Since when have you two become very best friends?" to which Ganley replied darkly: "We go way way way back."

Ganley also made an appearance on Newstalk's Down to Business later where, having decided that the "Machiavellian" dig was serviceable, he used it again.

He repeated that Brian Cowen had made "glove puppets of the opposition", and extended the metaphor by describing Fine Gael and Labour as the Taoiseach's "willing vassals".

Later on the same programme – though obviously not until after we'd heard from Ivan Yates, because not five minutes can go by on Newstalk without a contribution from Ivan Yates – the willing vassal-in-chief did a lap of honour.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny was so overjoyed at the referendum result, you'd nearly think he was the one in a position to regard it as a mandate from the electorate.

He likened the result to 1922, and remarked that the Irish people were now "the leaders of Europe", to the amazement of one and all. "The Germans and the Italians and everybody else in Europe have been looking to this country, this small country," Kenny said. He didn't say "this great little country", but I swear he was on the point of it.

However, that was no worse than Micheál Martin's remark earlier on RTE. The lessons of the two referenda on Lisbon, Martin said, would "add value to the European experience". This is the future now; get used to it.