FG's unlikely man

Totting up the early morning tallies is a key part of the learning curve for eager young political activists. Each party had a team of tallymen in the RDS from early yesterday morning. There was no sign of Bertie Ahern or any of the 'Drumcondra Mafia' doing their bit for Fianna Fáil as the Dublin North Central ballot boxes were opened.

But one former taoiseach was mucking in for his party. Despite recently criticising his party's 'good bank/bad bank' plan, Garret FitzGerald was quietly tallying the Dublin Central boxes for Fine Gael from 9am yesterday.

Exit poll scare

The Yes side were forced to endure a nail-biting hour or two on Friday night. Just as voting was coming to a close, political blogs and the Irish Times website gave everyone a shock when they reported the results of Fine Gael exit poll. The reports claimed the result was extremely tight with the Yes side polling 52% and the No side polling 48%.

The Fine Gael press office was quick to get on the case and the reports on the RTÉ TV news after The Late Late Show before midnight reported the correct figure of 60% for the Yes side and 40% for the No side.

On Saturday morning, political correspondents were sent a text message that stated: "A late surge in Dublin voting has shown Yes 65% No 35% in FG exit poll after all samples were tallied."

Delighted Dublin South East TD Lucinda Creighton said despite the confusion, the party's exit poll was a representative sample of how the country was feeling. The poll was taken in the morning, afternoon and evening in rural and urban constituencies across the country.

Cowen's media frenzy

Taoiseach Brian Cowen was hammered by the media after Lisbon 1 was defeated 16 months ago. Since then, his tenure has been dogged by crises and economic turmoil. Despite Cowen being one of the most unpopular taoisigh in the history of the state, he cannot be faulted for his efforts in the Lisbon 2 campaign over the last month. A government source told the Sunday Tribune that despite his official business, Cowen visited 26 constituencies in the last four weeks. He engaged in a media blitz by making himself available for 12 long interviews in the national broadcast media and 16 extended local radio interviews. He also had 10 articles with his own byline printed in national newspapers and held five national press conferences.

Middle-classes mobilized

In the weeks before the referendum many observers claimed a key to the Yes side winning would be their ability to mobilise the middle classes. While reports on Friday night suggested this had happened, the opening of one ballot box in the RDS yesterday morning proved that point. Voters in Ballsbridge voted in the local Mercedes garage as it was used as a polling station due to the nearby Ballsbridge College of Further Education being unavailable. And they certainly voted in their droves, with a staggering 87% turnout reported by early tallies.

Polling day 'no' to Snow Patrol

Irish band Snow Patrol fell victim to the broadcasting moratorium last week when their new single 'Just Say Yes' was removed from the airwaves. Today FM was among the stations who took the song off their playlist for two days.

Penned by singer Gary Lightbody, the song was in no way connected to the Lisbon Vote.