Maia Dunphy, TV presenter living in London

ICOULDN’T believe the news this morning. It was the first time I had a vote in the UK, so I made mine by post last week. But everyone I know is stunned by this. The ‘Leave’ side was entirely fuelled by fear and scaremongering. Twitter was like a bar-room brawl this morning with name-calling and defensiveness.

I honestly don’t think people know what they’ve done. That sounds so patronising I know, but the anti-immigration sentiment behind it is nothing short of terrifying; the cries of ‘we have our country back’ bemusing. Back from who? Johnny Foreigner? The EU?

I’m no economist, but I understand a few basic rules of the free market. Of course, we don’t know what new agreements the UK will be able to make with the EU, but to paraphrase AA Gill, this is a divorce and make no mistake. You can’t leave someone and then expect them to still sleep with you at the weekends.

I love London and it has become my home over the last year, but I’m nothing short of disgusted by the result. Of course, when I say that I’m told to ‘go home if I don’t like it’ on social media, but is this really what we’ve been reduced to?

The world seems so full of xenophobic propaganda and fear at the moment, it’s awful. I’m just relieved I have an Irish passport for my little boy.

On a lighter note, I overheard an English stag party in Benidorm today discussing it. One guy said to another that the beer over here would cost them more now. The other reassured him that it was okay because “we already have our Euros (sic) changed”. But the first chap said “it doesn’t matter, the bars will still charge us more” and they all looked crestfallen. Mind you, only a minute earlier they had been debating whether or not “clockwise is the other way in Spain” but concluded it’s only “the other way round in Australia”.