Casey surge linked to people fighting back

vote for me in this election was for Michael D Higgins, who was already in the job and doing well at it and wanted to stay in it and might as well instead of sitting at home on a fat pension.

But removing personal opinion – well done to him for a remarkable victory, going from 1% to 21%. That’s a phenomenal achievement.

I interviewed Casey once and he seemed like a very nice man – charming, an interesting conversationalist and sincere and warm. I didn’t see much of that in his campaign, and the disrespect of accusing the sitting President of lying does not impress me.

I don’t like pot-stirring and have no time for people making arguments of which they know nothing. Casey was very vocal on our “welfaredependent state” but then couldn’t even answer how much people got on the dole each week.

Similarly, he claimed Travellers weren’t an ethnic minority, but there’s no arguing with their status when you know it’s definition: “A group within a community that has different cultural traditions from the rest of the population.”

I think it’s a case of the old phrase that explains the importance of free speech: “I may disapprove of what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it.”

Noel Whelan on RTE yesterday put it a different way: “Irish people like someone who speaks their mind, irrespective of whether they like their view or not.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also gave an unintended boost to Casey’s popularity late in the race when he took the unusual move of coming out and telling the electorate not to vote for Casey.

He will have to listen to exit polls which showed the No1 reason people vote for their candidate is because they “can stand up for ordinary people”.

It’s a fightback.