IRELAND: Chickens came home to roost yesterday . . . with a vengeance

So now it's plan C and that leaves Brian another 23 letters left in the alphabet, writes Miriam Lord  at the count centre in Dublin Castle.

THEY DIDN'T see it coming, and they just didn't get it.

As the results from the Lisbon jury rolled in, the stunned reaction from the Irish political establishment said it all. From Government parties to the main Opposition, the sense of bewilderment was overwhelming.

How could the public do this? The elected representatives and their supporters simply couldn't understand it.

And therein lies their problem.

Confusion before had given way to confusion after, with a thunderbolt of clarity in between.

Patricia McKenna materialised just in time for the result, after her day long incarceration out in RTÉ. Half an hour after the announcement, she was back on the airwaves. "This is not a victory, it's an opportunity."

A leaflet press release from the French National Front was doing the rounds. "Long Live Ireland," it said.

Where did it all go wrong? They'll have to wake up to their disconnect with the people. Chickens came home to roost yesterday, and they came from much nearer to home than Brussels.