Had Maria Steen secured a presidential nomination, she would have faced constant media interrogation about how a candidate with her conservative views could represent all the people of Ireland.

It would have been a fair line of questioning, and no doubt, one that Steen would have been well able to field.

I hope it is also a question that President Catherine Connolly reflects on, particularly given the unprecedented 12 per cent of spoiled votes in the election. Electoral Commission research, which allowed respondents to nominate more than one reason for spoiling their vote, found that the most common was not liking any of the candidates (45 per cent), followed by finding the nomination process unfair (27 per cent), a sense that real choice was lacking (17 per cent), protest against government policy (14 per cent), a preference for a candidate not on the ballot (7 per cent) and other or unstated reasons (9 per cent).

It is reasonable to assume that many of Jim Gavin’s 103,568 votes were also protest votes, given Fianna Fáil’s self-inflicted disaster of a campaign. These voters cared enough to come to the ballot box, so it is hard to imagine the disillusion and frustration of most voters who stayed home.

How can we square €500 Ryder Cup tickets and a €9bn surplus with talk of a world recession?

There’s a voyeuristic thrill in snooping on others’ homes, including Vogue William’s pink........

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