Back up north
Got back from an interesting day in the Dublin count centre yesterday. It's a long time since I've covered an election when the story hasn't involved the rise and rise of Sinn Fein. This will be a test of their resilience and whether they can avoid the trajectory of the Workers party, once they lose their peace process bounce.
We had all expected a party represented at the Stormont assembly to be playing a role in forming the next Irish government. We just got the wrong party.
Sinn Fein may have prepared a negotiating team for this eventuality. But the Greens appear less well prepared.
I had a brief chat with our one Green MLA Brian Wilson today. He told me that Northern Ireland Greens are represented on the party's national executive, so could be involved in the discussions about whether to join a coalition with Bertie Ahern. But until now they have tended to look after their own patch, so it's not clear whether they will play any great role. For the Greens, these are uncharted waters.
Sad, from the point of view of journalistic colour, to see the departure of the PDs' Michael McDowell. He was always vociferous in his opposition to Sinn Fein and vivid in his language. It was a shame that we could very rarely persuade him to appear on our programmes north of the border - his reluctance to grace our airwaves seemed to jar with his passionate views about what was going on here.
I'm 
