A 10-year-old boy - the son of a friend of mine - may well have summarised the Irish presidential election better than anyone else.
He said that it was over the moment the video of Catherine Connolly playing football and basketball with a bunch of kids went viral. He's 100% right.
In an election that was often times fractious and scratchy, where the candidates all seemed to be on the defensive most of the time, it was by far the most relatable moment.
Connolly looked like the cool older relation, showing the same ease and skill with a football as she did with any political issue thrown at her through the entire election campaign.
It copper-fastened her position as the leading candidate in this election - she never looked back.
One has to pay tribute to Catherine Connolly's persistence and patience in building a coalition of the left.
She came from the margins of Irish politics, having left the Labour Party in 2006, ironically because Galway west wasn't big enough for both her and Michael D Higgins, the incumbent president.
She first contested the general election as an independent candidate in 2007 and got barely 2,000 votes (2,006 to be precise) as Higgins comfortably retained his seat.
Then, in 2011, when Michael D Higgins stepped away from the Dáil to pursue the presidency, the Labour Party opted for Derek Nolan, who topped the poll in Galway west and comfortably held the Labour seat. Connolly did more than double her first preference vote, but lost out again.
In 2016, her first preference vote did not increase very much, but she proved transfer friendly and was comfortably elected in the end. She has retained her seat ever since.
Patience
Connolly showed the same patience and political skill in building a coalition of support for her presidential candidacy.
Gaining the nomination from the Labour Party, having left it quite acrimoniously, was an achievement. Adding the Social Democrats and People Before Profit-Solidarity was less surprising.
When the Green Party came on board, she now had a significant political coalition.
Support for her was not without consequence within the Green Party and the Labour Party. Alan Kelly openly defied his party's selection of Connolly, while Brian Leddin left the Green Party in protest.
Perhaps the key moment came when Sinn Féin threw its weight behind Connolly's campaign. It was a strange moment.
During the week of the ploughing championships, as Jim Gavin foundered and Heather Humphreys and Catherine Connolly seemed to be emerging as the two main candidates, Sinn Féin promised a game changer reveal of their electoral candidate.
The speculation at the time was that they would reach outside politics to get a candidate, with names like Seán Óg Ó hAilpín being speculated upon.
In the event, the press conference on Saturday featured Mary Lou McDonald, Michelle O'Neill and Pearse Doherty, but not a candidate.
As Sinn Féin announced its support for Connolly, she was not present. It jarred a little. Was there a late change in Sinn Féin strategy? We'll probably never know - the party has such internal discipline.
Missed opportunity
But there may be some within Sinn Féin who will look back now at a missed opportunity for the party to make an electoral leap forward by nominating their own candidate and gaining the presidency.
That said, Sinn Féin can claim some credit in being part of the coalition that elected Catherine Connolly. Some people believe they were a decisive part of the coalition.
It's hard to say, because the opposition to Connolly's candidacy ebbed away quite quickly.
Jim Gavin's campaign imploded and Heather Humphreys never gained traction outside of the core Fine Gael support.
She did gain almost 30% of votes, a much higher percentage of first preference votes than Fine Gael have in recent elections.
But, if you look at actual number of votes she received, her 424,987 votes closely resembled the Fine Gael vote in the last two general elections.
It looks like Heather Humphreys got the Fine Gael vote out and very little else.
Martin under pressure
While Fine Gael licked their wounds and must begin to feel that they're destined never to hold the presidency, some knives were out for Micheál Martin within Fianna Fáil over the debacle around Gavin's candidacy.
TDs and senators came forward to denounce the lack of input from the broader party membership in the selection of Gavin.
They pointed to Michal Martin's pivotal role in pushing Gavin as a candidate. None of this seemed to place ultimate responsibility for Gavin's candidacy within the parliamentary party, but the reality is that it was those same TDs, senators and MEPs who selected Gavin by a secret ballot.
Blaming Micheál Martin seemed a little ironic, but the wider narrative was around how control of Fianna Fáil has been gained for some time now by Martin and his close support network.
Rumblings of revolt
The rumblings of revolt seem to have dissipated for now, but the anger was palpable and any slip by the Taoiseach, or indeed his government, could see a challenge emerge.
If Micheál Martin is unseated, it will affect those pivotal Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) negotiations I've spoken of before here and the parallel EU budget negotiations that will define the scale of CAP funding.
Those budget negotiations among the 27 member state prime ministers will be brokered by the Irish Taoiseach from next July on.
Should he still be Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, as one of the more experienced politicians across Europe and one of the better-known ones, will surely will be in a stronger position than any successor to make gains for Ireland.
Dutch voters ditch far-right government
Meanwhile, the Netherlands voted in their second general election in less than two years.
The election was called by Gert Wilders, who leads the party far-right PVV party, which was the largest in the previous parliament. It lost 11 of its 37 seats.
The Farmer-Citizen Party of Caroline von der Plas - part of the government coalition - also suffered losses.
It rose from total obscurity to become the largest party in the country in the March 2023 local and senate elections, but is now reduced to only four seats in the 150-member parliament.
The biggest fall from grace - and the clearest signal of the electoral volatility among Dutch voters - was a third member of that four-party coalition, the New Social Contract.
Formed in August 2023, it gained 20 seats in the parliament three months later, becoming a significant political force.
In this week's election, it lost all 20 of those seats and has almost vanished without trace.
It is worth noting that while the PVV has lost votes and seats, this does not necessarily translate into a strong move away from far-right parties.
Overall, parties from that wing of the political spectrum have retained about one third of overall support.
It’s more a case of votes moving within the bewildering array of parties across the Dutch right.
Jetten may be good for the CAP
It looks like the next government will be led by a centre-left party called D66. It is led by Rob Jetten, who seems poised to become the youngest-ever prime minister of the Netherlands, being only 38.
He has government experience, having been deputy prime minister for a time in 2024, and he was minister for climate and energy policy from 2022 to 2024.
Jetten and his party are strongly pro-European, so this is good news for the EU and therefore for Ireland. The previous government had been led by a very eurosceptic party.
Will it affect the budget proposals from Ursula von der Leyen and Piotr Serafin, particularly the budget proposals for CAP, which would see a 20% cut in funds for farmers?
If Micheál Martin is to launch a counter-offensive in favour of CAP funding from the pivotal position of the chair of the European Council, Rob Jetten could well be an ally for Ireland in those negotiations.
When Martin heads the council next July, the fact that Fianna Fáil and the D66 are both in the ALDE/Renew grouping within the European Parliament won’t hurt at all.
That’s if Micheál Martin is still the leader of Fianna Fáil, Taoiseach and chairing that presidential council next July.