Roz Normington, a student from Belmullet, Co Mayo, said that before the show she was "in two minds between the two Marys". She hoped the debate would provide a clearer picture. At the end of the show last night she said she would "definitely" vote for Mary McAleese. "She knew what she was on about, she had something to say and she knew about the Constitution. And she was the best presented on the night, she said.
Niall Fitzgerald, from Foxrock, Co Dublin, works for an insurance company. Before the show, he said, he was "pretty apathetic" so far about the election campaign. None of them excites him, he said, adding: "In fact they bring into question the relevance of the role of the Presidency today." Afterwards, he said the show had convinced him not to vote for a politician. He would stick with the sincere people's candidate "a genuine , caring candidate, with no hidden agenda. He would choose, he said, between Derek Nally and Dana.
Margot Hennessy is an electronics buyer from Co Laois. She had been turned off Derek Nally by a visit he made to her place of work. "I'm sitting on a fence, stuck between Mary Banotti and Mary McAleese. But I'll wait and see," she told
The Irish Times before the Late Late Show last night.
Afterwards she said that Mary Banotti's "charisma" along with her knowledge of "what the Presidency is all about" had won the day. "Derek Nally didn't impress me at all," she said. "He doesn't know enough of what it is all about."
Kevin Doyle, media student from Portobello, in Dublin, said that before the show he couldn't make up his mind between Mary McAleese and Mary Banotti. He said: "The mud-slinging has swayed me to McAleese somewhat, although I'm still not sure." On leaving the studio he said that in his opinion, Dana and Adi were so similar in their approach that they should go in for joint-Presidency; but for him Mary McAleese was the winner. She was, said Kevin, "Cool, calm and collected."