Dublin count: The narcoleptic atmosphere of the Dublin European count was finally disturbed around tea-time when the arrival of Enda Kenny sparked a bout of noisy self-congratulation by Fine Gael supporters.
Moments later, another roar erupted as the crowd around the television monitor cheered Wexford's last-minute goal against Kilkenny. It was hard to know which event marked the more dramatic turnaround.
Enda Kenny at least was in no doubt. Whereas Wexford were only through to the Leinster final, the Fine Gael leader declared he had already met all the objectives set two years ago when he promised to "electrify" the party after the general election debacle.
Surrounded by some of his "bright, new, young council candidates" and raising the arm of Gay Mitchell - the 100-watt performer in the Dublin Euros - he suggested his party was now in a position to replace Fianna Fáil as Ireland's main power source in 2007.
The Fine Gael revival was the story of this election, Mr Kenny insisted, despite stern competition for that title from Sinn Féin. When the official first count in Dublin finally came at 10 p.m., it sparked a contest to see which of the two parties could cheer loudest.
Despite Gay Mitchell having 30,000 votes to spare over Mary Lou McDonald (3rd place on 60,395), Fine Gael only just shaded it on the clapometer, while the supporters of Eoin Ryan (FF) and Proinsias de Rossa (Lab) - in second and fourth, respectively - were comparatively restrained.
Beyond the cheers, the RDS had another strong contender for story of the election in the form of Royston Brady (or rather in its absence).
As for most of the past three weeks, the Lord Mayor of Dublin was nowhere to be seen yesterday except on posters.
When at mid-afternoon the returning officer broadcast a call for "Mr Brady or his election agent" to join the examination of spoilt votes, nobody answered.
He was still not around to hear the jeers of Sinn Féin supporters for his eventual 36,269 votes.
In an unfortunate phrase, a spokesman for the Brady campaign said the candidate was not in a huff, but had "just decided to crash for the evening". Some people felt that he had crashed several days ago. Either way, sensitive observers at the RDS preferred to avert their eyes from the scene.
Fianna Fáil director of elections John O'Donoghue did turn up, and said several times that the electorate had decided to give his party "a good shaking".
Shaken as he was, however, like James Bond's martinis, he stopped well short of being stirred. He defended the choice of Brady as a candidate ("there are victims in all elections"), and glossed over the non-choice - by party headquarters, at least - of Sean Ó Neachtain. But he shrugged off the weekend's setback in the words of Van Morrison: "There'll be days like this."
Then he went away smiling.
Days like yesterday in the RDS are the sort of thing that might give electronic voting a good name again. With the returning officer starting the day 100 officials down because of Saturday's all-night local election marathon at the same venue, the European count proceeded at a pace that made paint-drying seem like an extreme sport.
It wasn't just the pace of events that had people lamenting the postponement of Martin Cullen's brave new world. Large numbers of voters were sufficiently befuddled by the different papers in Friday's election to vote across them - marking 1 and 2 on the local papers, for example, and then 3, 4, and 5 on the European.
According to Fianna Fáil's national organiser Sean Sherwin, as many as "a couple of thousand" Euro ballots were thus cast without number 1s, and the count officials had to sift through them in search of clearly indicated sequences which could be regarded as valid. "This couldn't happen with e-voting," said Mr Sherwin.
With the sole exception of Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell, none of the leading contenders were sufficiently confident in the tallies to celebrate before the first count declaration. But when Eoin Ryan arrived shortly beforehand, he was met by applauding supporters.
Elsewhere, Proinsias de Rossa and Ivana Bacik were models of restraint as the prospects of a two-seat performance by Labour flickered for a while like a twopenny candle.
Patricia McKenna of the Greens also clung to hope, although her 40,445 first preferences left her 20,000 behind the woman she needed to beat on transfers. Speaking of whom, Sinn Féin mounted the by-now traditional flag-waving entrance as if Mary Lou McDonald had won in a landslide.
For all Fine Gael's talk about bright, new, young candidates, it was a proven old-timer who had delivered the goods for them in Dublin.
When the first count finally came, Gay Mitchell was 6,369 votes over the quota. And in these days when even canary yellow is a fashion option in Irish politics, it was noticeable that Mr Mitchell had stuck to dark trousers and the traditional Fine Gael blue shirt as he propelled his party back to the future.