Divisive no longer: JOE readers vote for Roy Keane as Ireland’s Alternative President

Polling day was Thursday, voting was brisk and we have a winner – Roy Keane has topped our poll to see who you would like to see as Ireland’s Alternative President.

Keano’s backers were clearly active on the ground as Thursday wore on as the Corkman staged a late rally to hold off rabble-rousing film star Brendan Gleeson and rabble-robbing Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary.

It was a mighty close call, with the former Manchester United and Ireland captain topping the poll with shade over 18% of the votes.

The result means things have come full circle for Keano, who famously divided the nation when he walked out/was sent home from the 2002 World Cup following the Saipan bother.

He finished just a handful of votes in front of Gleeson, whose stock has risen in 2011 following the success of both The Guard and his pre-Obama speech at College Green, with O’Leary’s brand of can-do attitude persuading enough voters to bring him in a close third.

Vote management among the rugby-loving sector of the electorate left a lot to be desired, with both Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll polling an identical 9.65% of the poll – figures which if combined would have put one or the other of them in our virtual Aras, which is just about as real as Michael Lowry’s virtual White House in Twomileborris.

Richard Dunne was next best in sixth place, attracting a respectable 7.8% of the first preferences in our over-simplified, transfer-free ballot.

The cultural set found themselves in the minority, with Christy Moore and Seamus Heaney hovering around the 5 per cent mark, just ahead of the man who went from Barrytown to Star Trek, Colm Meaney.

Bob Geldof and Eddie Jordan were also-rans in our ballot, but worryingly perhaps, there are 12 JOE readers out there who thought that Bono was the best of that bunch.

JOE’s Alternative Presidential Election – the results:

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