AS the day went on, the latest figures merely fleshed-out the facts that had become clear by lunchtime -- the Fianna Fail limo had crashed and the Green mudguard got mangled. The parties' usual suspects mounted a weary procession from radio studios to television studios and back, putting a predictable spin on the results.

"We had to look after the country, and that meant tough decisions, even if it meant unpopularity. We had a duty etc etc etc."

From early on, the figures came fast and meaninglessly on the radio, possible results calculated from miniscule tallies. ("We have a tally based on two per cent of the vote out of the east Ballydehob boxes, Sean.")

Fianna Fail's Noel Whelan warned that they had only a few pieces from a vast jigsaw, so they couldn't yet see the big picture.

"And", said Whelan, "what looks like part of Declan Ganley's bald head might be Marian Harkin's cheek."

Sean O'Rourke murmured: "Please don't develop that analogy."

As the bad news sank in, Green TD Ciaran Cuffe went on radio to do his party piece, publicly wrestling with his conscience. Unhelpfully, Dermot Ahern was full of praise. The Greens are "very solid people", the best coalition partners he ever had, said Dermot, hammering another nail into their coffin.

The good news came in about Maureen O'Sullivan being on course to take the late Tony Gregory's seat. Mannix Flynn did better than expected, Joe Higgins was chewing on the thread from which Eoin Ryan's Euro career dangled. Several of the People Before Profits candidates looked like taking council seats.

When RTE television came on air, Shay Brennan, Fianna Fail's sacrificial lamb in the Dublin South by-election, was talking about "the journey" he'd been on. The new political generation, raised on Oprah-speak.

"We had the responsibility of government," said Dermot Ahern, on the radio. "Tough decisions. Etc etc etc."

Maurice Ahern took a hiding for the party, and he was gracious in defeat: "You work your ass off for 10 years, then the tide's out and that's the way it goes."

Up to recently, following election results meant hopping from radio to television. Now, you can not just listen to RTE radio on the internet, but they also have a camera in the radio studio, so you can watch the back of some Fianna Failer's head as he explained that they had to take unpopular decisions for the sake of the country etc etc etc.

The wonders of technology.

Just as it was getting interesting, they remembered this was Saturday, so they switched to a rugby commentary -- and bizarrely ran it over the studio shot of the politicians and their scrum.

These days, the election results and comments came thick and fast not just from radio and television but from media internet sites, blogs and Twitter outlets. The Scribblelive blog was live blogging from a range of counts.

The new media are immediate and useful and fun and, perhaps, an indication of the future. But, for now, they lack the overall coherence and perspective that a Sean O'Rourke can bring to a barrage of information.

Freelance journalist Mark Coughlan caught the emotional flavour of the day, with a micro-message on Twitter from the count centre at the RDS: "Conor Lenihan just arrived and kissed Shay Brennan on the forehead. Odd."

Ah, you have done your duty, young Brennan, and the veteran Spartans are well pleased with you.

George Lee turned up at the RDS to say that he was "humbled". He'd met the people, he said, "I've seen the pain in their eyes".

More than that. "I know what they want. They want what I want", he said passionately, with a de Valera-like glance into his own heart.

"The election's over, George," said Sean O'Rourke.

On television, Donagh Diamond told of a Fianna Failer complaining. What the politicians "were told on the doorsteps didn't turn out to be true", the poor chap told Donagh. You mean, the people lied to the politicians? Well, turnabout is fair play.

On the RTE television news, Maureen O'Sullivan displayed the same passion and intelligence that powered Tony Gregory for years. And Fine Gael got nothing for their expensive Dublin Central campaign except a big bill. And Brian Cowen said he had to make tough decisions etc etc etc.

On radio, Dermot Ahern kept repeating that local and by-elections allow people kick the government: "But people vote with their heads when it comes to a general election."

It sounded like perhaps Dermot thinks that last Friday we voted with our backsides.