Ireland’s most Googled election question: ‘What age is Frances Fitzgerald?’

Frances Fitzgerald's age, the reason why people throw milkshakes at Nigel Farage and the marital status of Maria Walsh are among the top European election related questions which have been asked by Irish Google users since the beginning of the week.

As the European election campaign reaches its climax, Google has revealed who are the most searched-for candidates and what questions are being asked about them.

The leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage is the EU Election candidate Irish people appeared to be most interested in this week thanks mainly to his messy interaction with a protestor's milkshake while he was on the campaign trail in England.

Closer to home, Dublin Independent candidate Ben Gilroy found himself racing up the charts to the number two position due to his somewhat unorthodox use of a hurley in a campaign video while former Rose of Tralee and Fine Gael would-be MEP Maria Walsh finished in the bronze medal position.

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Nigel Farage and Ben Gilroy also featured in the top most-asked questions by people in Ireland but they were beaten to the top slot by the simple question. "What age is Frances Fitzgerald?"

The answer, in case you are wondering, is 68.

A lot of people also wanted to know where Ben Gilroy was from and who Alice Mary Higgins is.

Other questions asked of Google were “Why do people throw milkshakes at Nigel Farage” and “Is Maria Walsh Married”.

The answer to the first of those two questions is no while the first search engine result that came up when The Irish Times asked about milkshakes and Mr Farage was a link to a New York Times article.

"Kevin Featherstone, a professor of European politics at the London School of Economics, said in an email that the strong visual impact was important," the article said. "The recipient looks ridiculous and it debunks the politician's aura. The attacker is saying, 'You don't represent me, with your darker side of politics.'"

The search engine also revealed what were the most searched political topics in Ireland over the last two days with Brexit finishing in first place ahead of citizenship, immigration, the UN and climate change.