Today, we are devastated. We all knew the referendum was going to be close, even though polling had suggested a narrow Remain victory.
Like many I stayed up most of the night. By 4am it was obvious the vote was heading towards Brexit. The rest is history.
The last poll of opinion of the Irish International Business Network, the largest global network of senior Irish business leaders and entrepreneurs was definite - 95 per cent of our members wanted the UK to remain in the European Union.
This referendum, like so many in Ireland, was about issues that had little to do with the EU.
In the last few weeks, it was clear that it was about trust, or despair. Mostly, it was about immigration. In some cases, it was about pure xenophobia.
Without doubt, many who voted leave on Thursday did so to voice their lack of confidence in politicians, economists, the judiciary and business. We shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that there is a crisis of trust between the ordinary person and the political elite.
The Conservative party is dominated by Eton boys, such as David Cameron and Boris Johnson, who probably have not seen a council estate from anything other than their government car.
The fact that Jeremy Corbyn, an old school, labour left winger, had been elected leader of the Labour party, by hundreds of thousands of people who joined the party, simply to vote him in, should have been a glaring beacon.
However, Corbyn never really committed to the Remain campaign. The consequences of that are now evident as has been shown by the unravelling that has occurred within the Labour Party over the weekend.
The Remain side started its campaign late, just three months before the referendum. No work was done to send home the message about the benefits that European Union membership has brought to the UK.
Such work takes three to five years to do, not three months. The Leave campaign didn’t have anything concrete to say. But this in no way perturbed them since they simply made it up.
Experts dismissed
Much of the last month was spent dismissing the opinions of anyone who was an expert. From the Football Association to the Royal Society, nobody was immune. The reasoned voices of business leaders fell on deaf ears.
Michael Gove implied experts were comparable scientists in the Nazi era that signed a letter smearing Albert Einstein. Quite a few experts were openly referred to as traitors in the poisonous atmosphere of the closing days of the campaign.
Business leaders are rightly rattled. But it is the xenophobia that is the most concerning. Thinly veiled as concern about immigration, the racist undertone that is now there hiding in the undergrowth, or worse is frightening.
Most thought the killing of Jo Cox would lance the boil, especially after Nigel Farage released his truly appalling poster of refugees fleeing Syria.
It didn’t.
Indeed, it got worse.
I am not the only person to believe the UK has become a much more hostile place to be a foreigner.
Last Thursday, I campaigned in leafy west London, which is usually immune from much of the xenophobia that can be found in the leafy shires, the troubled Midlands and the North of England.
There, the mood is very different, as we have discovered to our cost on Friday. Racism has been given credibility in this debate, fuelled by bigoted, self serving politicians who care only for their own already well-feathered nests.
Those of us, who happened to be foreign, who expressed a view, were actually - and this happened to me near my home - told, we should be (and would, when Brexit happens) deported, regardless of our contribution to the UK.
Already, the Leave campaign is reneging on its promises. The £350m million a week promised to the NHS has already disappeared and, no surprises here, immigration will not reduce. One by one the promises that were so glibly made will be withdrawn.
Once the disenfranchised majority who voted Leave realise that all the ills of the UK were not because of Europe, they will need to find a new cause for their troubles - will that be us, the Europeans that remain in the UK?
We joked amongst ourselves on Friday that our ‘foreign’ owned homes would soon have green dabs on them to identify us as ‘other’. Following a weekend of hateful trolling for those of us who have express sadness about the vote, the UK feels less welcome.
Post-Brexit UK
Simply put, we do not know what a post-Brexit UK will look like. The implications for the 500,000 Irish who live and work in the UK and for the 60,000 directors of UK companies are unknown.
When the country where you run your business from decides to withdraw from the world’s biggest trading club, it’s difficult to anticipate the full repercussions, even if the immediate impacts are already evident.
Sterling has plummeted as did many shares, with banks & building companies being worst hit. Banks are planning to shift jobs out of the City of London, even if the rumours that they will do so immediately anticipate action.
Two neighbours of mine, both of whom hold very senior in international banks noted they would have to move if Brexit happens: the hundreds of thousands of pounds they pay in tax every year will disappear, along with billions more.
The infamous £350 million per week that the Leave campaigners are gleefully awaiting, will end up shoring tax holes the size of Wales and the very people who voted leave will, inevitably, be the worst hit.
The volume of legal work that needs to be done in two years, or more is close to unachievable. Trade agreements take years to complete. As Monday dawns, the UK will wake up with an almighty headache realising the magnitude of the task ahead.
Like every disruption, of course, there will be as many business opportunities. I have no doubt that the Irish will be at the forefront of those.
That is, if the UK returns to a country we would like to live in. Because today, it’s not a great place to be.
Liz Shanahan chairs the Irish International Business Network and was the co-chair of the Irish4Europe pro-Remain campaign group