The Custom House is no football stadium, but people would have thought they had strolled onto a terrace with animated soccer fans taunting each other after the announcement of today’s referendum result.
The Pro-life and the Pro-choice campaigns are never happy bedfellows and while both sides were victorious in their No campaigns, neither would admit the other had won. Instead they tried to out-chant and out-banner-wave each other as the world’s media looked on, not sure of what to make of it all.
The "we won, no we won" rivalry appeared to have started earlier at the Dublin count centre in the RDS and not in the school yard as might have been thought.
As the Dublin results came in, both sets of supporters got more and more worked up as each tried to claim the spoils.
Maybe the confusion was reflective of the mood of the nation. There had been confusion in the media, the political parties and in the electorate prior to the referendum and now there was confusion over who won and who lost in this diametrically opposed No alliance.
Things almost got out of hand at the RDS but, when the trouble looked like it would spill out over the barriers and into where the votes were being counted, the security people stepped in and politely asked some individuals to leave.
With the count nearing its end at the RDS, both sides decided to move away to the Customs House and they duly brought their sizeable travelling support with them.
How they got into where the vote was being announced might be the subject of a Ripley's Believe or Notas Dana - who is so Euro that she is an MEP anda Eurovision Song Contest winner - had difficulty getting in.
By whatever the means, the unhappy alliance gained access to a Government department and began their terrace rivalry once the result of the ballot had been announced.
However, there was on small crumb of agreement between the lifers and the choosers. Both sides agreed that Bertie had got it wrong. Indeed, everyone, from Dana to Ruairi Quinn and from journalists to Nora Owen, agreed that Bertie had got it wrong.
Poor old Bertie. Twice in 12 months he asks the country to vote for his proposals in a referendum and twice the people reject him.
It looks like the Britney Spears song, Oops, I Did It Againwon't be on Bertie's hit list today.