It is nothing if not ironic that the man that the Labour Party will most likely chose to save the day in the face of the relentless and inexorable electoral onslaught of Sinn Féin is someone who delights in his own nomme de guerre, AK47. Alan Kelly not only likes his soubriquet but relishes in his characterisation of someone who shoots from the hip, takes no prisoners and gets things done.

I don’t judge people. Everyone’s entitled to their own religion. I respect religion. I respect people’s views. I’m not a fan of crossing over religion and politics. My mother is devoutly religious and I respect her for that. Am I a practising Catholic? I am, I suppose, to some point. There’s some very good things about all kinds of religion. Obviously, there’s loads of bad things: we’ve a lot of legacy issues in this country from religion and that needs to be dealt with. The whole sense of community that comes from Church-going is a great thing.