Irish eyes are smiling

Makes her a 1.8 shot

irish vote seems to be overrated on here imo, in the early stages anyway.

Big big plus for her obviously. Irish very patriotic and she's pretty good too!

As many voters as Scotland, with a new novelty of being able to vote, plus a decent person to vote for

It has to help

Will get a lot of support from the Scots too

You jesting fll?

Underrated I'd say Gym.  I really can see entire nation getting behind her and if so game over.

Lou has the more sensible answer.

The Irish kid in One Direction will also help their vote.

Irish vote very crucial to Mary's chances I'd have thought...

Though not quite sure how some posters on here thought that Storm's apparent Scottish heritage would help him at all!

irish vote will without doubt help, but like i've said, i do think it's being overstated.

Scots seemed embarrassed by Storm according to twitter as some of his worst critics were from there. Mary is striking a chord. Lots of tweets about trouble voting on 02 etc but they are all perservering.

Vote early vote often [;)]

Irish vote very crucial to Mary's chances I'd have thought...

there may be something in this....

I think they we're only hoping it would keep him out of the bottom 1 dizzy. lol

The regions are stupid enough to vote for duffers, but they love to get behind good candidates

aren't*

No chance whatsoever.

Has anyone stated it?

I guess we could try some maths, but it's rather late.

We'd need the number who voted in last years final.
The number of people in Ireland who watch.
The number who vote.
And the number who would vote patriotically

Without the Irish angle I would agree unlikely to win irishone but its a variable that's new so difficult to read.

TV3 did report the lines were jammed  and also lots of reports of people phoning up to unblock premium rate numbers so they can vote on XF.
Well that's what they tell the wife anyway.

And there are pictures of radio staion staff with vote Mary t shirts and banners.  As above she's an underdog with some talent..Ireland love that.

If you want to see for yourself go to twitter advanced search and type in Mary 150 miles from Dublin.

fll - spot on.  for what it's worth, here's my view:

number of people in ireland who watch = about same relative percentage-wise to uk, ish....

number who vote = nobody knows, but i don't see how this would be significantly higher than the uk.

number who vote patriotically = very very interesting here.  i know people who would vote for mary in the final for being irish, i also know people who would vote for their fav ahead of mary in the final, and i know also know people who wouldn't vote.  i think the patriotic vote would get bigger as the series goes on.

Novelty factor of voting plus a live runner means a higher % of voters than here methinks. 

Bejesus it'll be Dana and Johnny Logan all over again

Bejesus it'll be Dana and Johnny Logan all over again

hahahahaha!!!!

hold me now, don't cry....

Yep, if she makes the final and is in with a shout the thought of an Irish win in the one of the biggest British TV shows, would surely be a compelling notion to many Irish.

..and as others have said, she's very good at what she does and very likeable. So a winner they'd be proud of.

Can anyone get the final voting figures from last year or was it all just %'s? Don't recall hard data unless leaked in Star.

Ah Eurovision; remember as a kid with my cassette taping the songs and playing till my ears bled to have a bet.

Getting very backable on here again too.

So many doubters around it seems

The number of votes over the series was definitely released.

1.5 - 2M votes in the final, rings a bell, but I could be way off.

fll - she doesn't need to be a winner to be proud of to win votes, she'll get irish votes anyway. being a nice woman helps of course.

the oul ones will like her anyway, whether they vote pre-final or not, i'm unsure.

the young girls will vote for one direction, HOWEVER if if it gets to the final, some of them will vote for mary in a patriotic vote.  not all though.

Has been 10m in final, so very much doubt it has dipped that low?

regular 500k in early rounds

Oh, more than that.

16M over the entire series in 2008, so 4-5M in the final.

My memory is that it was quite a bit more than that.

Half a million watched the final in 2008, in Ireland and they couldn't vote then

TV3 ends the year with three consecutive days of record ratings.  On Saturday 13th December 2008, TV3 was the most watched station in Ireland with thousands of viewers tuning in to watch the final of The X Factor.  This major event was watched by 523,000 viewers with over 40% of Adults15-34 tuning in.

All glumly watching Cowell shaft Eggy

10m in last year's final according to wiki.  That means 6.1m for Joe.  Now I need to factor in Irish vote!

By the way who had 5/6 15m or more viewers? 20m last years final or is 5/6 only the heats?

If they could ahve Eggnog may have won

523,000 is a smaller proportion than the uk for the final.

i don't see why that would increase significantly for there being a live irish runner - you either like this sh!te or not.

rubbish Papa imho

yep, surely not being able to vote in a show like this is a big turn off for many.

We could see the revenge of the eggnog!

forsooth Lord Cowell, thy Eggnog encompasses your doom  muhahahaha

so 10M votes and 18M viewers in the UK?

500,000 patriotic irish could surely add at least 500K.

I reckon you could pencil in 1m Irish, North, South and Scotland voters in for a final

Irish could vote in series 1-4 apparently but really had nobody to support (see below). Eggnog was from NI so may or may not have got Irish vote though he's no Mary.  I reckon it will mean about 200,000 votes for her in final which coul dmake the difference.  Should get her to last 3 though.

Irish contestants have reached the finals in series 1 (Tabby Callaghan and Roberta Howett), series 2 (The Conway Sisters), series 6 (John & Edward) and in series 7 (Mary Byrne, Rebecca Creighton in group Belle Amie and Niall Horan in group One Direction). Northern Irish finalists have included Phillip Magee (series 2) and Eoghan Quigg (series 5).

yep, with 70% going to Mary.

That was just her votes fig

eoghan wouldn't have picked up that many votes in the final.

he was really "irish".

oh ok.

I remember Kris Allen's home state apparently made up a huge % of the final vote.
Not that he needed them.

He'd have done better.

Also if he'd sung with Maria Carey instead of cunting Westlife

ok, let's try to get the "irish vote" in context chaps.

do you think more, less or the same number of irish people will watch the x factor because mary byrne was a live chance?

Is the Pope a bit catholic papa?

Many more.

More.  600k.  I'll ahve a look at Scottish twitters to see if there is a celtic link.

I would say 1m viewers for a final involving Mary, in line with rest of UK

Plus NI, plus Scotland increased proportion of support

You know you'd throw a few votes Mary's way if she made the final Papa ;)

i'm not irish fll, but honestly, i cannot understand this thinking that more irish people will watch the show because of mary.

i'm very open to being persuaded otherwise though!!

and more importantly i would never cast a vote on this sh!te!!!!

They are all too skint to go out drinking, but need a bit of feelgood factor and pride before xmas

All the better if Cowell is banking on Paedo Project romping home

oh sorry Papa, I thought you were.

More watching not only because Mary is a big runner, but also because they can vote, strikes me as common sense.

Common sense is often wrong though.

I've been looking for this years ratings and can't find them.
I'd be surprised if they weren't up though

Yup Scots mums on board. Generally about 95% positive tweets. How does that compare with rest of UK?

My mum just chanted "we want mary!" Love it! ♥

my mum was voting for mary and dialed the wrong number and voted for storm lmao!

don't get me wrong, x factor is huge in ireland, however not being able to vote on it wouldn't have stopped people watching it before, not for my money anyway.

Lets face it. She should be favourite :)

Certainly represents value but I can't help seeing her as a club singer Summed up by the vocal coach who very interestingly pointed out difference between Vic Reeves club singer and a ture star. Very subtle and not sure if Mary can make that switch. Can't lose on her trading wise though.

What was your best price on her fll?

I've found a Wagner tweet -


: x factor time yeow **** ON MARY
Dublin
about 4 hours ago via web · Reply · View Tweet

bloody forum


Jenny_Wdar_96FM: x factor time yeow C U M ON MARY
Dublin
about 4 hours ago via web · Reply · View Tweet

yuck

That's niche p orn

Waggy's **** did you say?

It's H2SO4

dont worry ireland u will have big mary back at tescos after xmas LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL