Knocked down, but he’ll get up again

Gavin Duffy spent €5 on each of the 32,198 votes he received in the presidential election. But he says he has no regrets

Gavin Duffy: ‘Did I visualise going all the way and causing an upset? Yes, I did’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Gavin Duffy finished the presidential election with the lowest ever share of the vote and the fewest number of first-preference votes of any Áras an Uachtaráin candidate ever. After such a humiliation you might expect his confidence to have taken a hit. “Not in the slightest,” he insists.

The businessman and former Dragons’ Den star is in reflective mood sitting in a small meeting room in the Lis Cara business centre across the ...