But he was best known to everyone in politics in those days for the way he prowled Leinster House. Never a political correspondent, always a reporter, it was nevertheless the case that you knew something big was afoot if Charlie was around. He hated guff and hypocrisy from politicians, and he regarded his work as one of the bricks in the wall of a strong democracy.

Like thousands of others, I mourn Charlie Bird today. But I also know that back in the day, Charlie would have been just the man for the RTÉ newsroom to send after Lisa Chambers and Willie O’Dea after they both admitted campaigning for Yes and Voting for No. And by the time he and the 9 o’clock news had finished with them, political hypocrisy and grandstanding would be clear to all.

Here’s a question. If the yes side had won, would either of these two stalwarts of democracy be on the news telling us about their no votes? Eh, no. They never expressed the slightest opposition during the campaign, and you can bet your bottom dollar that if the result had been positive they’d be basking in the glory, lining up for the smiley photographs, and hoping against hope no-one ever found out about their political treachery.

Because in political and democratic terms that’s what it is. There’s always been room in Irish politics for what they used to call strokes and “cute hoorism”, and there’s many a TD who has made an artform out of hunting with the hound and running with the hare.

We know those types in Ireland — and we’ve always kind of liked them. Do you remember Flurry Knox in The Irish RM? We’re fond of our lovable rogues, our chancers, the TD who gets away with stuff by constantly repeating “ah sure, I’m only a harmless poor gobshite”.

But there’s no room for harmless poor gobshites, making it up as they go along, in a referendum campaign about changing the constitution. The constitution can only be changed by the people. It’s our property. That’s fundamental. If our written constitution isn’t taken seriously, our democratic infrastructure is put at risk.

At the end of the day, last week, an awful lot of people didn’t vote at all. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t intense debate and campaigning. There was — some of it quite hurtful all round. But nothing is as hurtful, or dishonourable, as a government representative pretending he or she is with the government until the government loses.

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness also voted no, but had never made any secret of his intentions, and I respect that. In the aftermath, however, he said “the main breakdown has been on truth and truthfulness”. I’m not quite sure what he meant — but if he was aiming it at Lisa Chambers and Willie O’Dea, he hit the nail on the head.

Willie O’Dea said in the aftermath “Fianna Fáil needs to get back to basics & abandon the hate speech bill, etc, focus on housing, health, and law & order and stop playing to the woke gallery. Start listening to the people, stop talking down to them and stop listening to the out of touch Greens & NGOs.”

You could lose count of the number of bandwagons O’Dea is jumping on. Most of them are taken from the populist playbook being rolled out by Trump and the Tories in Britain. 

The woke gallery. Law and Order. The NGOs. The Hate Speech Bill (is he now committed to resigning the Party Whip on that issue? Or will he tell us afterwards he was misunderstood?) There’s a bottom line in all of this. We elect these people to tell us the truth. And in the hope they can lead. 

How will anyone ever take seriously again anything this pair have to say, when they do this on something so important as a constitutional referendum?

Or put it another way — have they the slightest idea of the kind of damage they’re doing? All over the world, democracy is under more and more strain. Authoritarianism is on the rise. One of the reasons, and it’s not a small reason, is lies, misinformation, and disinformation — knowingly and wilfully committed.

We’re still strong in Ireland, strongly committed to core democratic values, despite an intense and determined far-right movement. But every time a democratically elected politician knowingly says one thing and does another, they’re playing into the hands of the people who want to destroy trust. 

That’s why, if he was still here, a great reporter like Charlie Bird would have been the first to look Chambers and O’Dea in the eye and tell them they should be ashamed of themselves.