By Laura Lynott

Copyright independent

Beloved by the Irish public as the potential traitor to defeat all traitors and possibly even all faithfuls – Paudie’s reality stardom was always guaranteed thanks to a life of hard knocks, his son Andrew believes.

Andrew Moloney – ousted from the RTÉ One show on Sunday night – said he felt his ‘daddy’s’ job had definitely defined him as a successful traitor.

“You have to be strong minded as a prison officer,” Andrew said. “If you’re working in a prison environment for 30 years of your life, you have to be able to take things as they come. It’s an ever- changing environment. Absolutely, I do think it did (help.)”

Prison officers also tend to keep a low profile away from the public domain. This would no doubt have aided the Limerick man too in maintaining a low profile as the traitor most never suspected.

Patrick Hughes, the Co Mayo man – who survived death row on the show – only to be banished as a faithful on Monday night – also felt jail work helped Paudie master the game.

However, former casino manager Patrick Hughes, failed to unmask Paudie’s poker face. Patrick admitted he had “a suspicion” about Paudie, yet he had zero game plan to oust him.

“From day one – and I said it to Kelley – ‘Watch out for Paudie beside you,’ Patrick said. “I recognised instantly in his background as a prison officer, he thrived and lived 30 years in a chaotic environment like this,” Patrick added.

“I instantly thought he’d be brilliant in an environment like this. You can see he’s sitting back saying nothing, hiding in plain sight.

“Realistically Mark and others should have got together and got rid of him, he’s the biggest threat. It’s those cute strategies that kept him in so long.”

Cast favourite, IT analyst Mark, from Co Laois, may have been murdered by the traitors but there were no hard feelings. Mark shared how just a few months before applying for the RTÉ hit, “two of my friends passed away.”

This loss led him to want to take every opportunity life threw at him. And he never for one second felt being deaf would hold him back.

“Every reality show has a disabled person,” Mark said. “Remember Tasha on Love Island,” he said, adding: “Not that I’m going on Love Island, not yet anyhow.”

“Every reality show needs something. I said (I’d) put in a joke here and there, make it funny. I don’t want being deaf to be a highlight. (I) have humour, a personality…”

And he swore he never once used the skill of lip-reading to gain some advantage in the game. But he admitted regretting saying he could lip-read because some may have felt it gave him an edge.

Meanwhile life goes on after the Traitors – but Andrew did reveal he’s still calling his “Daddy” Paudie because he just became so paranoid that someone would unmask the father-son relationship, it’s now stuck.

And in a heartwarming twist, at least someone will be getting called ‘Daddy’ soon. Andrew said he’s excited to become a father. His wife, Aisling is expecting a baby on October 20.

“It will be such a nice shift,” Andrew said. “We will have a screaming baby… It’s nice to have that distraction”.

And despite his protestation, Andrew said his father was just being “cute” when pretending he doesn’t do hugs on the show.