Which of the Cork Traitors has the best chance of winning €50,000 prize?

After a week of treachery, skulduggery, and a grown man calling out for his daddy as though he was a five-year-old who got lost in Mahon Point, all three Cork contestants in The Traitors Ireland are still standing.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is Youghal fireman John Malone, Ballincollig beauty therapist Christine Duff, and civil servant Andrew Moloney are all skating on thin ice, in my book.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we lost one or two of those Rebels in the coming week, each of them hoist by their own petard. But first up... what the hell am I talking about?

If you’re one of the few who have missed it, The Traitors Ireland debuted on RTÉ1 last Sunday night, with the wonderful Siobhán McSweeney as host - and it’s got a large chunk of the nation hooked.

There were 24 original contestants and three have been secretly chosen as Traitors, who are out to murder the others - the Faithful - each night. A roundtable is held nightly where the Faithful aim to banish a Traitor.

Except they haven’t been very good at that so far - banishing one of their own each time. Doh!

That’s been the story of the first week of the series - the hapless flailings of the Faithful, and the fact the three Traitors have managed to survive, despite not being very good at stabbing people in the back. Less Brutus, more brutal.

Brash garda Eamon O’Keeffe has a self-destructive tendency to stick out like a sore thumb and talks far too much. Since the Traitors have a habit of killing off big characters, how long before his lingering presence is exhibit A at the roundtable?

Katelyn Divilly is a leadership consultant who has a perverse tendency to follow the Traitor herd, and a good few of the Faithful are on her case.

The final Traitor, Paudie Moloney, is similarly on slippery ground owing to the fact he rarely makes any pronouncements... and when he does he kicks himself in the teeth.

Unbeknownst to the others, Paudie is the father of the aforementioned Cork-based Faithful Andrew, whose blunder in blurting out ‘Daddy’ to him during a task showed that, sadly, this apple has not fallen far from that tree at all, at all, when it comes to survival instincts.

And did I tell you Andrew is 33? ‘Daddy’ indeed... one more slip like that, pal, and we’ll re-classify you as from Kilmallock, like your da (the correct usage here, surely?).

In Andrew’s defence, he was thrown in at the deep end when the group first got together. Instantly viewed as the most trustworthy, he then had to select the three most untrustworthy (based on very little), before sending two of them home. One of these was a fellow Cork man - oh, how could you?! - 53-year-old firefighter John.

However, on Tuesday night, the show followed in the footsteps of its UK version, and John was given a reprieve, and returned to the show.

Normally, this would put him in with a chance of winning the €50,000 first prize. He can hardly be viewed as a Traitor (and, for that reason, would make a good recruit to that circle), and is unlikely to be viewed with suspicion by the Faithful, for a while at least.

However, John is already vulnerable. Being a popular arrival will hardly endear him to the current Traitors, but his biggest mistake was to publicly align himself with the other Cork contestant, Christine.

Before the series began, I thought county allegiances would play a key role in The Traitors Ireland - where you’re from is far more important here than in the UK, USA, or Australia, where the show is also hugely popular.

But that simply hadn’t been the case, until John buddied up with Christine - thus putting both their lives in the castle in danger.

Which brings me on to Christine, a mum-of-two who reportedly starred in last year’s The Young Offenders Christmas special and has got more than 10,000 followers on Instagram.

She is in the frame to be one of the three Faithful to be murdered at the start of Sunday night’s episode - but if she does get the dreaded letter, I feel the Traitors would be making a fatal mistake.

Most contestants will assume Christine has received a shield (oh, do keep up) from John, which protects her from murder. But John gave it to Traitor Katelyn instead (another mistake!).

If Christine is killed, surely the finger of suspicion points to the Traitors being aware of who has the shield - and silly Katelyn only went and told two of the Faithful she had it.

In short, the three Cork contestants have been far too visible and could be either murdered or banished in short measure. But this is a game that can turn on a sixpence - and those three Traitors surely can’t survive as a trio for much longer.

So, I’m going to stick my neck out and say John is the Rebels’ best hope for glory and collecting that €50,000.

My favourite contestant, though, is Patrick, a former casino manager who must know a thing or two about poker faces. But my tip to win is Ben, a member of the defence forces. You don’t know him yet? Exactly.

As a viewer, I tie myself in knots trying to figure out game plans, so I imagine being involved in the show is an utterly head-wrecking experience.

You must think hard - but not over-think. You must be cool under pressure, but not aloof. You must be guarded yet open, and you must quiz and assess your fellow contestants while appearing above suspicion.

As well as being great fun, The Traitors Ireland provides a fascinating insight into human nature, in particular into how people can make snap judgments about others and their personalities.

In the UK version earlier this year, one contestant voted to banish another simply because he had spent too long browsing the books in the castle library - notions, like. That’s the sort of inverted snobbery that can get a person ‘killed’ in this game.

Admittedly, the early roundtables can see contestants scrabbling for any hint of suspicion - poor Diane was eliminated from the Irish show for the crimes of ‘looking down at the floor’ after taking off her blindfold when the Traitors were selected, and for appearing rattled when confronted.

As time goes on, it should become clearer as to who is a Faithful and who isn’t - but the twists and turns, plots and sub-plots keep contestants guessing to the bitter (for 23 of the 24) end.

That said, the ultimate winner of The Traitors Ireland is set to be its host, Siobhán McSweeney, whose twinkle-eyed devilment strikes the perfect chord between camp comedy (it is only a reality show after all) and the stern edge required in a show where one under-pressure contestant can accuse another of being “unapproachable” (ouch, poor Michele).

An already busy actor and TV presenter, the Aherla woman is only going to be more in-demand when the Irish version of the hit series is shown worldwide. But what those overseas viewers will make of a 33-year-old Kilmallock (!) man shouting ‘Daddy’ to his undercover father is anyone’s guess. Scarlet for ya.