Seamus Culleton went from sympathetic Everyman to undesirable immigrant almost overnight

Boy, did I back the wrong horse.
Seamus Culleton, an Irish immigrant who runs a plastering business out of Wakefield, is facing imminent deportation to a country that doesn't seem especially anxious to have him back.
What a reversal of fortunes.
Two weeks ago, after he spoke live on Ireland's national broadcaster about his detention for the first time, Culleton presented to many — including this columnist — as a sympathetic figure, an Everyman caught in the grips of an overzealous government obsessed with arresting as many undocumented immigrants as possible, no matter their character.