Last Refuge Archives

Last Refuge

HELEN McENTEE RUBS RUSSIA WRONG WAY

February 26, 2026

WHETHER OR not Vladimir Putin is quaking in his boots after foreign affairs and defence minister Helen McEntee told a breathless RTÉ that... Read more »

COUNCILS DEFEND TRIPLE LOCK

February 26, 2026

WHILE THE Government declares itself determined to proceed with legislation to remove the triple lock – which currently ensures that any Irish military... Read more »

ISRAELI FOOTBALL: HOME AND AWAY

February 26, 2026

DESPITE TAOISEACH Micheál Martin’s strong words of encouragement to the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) to go ahead and play their Uefa fixtures... Read more »

CONRADH VOTES FOR IRISH UNITY

February 26, 2026

THE INCREASING assertiveness of Irish-language activists, especially from the north, was very much in evidence at the recent Conradh na Gaeilge ard fheis... Read more »

MARTIN GOADS JIM O’CALLAGHAN

February 12, 2026

THE POLLS that followed the upheaval in Fianna Fáil over the botched Jim Gavin presidential campaign may indicate a lull in the party’s... Read more »

MARY LOU’S BY-ELECTION ISSUE

February 12, 2026

SINN FÉIN’S coup in landing Gillian Sherratt – the mother of nine-year old Harvey Morrison, who died after waiting years for a scoliosis... Read more »

SOC DEMS SNUB LABOUR

February 12, 2026

PERPETUAL PLEAS from politicians and pundits – with not the faintest appreciation of, or good will towards, social democratic policies – for the... Read more »

HAZEL CHU REFUSES TO GO AWAY

February 12, 2026

FORMER DUBLIN lord mayor and Green Party chair Hazel Chu may have allowed herself a moment of schadenfreude on her election as party... Read more »

BERTIE’S BOY V DONOHOE’S BOY

January 29, 2026

THE DUBLIN CENTRAL by-election may provide a double bill comprising the main event – involving Sinn Féin’s candidate (yet to be declared), Social... Read more »

MARTIN FACES DANGEROUS PERIOD

January 29, 2026

REASSURING NOISE from most media quarters about Micheál Martin’s survival as Fianna Fáil leader will, his minders hope, help to see him through... Read more »

McENTEE: IRELAND STILL NEUTRAL

January 29, 2026

A RITUAL that has become a standard part of every military initiative or belligerent statement by the Government and the Defence Forces is... Read more »

Janice Boylan Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

HOLLY V IVANA

January 29, 2026

BARELY commented on in last Sunday’s Red C poll was the Social Democrats’ 10% to Labour’s 5% ratings, with the former party’s lead... Read more »

MARTIN V MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

January 15, 2026

IN CHINA last week Micheál Martin was drawn into commentary on international conflicts in Venezuala, Ukraine, Taiwan and Greenland; human rights in China;... Read more »

FIONNÁN V MICHEÁL

January 15, 2026

IT’S COME to something when the Irish Independent takes to lecturing Fianna Fáil on its neglect of the party’s primary principle, Irish unity.... Read more »

FINE GAEL ENFORCER O’DONOVAN

January 15, 2026

MINISTER for Kulture Patrick O’Donovan has emerged as the hard man of the coalition, on the Fine Gael side of the house at... Read more »

FINE GAEL LEADER’S WAITING ROOM

January 15, 2026

TÁNAISTE AND Fine Gael leader Simon Harris’s position is regarded by party members as relatively safe for now, even if he ‘could do... Read more »

PASCHAL’S PYGMIES MUST WAIT

December 11, 2025

WHO DOES Kevin Cunningham think he is? An article by the managing director of polling company Ireland Thinks had the audacity to suggest... Read more »

LABOUR PAINS

December 11, 2025

IRISH TIMES coverage of the left alliance – the putative broad front that aims to replace the centre-right Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael/Lowry front in... Read more »

MOLNÁRFI’S HORSESHOE MOMENT

December 11, 2025

FORMER HEAD of Trinners students’ union László Molnárfi has been causing trouble in the Irish far left after his expulsion from the very... Read more »

PUTIN OUTFOXES EU AT UNITED NATIONS

December 11, 2025

THE VISIT to Ireland of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was preceded by an interesting vote at the United Nations, which showed that while... Read more »

GRÁINNE SEOIGE AND JIM GAVIN

November 27, 2025

THAT TAOISEACH Micheál Martin should choose to speak about last year’s disappointing general election campaign by Galway West Fianna Fáil candidate Gráinne Seoige... Read more »

LAWLESS’S LOYAL LEADERSHIP LAMENT

November 27, 2025

A SUB-PLOT in the political sitcom into which the Fianna Fáil leadership turmoil has degenerated is the fall-back position that Micheál Martin and... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN LOSES ‘MAIL’

November 27, 2025

COMPARE AND CONTRAST, as teachers demand, the different lines on Micheál Martin and his designated successor as Fianna Fáil leader, Jack Chambers, by... Read more »

HOLLY CAIRNS GETS NERVOUS

November 12, 2025

HOLLY CAIRNS was given much media coverage for her remarks distancing herself from Sinn Féin, with criticisms that its policies were not left-wing... Read more »

TERRY PRONE V PJ MARA

November 12, 2025

WHAT INTRIGUING insights into the behaviour of spin doctors and politicians are included, some inadvertently, in Terry Prone’s latest book – I’m Glad... Read more »

The most appropriate epithet of the year may well be Micheál Martin’s new nickname – Louis XIV.

ANNUAL 2025: GOVERNMENT – HUBRIS OVERWHELMS GOVERNMENT

November 12, 2025

AS 2024 culminated with a general election, the abiding impression exuded by party leaders Micheál Martin and Simon Harris was one of entitlement... Read more »

Following the Sinn Féin-backed presidential campaign, Mary Lou McDonald’s party has a more realistic chance of getting into government.

ANNUAL 2025: OPPOSITION – SINN FÉIN’S NEW ROUTE TO POWER

November 12, 2025

Sinn Féin is looking forward to 2026 in a far more optimistic mood than was the case last year. Then the party had... Read more »

Sinn Féin first minister Michelle O’Neill attended the cenotaph in Belfast at the annual Somme commemoration, insisting that she has to show respect for unionist traditions if she is to live up to her slogan as ‘first minister for all’.

ANNUAL 2025: POLITICS – PARALYSIS SEIZES NORTH

November 12, 2025

At least one item was missing in the north in 2025. There was no election. People might have expected that, in the absence... Read more »

HOW LONG CAN MARTIN HOLD ON?

October 30, 2025

The alienation of Fine Gael hard man Big Phil Hogan in 2020 was a source of some regret to then taoiseach Leo Varadkar... Read more »

SPECTRE OF CATHERINE AND MARY LOU

October 30, 2025

THERE IS considerable trepidation among right-thinking people at the very large vote that left-alliance presidential candidate Catherine Connolly pulled last week. A distraught... Read more »

WHY SEÁN KELLY WAS BLOCKED

October 30, 2025

FINE GAEL approached the presidential contest with quiet confidence last summer, with super EU technocrat Mairead McGuinness the clear favourite until she was... Read more »

O’CALLAGHAN SITS TIGHT

October 16, 2025

WHEN BILLY KELLEHER threw down the gauntlet to Micheál Martin and his presidential choice, Jim Gavin, Jim O’Callaghan trod a most cautious path... Read more »

NEW RIGHT NEW PARTY

October 16, 2025

A NEW middle-class party appears to be in gestation, judging by the noise surrounding the failure of Maria Steen’s smash-and-grab effort to break... Read more »

MI6 AND CHARLIE HAUGHEY

October 16, 2025

Martin Mansergh will be remembered for his role in the northern peace process but less so for his deep understanding of British intelligence... Read more »

YATES: ‘LET’S HEAR THE BASTARD DENY IT’

October 16, 2025

THE ARRESTING advice offered by ex-Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates to his former party colleague, presidential candidate Heather Humphreys, on how to handle... Read more »

STEEN GRIPPED BY NEW RIGHT

October 2, 2025

THE OUTRAGE displayed by Maria Steen’s allies and supporters at Michael McDowell’s failure to return her calls as she lobbied him for a... Read more »