Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

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 »

FF COUNCILLORS VOTE DOWN MARTIN’S ‘SHARED ISLAND’

October 2, 2025

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S attack on local councils over housing policy is not the only cause for local dissent with the Taoiseach and his northern... Read more »

CONNOLLY’S COLONIAL COMRADES

October 2, 2025

THE MAIN bone of contention for some in Sinn Féin at Catherine Connolly’s presidential nomination (see p14) was whether she was serious about... Read more »

BOB GELDOF’S MASTER PLAN

September 18, 2025

THE MYSTERY of why Bob Geldof should want to be president of a nation whose 1916 origins he despises and whose leaders, Pearse... Read more »

DANGEROUS MOMENTS FOR MICHEÁL MARTIN

September 18, 2025

WITH FIANNA FÁIL back bench TDs now getting the bit firmly between their teeth in the revolt against Micheál Martin’s Brezhnev behaviour in... Read more »

CRUELLA MACNEILL DEVOURS HEALTH OFFICIAL

September 18, 2025

FOLLOWING HER long-range sniper shot at party leader Simon Harris, appropriately enough at Béal na Bláth last month, news emerged of health minister... Read more »

CARROLL MacNEILL AMBUSHES HARRIS

September 4, 2025

THE PRESIDENTIAL splits in Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and Labour are timid affairs compared to the titanic political assault being prepared by Fine... Read more »

JIM O’CALLAGHAN’S HIGH-WIRE ACT

September 4, 2025

AFTER LESS than a year in Cabinet – the most high-achieving minister so far among their number – justice minister Jim O’Callaghan did... Read more »

THOMAS BYRNE: ‘NO PRESS GANG’

September 4, 2025

EUROPEAN AFFAIRS minister Thomas Byrne was most indignant at Sinn Féin’s recent suggestion that conscription was on the cards if abolition of the... Read more »

MARY LOU POISED TO RUN FOR PARK

August 21, 2025

A STRONG indication of the decision that the Sinn Féin leadership will likely take in the presidential election came with the circulation of... Read more »

FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD ITEM 

August 21, 2025

THE GRAND old gentleman of the Irish left, the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), has undergone much in its 100-plus years of existence,... Read more »

IS FF LEADERSHIP BACKING JACK CHAMBERS?

August 21, 2025

IS MICHEÁL MARTIN really intent on retiring as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader in September and then going for the presidency? That’s the... Read more »

BERTIE AHERN TO LOSE OUT

August 7, 2025

THAT SUNDAY INDEPENDENT poll showing Bertie Ahern ahead even of Micheál Martin in a Fianna Fáil presidential candidate survey (by the somewhat embarrassing... Read more »

WILL MARY LOU BACK CONNOLLY?

August 7, 2025

SINN FÉIN strategists may claim they are engaging in mature reflection about their choice of presidential nominee but the reality is that the... Read more »

DON’T FUND THE GENOCIDE

August 7, 2025

WHILE THE Dáil argues about the Occupied Territories Bill, Palestinian supporters in Galway have decided to make the global local by organising a... Read more »

‘COMRADES’ MICHAEL D AND CATHERINE C

August 7, 2025

GIVEN THE alarming prospect of leader Ivana Bacik’s support for Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign being rejected by her own party, Labour’s members grudgingly,... Read more »

IIEA SPLIT ON ISRAEL?

July 24, 2025

FEW PEOPLE would regard the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) as a front for Hamas, but neither is it a cheer... Read more »

DPP V DPP

July 24, 2025

MUCH CRITICISM was levelled at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by various media and others for failing to prosecute... Read more »

JAMES CONNOLLY IS ALIVE AND WELL!

July 24, 2025

IT IS hard to say what Labour’s policy on neutrality and EU militarisation actually is given the confusion in the anti-war movement about... Read more »

HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI, IRISH ROULETTE

July 10, 2025

PERHAPS THE most unctuous words that Taoiseach Micheál Martin has ever uttered were delivered during his visit to Hiroshima last week, where he... Read more »

UNAPPROVED BORDER ROAD

July 10, 2025

SINN FÉIN TDs in Donegal, Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, issued a mournful statement following last month’s High Court ruling in Belfast... Read more »

BACIK RETREATS FROM LEFT UNITY

July 10, 2025

THE LABOUR PARTY appears to have backed off its initial proposal for left unity, touted originally in the form of a united left... Read more »

BROWNE UNITES DUBLIN ON HOUSING

June 26, 2025

THE FULL extent of the political crisis on housing was revealed at Dublin City Council (DCC) this month, when housing minister James Brown... Read more »

PROXY FIANNA FÁIL ÁRAS CANDIDATE

June 26, 2025

HAS THE dearth of persuasive Fianna Fáil candidates – apart, perhaps, from Bertie Ahern – persuaded some sneaking regarders of the ‘republican’ party... Read more »

COLUM EASTWOOD – ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID

June 26, 2025

IS FORMER SDLP leader Colum Eastwood suffering from some sort of political personality disorder brought on by persistent political abuse at the hands... Read more »