Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

OOH AH, YOU’RE IN THE ’RA, SAID THE BBC

June 12, 2025

THE BBC must cough up millions and lose face over its astonishing decision to broadcast an allegation of murder against Gerry Adams, citing... Read more »

MARTIN WRONG ON ISRAELI WAR BONDS

June 12, 2025

HEATED POLITICAL polemic on the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB) a fortnight ago saw the Government contradicted on the legal front, at home and... Read more »

COUNTER-COLONIAL CATHAL CROWE

June 12, 2025

FIANNA FÁIL TD Cathal Crowe has been making strident statements about the global issues of the day but all politics is local. Last... Read more »

THE FIRST ITEM

June 12, 2025

RED NETWORK, a far-left group claiming around 40 members, announced this week that it had voted “unanimously” to leave Richard Boyd Barrett’s People... Read more »

STAR-STUDDED ÁRAS HOPEFULS

May 29, 2025

THE LATEST Fianna Fáil no-hoper for the FF presidential nomination whose name is being floated (this time by the aspirant herself, not party... Read more »

TOOLE’S TRACK RECORD

May 29, 2025

THE LONE TD that remained sitting next to Michael Lowry, ‘chairman’ of the Regional Independent Group (RIG) – after Barry Heneghan had abandoned... Read more »

INSECURE SECURITY COMMITTEE (CH. II)

May 29, 2025

READERS WILL remember that there was consternation at the Dáil reform committee meeting to organise draft orders of reference for Oireachtas committees when... Read more »

BERTIE BANGS ON ÁRAS DOOR

May 15, 2025

MUCH MEDIA attention was given – as intended – to a rather self-serving organisation, which is entitled the InterAction Council. It is composed... Read more »

‘INSECURE’ OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE

May 15, 2025

THERE WAS consternation among certain members of the Dáil reform committee when it met to ratify the draft Orders of Reference and Establishment of... Read more »

HAS BACIK BACKED OFF LEFT UNITY?

May 15, 2025

THE GROWING movement pushing for broad left unity among the opposition received two signals last week at a large rally to retain the... Read more »

BLUESHIRTS CORK CIVIL WAR

May 1, 2025

THERE IS a lot more than has been reported to that cross-party letter about the underfunding of the tenant-in-situ scheme, which was sent... Read more »