Last Refuge Archives

ISRAEL NOT LOSING ANY SLEEP

April 23, 2020

GOLDHAWK WAS heartened to see in the proposed programme for government advanced by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that there was a firm... Read more »

SIMON HARRIS’S BRIT BASHING

April 23, 2020

YOU KNOW something’s not quite right when a Fine Gael minister defensively reaches out for a bit of Brit bashing. Such was the... 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

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S HEADACHE

April 23, 2020

WHILE THE media are concentrating on the chances of one of the smaller parties rowing in behind a Programme for Government put forward... Read more »

BLUESHIRTS LOVE-BOMB ‘NUTTERS’

April 23, 2020

IT’S HARD to believe that the Blueshirts are blowing kisses at the Greens after bad-mouthing them as ‘nutters’ to the Irish Farmers’ Association,... Read more »

EOGHAN MURPHY’S WAITING GAME

April 23, 2020

HOUSING MINISTER Eoghan Murphy has been enjoying some Covid-19 cover over his delays in releasing the social housing completions by local councils in... Read more »

MARTIN’S SEANAD OUTCOME

April 9, 2020

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin gave a tentative sigh of relief when the election results for the Seanad were completed. Mickey is under... Read more »

NUI’S INSPIRING GRADUATES

April 9, 2020

THOSE PATHETIC, second-rate graduates of Limerick and Dublin City universities, who are still deprived of a Seanad vote, can take solace that they... Read more »

MURPHY’S RENTAL FLIP-FLOP

April 9, 2020

HOUSING MINISTER Eoghan Murphy returned from his post-election vacation abroad in fine fettle, but still went into self-quarantine. Thankfully, the minister for more... Read more »

FF’S SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP

April 9, 2020

THERE HAS been a quiet reappearance of the term “social partnership” in recent weeks and, for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU),... Read more »

JOHN CONCANNON’S RETURN

March 26, 2020

LEO VARADKAR is certainly persistent. He has called John Concannon back from NUI Galway to lead the latest government information campaign on the... Read more »

WHERE NOW FOR EAMON RYAN?

March 26, 2020

GREEN PARTY leader Eamon Ryan has always believed enthusiastically that being in politics means being in government. But this time, it seems, his... Read more »

CIRCLING MICHEÁL MARTIN

March 26, 2020

MICHEÁL MARTIN continues to come under pressure within Fianna Fáil because of his proposal that the party go into full coalition with Fine... Read more »

LUVVIES TO LOSE MINISTER?

March 26, 2020

THE ARTS sector must be fearing what’s in store for it in the government formation talks. It looks like the creative types are... Read more »

LUCINDA VS THE INDEPENDENTS

March 26, 2020

LOBBYIST, columnist and former Fine Gael politician Lucinda Creighton was blowing sunshine up Leo’s rear end last weekend, which is perhaps no surprise.... Read more »

LABOUR CONTEST: AK47 VS PC 2020

March 12, 2020

LABOUR’S LEADERSHIP election – Guns vs Roses – is already over bar the counting; Alan Kelly is home and dry and the only... Read more »

GREEN POWER PLAY

March 12, 2020

TWO PUTATIVE Green Party dynasties had their wings clipped during and after the general election and party leader Eamon Ryan showed that he... Read more »

COVENEY RETREATS

March 12, 2020

DESPITE SIMMERING anger at grassroots level following Fine Gael’s electoral panning, the parliamentary party is unlikely to see a leadership challenge from Simon... Read more »

EOGHAN MURPHY’S NEW PARTNER

March 12, 2020

HOUSING MINISTER Eoghan Murphy TD’s replacement of Kate O’Connell as his new Fine Gael ‘partner’ in Dublin Bay South (DBS) is likely to... Read more »

MCDOWELL’S GHOST PRISON

February 27, 2020

Launching his Seanad re-election campaign, Michael McDowell SC showed an impressive, if belated, concern to increase the provision of public housing. In a... Read more »

CATHERINE MURPHY’S ODD BEHAVIOUR

February 27, 2020

HOW STRANGE that Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy would even consider running for the post of Ceann Comhairle, given that her party –... Read more »

MARTIN’S MASTERFUL SCREW-UP

February 27, 2020

PUTATIVE TALKS between Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin may now be the main political agenda, but Martin’s negotiating position, as well as his... Read more »

FAR-LEFT COALITION SPLITS

February 27, 2020

COALITION SHADOW boxing between the three big parties is child’s play compared to the ongoing battle for ascendancy between the two Trotskyist factions... Read more »

EOGHAN MURPHY’S FIGHT BACK

February 13, 2020

A panic-stricken Eoghan Murphy spent a fortune over the last two weeks of the election campaign stuffing the letter boxes of Dublin Bay... Read more »

GREEN BLUESHIRT ALLIANCE

February 13, 2020

THE HIGHEST vote getter of those Green Party candidates that nearly won a seat was Vincent P Martin SC, who came fifth in... Read more »

IBEC VS SINN FÉIN

February 13, 2020

IBEC HEADS were in shock when the Shinners came top of the Irish Times pre-election poll. After decades of lecturing workers on the... Read more »

COVENEY LURKS

February 13, 2020

TÁNAISTE and foreign minister Simon Coveney recently spoke in disarming, even endearing terms about how close he was to his leader, Taoiseach Leo... Read more »

VARADKAR’S RUNNING MATES

January 30, 2020

IT’S HARD to recall any taoiseach that has failed to bring in a running mate in their own constituency at a general election... Read more »

COVENEY’S CAPTAIN IN ELECTION ROW

January 30, 2020

WITH Fine Gael heading for electoral defeat, the locus of the party leadership is likely to move rapidly from Dublin to Cork with... Read more »

HOWLIN’S KERRY BLUES

January 30, 2020

REPEATED REPORTS that Brendan Howlin and Labour expect to take 14 or 15 seats at the election can best be judged by the... Read more »

GREY BLUESHIRT STAFF BROWNED OFF

January 30, 2020

THE Fine Gael boo-boo on pensions has angered not only grey voters – that most prolific cohort – but also grey grafters among... Read more »

COVENEY’S RIGHT HAND MAN

January 16, 2020

FINE GAEL had been hoping to restore the natural order of things in Cork South-West by running Senator Tim Lombard with junior minister... Read more »

MCDOWELL’S CHOICE

January 16, 2020

HAVING MARSHALLED his resources for a comeback in the general election in Dublin Bay South (DBS) former minister and PD leader, Senator Michael... Read more »

REBELS COVENEY AND O’CALLAGHAN

January 16, 2020

THE DUAL war of words over commemoration of the RIC and advance discussions on a united Ireland has not created a fundamental rift... Read more »

HOWLIN GOES FOR TÁNAISTE

January 16, 2020

BRENDAN HOWLIN’S weekend jibes at the “Tory Boys” of Fine Gael and his gung-ho election demand to “bring it on” reflect his desire... Read more »

TREBLE JOBBER DARA MURPHY

December 12, 2019

IN HIS anxiety to defend multiple jobber Dara Murphy, Leo Varadkar made some rather risqué remarks in the Dáil about double-jobbing members of... Read more »

LEITRIM IS A VERY FUNNY PLACE, SIR

December 12, 2019

THE ASYLUM-seekers row in Ballinamore is not over yet, as reported – not by a long shot. Junior Minister for Integration David Stanton... Read more »