Article Category: Last Refuge

PASCHAL VS MARY LOU VS PARTY RIVALS

October 4, 2018
FINANCE MINISTER Paschal Donohoe has made a bold move in his Dublin Central constituency. He has taken on a running mate, even though he... Read more »

HIGGINS NO-SHOWS

October 4, 2018
MICHAEL D HIGGINS has shown yet again that he is anything but a naïve aesthete, as his deft political footwork and PR manipulation illustrated... Read more »

SHERLOCK GETS BACK ON THE WAGON

October 4, 2018
LABOUR TD Seán Sherlock, caused some concern among party TDs and senators recently as he appeared to have succumbed to the demon drink again... Read more »

HOWLIN’S MASTER PLAN

September 20, 2018
BRENDAN HOWLIN appears to have survived the leadership heave orchestrated by Alan Kelly and his chief aide, Declan Walsh. The scenario now unfolding sees... Read more »

KEAVENEY COMEBACK?

September 20, 2018
FORMER Fianna Fáil TD and ex-Labour Party chairman Colm Keaveney received quite a splash in the Sunday Times last weekend, indicating that FF handlers... Read more »

THE ‘REAL’ OPPOSITION

September 20, 2018
THE SCHIZOPHRENIA inside Fianna Fáil – is the party in government or opposition? – is being hammered home by Kilkenny TD John McGuinness, and... Read more »

COVENEY BACKSLIDES ON ISRAEL AGAIN

September 20, 2018
SUDDENLY the government and the EU has become scrupulously attached to the spirit and the letter of EU commercial policy and is using it... Read more »

GRANNY GRANT GYRATIONS

September 6, 2018
SHANE ROSS’S granny grant budgetary demand to finance minister Paschal Donohoe provoked the obligatory denunciation from Fine Gael-inspired media commentary. But this issue is... Read more »

ZAPPER VARADKAR’S FAVOURITE

September 6, 2018
CHILDREN’S MINISTER Katherine Zappone is a model Independent minister and never gives Leo Varadkar or Fine Gael any trouble over policy issues or much... Read more »

O’ROURKE SELLS BRIDGE TO VOTERS

September 6, 2018
Kildare North is one of the few Fianna Fáil success stories, with James Lawless and Frank O’Rourke taking two seats out of four at... Read more »

LABOUR LEADERS LOST

September 6, 2018
THERE is something tragi-comic about the bitter in-fighting over the Labour Party leadership when it is distinctly possible that none of the putative leaders... Read more »

SEÁN GALLAGHER’S VENGEANCE

August 23, 2018
IT WAS never a question of if but rather when Seán Gallagher would enter the presidential contest. Even before any declaration, he has managed... Read more »

TO HELL OR SLIGO

August 23, 2018
FIANNA FÁIL’S Roscommon-Galway AGM was expected to be dominated by the controversy surrounding Mary Devine O’Callaghan, the party’s constituency director of organisation and FF’s... Read more »

TWO LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES LOOMING?

August 23, 2018
THE Fianna Fáil offer – or capitulation to Leo Varadkar’s offer of a 2020 summer election – to extend the confidence and supply agreement... Read more »

AK47 SALVO AGAINST HOWLIN

August 9, 2018
BRENDAN HOWLIN fought back against a flurry of statements from various councillors and other Labour Party members demanding his replacement as party leader last... Read more »

SOC DEMS: STALE BUT NOT MALE

August 9, 2018
CONGRATS to the Social Democrats, whose political ambition belies their effete image as cuddly, social justice champions and who recently eclipsed their left-wing rivals... Read more »

O’DEA SLAPS IT UP TO MARTIN

August 9, 2018
REPORTS claiming that Willie O’Dea is part of a simmering revolt against Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin are well wide of the mark. But... Read more »

SF BORDER POLL ‘U-TURN’

August 9, 2018
SINN FÉIN has done a U-turn of sorts on the timing of a border poll, but its political opponents as well as some media,... Read more »

FIANNA FAIL FLEES VULTURE FUNDS

July 26, 2018
EXTRAORDINARY scenes occurred in the Dáil chamber recently when outspoken Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness rose to introduce his private members’ bill, the Affordable... Read more »

THE REBEL MAYOR NIAL RING

July 26, 2018
NEWLY elected Lord Mayor of Dublin Nial Ring was a perfect gent when hosting royal couple Harry and Meghan in Dublin’s Docklands recently. Minutes... Read more »

HOWLIN’S HOPEFULS

July 26, 2018
LABOUR leader Brendan Howlin laid out his candidate stall recently, naming nine contestants that would sweep into the Dáil at the next election. There... Read more »

DUBLIN FINE GAEL POLL SURGE

July 26, 2018
ONE reason why some Fine Gael ministers want to force a general election is that their own polls say the party is riding higher... Read more »

CONOR LENIHAN COMEBACK?

July 12, 2018
FORMER MINISTER Conor Lenihan made a surprise visit to his old stomping ground of Dublin South-West recently where, at his own request, he addressed... Read more »

FRANCES AND PRECOCIOUS VLAD

July 12, 2018
THERE’S INGRATITUDE and ingratitude and then there’s Frances Fitzgerald’s attitude to her leader, Leo Varadkar. Fragrant Frances quipped at a fundraiser for Mary Newman... Read more »

SINN FEIN’S PRESIDENTIAL DELUSIONS

July 12, 2018
HAS Mary Lou McDonald driven Sinn Féin into a no-win situation with her demand for a presidential election and the proposal that SF will... Read more »

FINE GAEL SEARCHING FOR WOMEN

July 12, 2018
THE DAMNED gender quota for general election candidates coupled with the current feminist upsurge is causing serious problems for the lads in the Blueshirt... Read more »

FG AND JUDGES STILL FIGHT SHANE ROSS

June 28, 2018
THE rearguard action by judges and their Fine Gael supporters against Shane Ross’s Judicial Appointments Bill has reached the stage of political and legal... Read more »

SINN FÉIN COALITION SPLITS

June 28, 2018
A SINN FÉIN ard fheis campaign by front bench housing spokesperson Eoin “Brainiac” Ó Broin TD to unseat longtime apparatchik Dawn Doyle as general... Read more »

O’CONNELL RED FLAG

June 28, 2018
KATE O’CONNELL’S spin machine scored a hit with a recent Mail on Sunday splash – Minister Faces Revolt Led By Kate O’Connell, screamed the... Read more »

HELEN McENTEE FOR EUROPE

June 28, 2018
LOOKS as though Fine Gael’s junior Europe Minister Helen McEntee has seen the writing on the wall in Meath East as well as the... Read more »

CIVIL WAR IN FIANNA FÁIL

June 13, 2018
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S threat to impose a whip on Fianna Fáil TDs over pending abortion legislation could lead to a real crisis for his two... Read more »

BERTIE AHERN –  THE LOST LEADER

June 13, 2018
BERTIE AHERN has become a totemic figure in dissident Fianna Fáil circles discontented with Micheál Martin’s leadership and Meath West TD Shane Cassells appears... Read more »

SAVING LABOUR FROM ALAN KELLY

June 13, 2018
IS former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte trying to stimulate a debate on impending regime change in the party with his provocative column in the... Read more »