Article Category: Last Refuge

O’CALLAGHAN EMASCULATING MARTIN

July 13, 2017
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S Cardinal Richelieu, justice spokesperson Jim O’Callaghan, is coming under serious fire in Fianna Fáil as someone who is leading the party astray... Read more »

ALAN FARRELL BUCKS THE TREND

July 13, 2017
LEO VARADKAR’S promise of future promotion for the disappointed ones has not assuaged the ire of various unrewarded Fine Gael backbenchers. Immediate threats of... Read more »

LEO VARADKAR’S DISAPPOINTED FANS

June 29, 2017
THE biggest blunderer among those involved in the 2010 heave against Enda Kenny was Kieran O’Donnell who, having been made finance spokesman by Kenny... Read more »

CORK’S FOREIGN MINISTERS

June 29, 2017
THE axing of Dara Murphy, junior foreign minister for European affairs, is seen as the price he paid for supporting fellow Corkonian Simon Coveney... Read more »

Vlad v. Martin

June 29, 2017
TÁNAISTE Frances Fitzgerald’s outrage at Micheál Martin’s criticism of Máire Whelan in the Dáil debate last week indicates the high regard the former justice... Read more »

ENDA KENNY’S NEXT MOVE

June 29, 2017
LEO VARADKAR’S parliamentary coup has resulted in competing demands from not just ambitious TDs but also senators and others looking for Dáil nominations and... Read more »

WHAT IS MICHEÁL MARTIN’S STRATEGY?

June 15, 2017
WHAT strategy will Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin adopt in the face of new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s supposedly revitalised Fine Gael? Up until now... Read more »

HOWLIN’S UK LABOUR COMRADES

June 15, 2017
HOW heartening to see Labour leader Brendan Howlin’s solidarity with his British counterpart Jeremy Corbyn’s election campaign as Brendan joined his comrades on the... Read more »

OLYWN ENRIGHT BACK IN FOCUS

June 15, 2017
A FINE Gael starlet from the past, former Laois-Offaly TD Olwyn Enright, returned with a vengeance in the FG leadership contest and her prominence... Read more »

WILL MICHAEL McDOWELL RETURN TO THE HUSTINGS?

June 15, 2017
WHILE THE Irish and Sunday Independent continue to depict Kate O’Connell as a political Boadicea set to scale the political heights, there are movements... Read more »

DR VARADKAR’S DILEMMA

June 2, 2017
LEO Varadkar has received favourable commentary for his work ethic in his chosen profession of medicine in early life – “a young man who... Read more »

FRANCES FITZGERALD’S FINESSE

June 2, 2017
TÁNAISTE and justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, has degenerated from being a potential Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach to a minister fighting for her political... Read more »

Simon’s Tactics

June 2, 2017
SIMON COVENEY was congratulated for his plucky and gentlemanly fight back against Leo Varadkar’s Conor McGregor type assault in the first days of the... Read more »

Leo’s Headache

June 2, 2017
LEO VARADKAR’S troika in the South-East of Kilkenny TD, John Paul Phelan, Wexford junior defence minister, Paul Kehoe and his constituency rival, Michael D’Arcy... Read more »

martin baulks at action on vulture funds

June 2, 2017
Micheál Martin appears to have developed a Hamlet complex. The conservatism and fear of a premature election that has seized the party over the... Read more »

BRIAN MURPHY TO THE FORE AGAIN

May 17, 2017
SIMON COVENEY’S spin about Leo Varadkar’s street-fighting tactics in Fine Gael’s leadership contest is designed to paint the Cork gent as a statesmanlike figure... Read more »

Varadkar’s Allies

May 17, 2017
CLAIMS of majority parliamentary party support by Varadkar and Coveney’s campaign teams can hardly be accurate (both men are ahead). But Vlad’s side is... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S NEW TIMELINE

May 17, 2017
FIANNA FÁIL’S contortions over garda commissioner, Nóirín O’Sullivan, reached absurd levels last week when justice spokesperson, Jim O’Callaghan said that if he were justice... Read more »

NEW TAOISEACH’S CABINET OPTIONS

May 17, 2017
AMBITIOUS Fine Gael junior minsters have been making feverish calculations and permutations about promotion to cabinet as they weigh up their options in the... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S COALITION PLAN

May 3, 2017
THERE may be some Fianna Fáil front bench members and TDs who agree with Micheál Martin’s latest strident rejection of Sinn Féin as coalition... Read more »

Ó RÍORDÁIN NEXT LABOUR LEADER?

May 3, 2017
SENATOR Aodhán Ó Ríordáin began canvassing to regain his Dáil seat within minutes of Labour’s rout at last year’s general election. He has been... Read more »

FLANAGAN FLEES BACK TO FOLD

May 3, 2017
FORMER Fine Gael TD Terence Flanagan has slipped back into the party after his defection to Renua, Lucinda Creighton’s failed attempt to re-create the... Read more »

CABINET DIVIDE ON PALESTINE

May 3, 2017
THE next cabinet row between the Independent Alliance and Fine Gael could see Shane Ross don a Palestinian scarf and do battle with such... Read more »

WILL AG SURVIVE NEW FG LEADERSHIP?

April 19, 2017
AN INTERESTING sequence of stories following the recent Fennelly Report indicates that Alan Shatter is now being used to pressure Enda Kenny to resign... Read more »

Brendan Howlin’s Headache

April 19, 2017
RTÉ coverage of Labour leader Brendan Howlin’s conference speech this weekend will help sustain the illusion that the party is still a player in... Read more »

Squeezing John McGuinness

April 19, 2017
IT’S hard to keep John McGuinness down, as Micheál Martin knows only too well. Motor Mouth McGuinness, as loyal frontbenchers call him, was last... Read more »

BIFFO’S BROTHER V MICHEÁL MARTIN

April 19, 2017
IT’S BEEN a bad week or so for Fianna Fáil and inside the party the choice of scapegoats for the water charges gyrations and... Read more »

LEO’S SOUNDBYTES V SIMON’S CHAT-UP

April 5, 2017
IN THE space of just nine days to last weekend, Leo Varadkar made eight pointed leadership statements or gestures highlighting the political differences between... Read more »

REACTIONARY RENUA RENEWAL

April 5, 2017
RENUA leader and Offaly councillor John Leahy is hardly Lucinda Creighton but he has moved to the fore as the single saviour of the... Read more »

FF Split on Gardaí

April 5, 2017
WHO speaks for the bulk of Fianna Fáil members on the question of whether Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan should be forced out of office?... Read more »

BERTIE’S BOY ABANDONED?

April 5, 2017
THE latest effort to reintroduce Bertie Ahern to Fianna Fáil crashed and burned at last week’s Comhairle Dáil Ceantair meeting in Dublin Central. Rumour... Read more »

MARY LOU’S TIME HAS COME

March 23, 2017
THAT Sunday Times poll showing Sinn Féin overtaking Fine Gael (23% to 22%) will hardly be realised in a general election, although the party... Read more »

COVENEY GOOD FOR (CORK) BUSINESS

March 23, 2017
THE MESSAGE being purveyed by Simon Coveney’s political and business supporters is that Simon is good for business and has the support of corporate... Read more »

Vlad’s Numbers

March 23, 2017
LEO VARADKAR’S supporters have been spooked by that Irish Times poll showing that Simon Coveney was ahead in the Fine Gael leadership contest among... Read more »

TERRY PRONE’S SISTERLY ADVICE

March 23, 2017
ENDA KENNY’S emotional hand wringing about the “truly appalling” uncovering of hundreds of babies at the Tuam mother-and-baby home – “he was personally shocked”... Read more »