Article Category: Last Refuge

LORD ROSS TO CURB JUDGES?

March 9, 2017
THAT recent report about “leading judge” George Birmingham proposing a watering down of transport minister Shane Ross’s judicial appointments bill omitted one small detail,... Read more »

SOC DEMS: STICKIES IN DISGUISE?

March 9, 2017
ARE Social Democrats TDs Catherine Murphy and Roísín Shortall along with Irish Times ideologue Fintan O’Toole trying to recreate the Workers Party? It recently... Read more »

O’Brien backs Simon

March 9, 2017
LEO VARADKAR’S campaign team is getting jittery and it is not just because of that Irish Times poll showing Fine Gael members swinging over... Read more »

WILL AOIBHINN SUCCEED ENDA IN MAYO?

March 9, 2017
THERE is much fretting among Mayo Blueshirts about the future without An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and even more anxiety about the possibility that Michael... Read more »

FINE GAEL LEADERSHIP CONTEST – SIMON COVENEY

February 23, 2017
SIMON COVENEY’S Fine Gael leadership pitch is heavily dependent on securing support from the Enda Kenny old guard. But while the latter regard Leo... Read more »

FINE GAEL LEADERSHIP CONTEST – LEO VARADKAR

February 23, 2017
THE gay genie is out of the bottle in the Fine Gael leadership contest and two former Fine Gael operators-turned-hacks – ex-minister Ivan Yates... Read more »

SIPTU BOSS CHALLENGES HOWLIN

February 9, 2017
IS LABOUR preparing for a new party chief already? Current leader Brendan Howlin’s “welcome” for Siptu boss Jack O’Connor’s bid for chair of the... Read more »

Greedy-Raes

February 9, 2017
KERRY’S EYE turned its beady focus on TD brothers Mikey and Danny Healy-Rae recently with a wealth of detail about the mountain of moolah... Read more »

WICKLOW’S SOCIAL DEMOCRAT

February 9, 2017
MEDIA punditry about Stephen Donnelly reneging on his Independent, social democrat principles was predicated on the notion that he had cunningly negotiated his way... Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S COALITION STRATEGY

February 9, 2017
A CAREFULLY formulated article on coalition government by key Sinn Féin strategist Eoin Ó Broin in the Sunday Business Post recently was, if anything,... Read more »

SF LEADERENES

January 25, 2017
THE switch from South Armagh’s ex-IRA man Conor Murphy to health minister Michelle O’Neill as Sinn Féin’s chosen leader in Stormont, surprised everyone, including... Read more »

ONE, TWO, THREE – BINGO!

January 25, 2017
A BRIEF but fascinating discussion at last week’s Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting has caused much anxiety among the party leadership and they fear... Read more »

FG DISMANTLING THEIR OWN BILL

January 25, 2017
FINE GAEL is playing a most insidious game with its own Alcohol Bill and is effectively caving in to the blitzkrieg of lobbying from... Read more »

THE JEAN MONNET OF CASTLEBAR

January 25, 2017
MUCH wincing as well as suppressed giggling at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last week as junior minister for European affairs Dara Murphy... Read more »

REGINA AND HELEN

January 12, 2017
BLUESHIRT dominatrix and government chief whip Regina Doherty’s sweet nothings to Sinn Féin have much to do with her antipathy to her constituency colleague,... Read more »

Preying on Lowry

January 12, 2017
MICHAEL Lowry would appear to be safe as houses in Tipperary where he topped the poll by a country mile in last year’s election.... Read more »

OGLE’S NEW PARTY FALTERS

January 12, 2017
APOLLO HOUSE spokesman, union official and Right2Water campaigner Brenda Ogle continues to cut an Arthur Scargill type figure and is now leading the charge... Read more »

ZAPPER ZAPS APPLE — AGAIN

January 12, 2017
IS Apple Inc aware of the threat posed to them by that indefatigable champion of Irish taxpayers, namely minister Katherine Zappone, who also poses... Read more »

O’CALLAGHAN’S LEGAL BRAIN

December 14, 2016
FIANNA FÁIL’S increased poll ratings may or may not have something to do with the party’s new, more responsible (rightward) turn on various issues.... Read more »

REGINA’S SOFT SPOT

December 14, 2016
IS government chief whip, Regina Doherty, a secret admirer of Fidel Castro? Did the teenage Regina have a Che Guevara poster in her bedroom?... Read more »

CATHERINE BYRNE’S MEMBERS REVOLT

December 14, 2016
CATHERINE BYRNE is a loyal, supine supporter of Enda Kenny which qualities earned her the position as minister of state for communities and drugs.... Read more »

BLUESHIRT BAR LOBBY(ISTS)

December 1, 2016
THERE is more than one Fine Gael faction working against the Alcohol Bill being steered through the Oireachtas by junior health minster Marcella Corcoran... Read more »

TOM CURRAN STAYS PUT

December 1, 2016
TWO recently announced employment decisions of great import – one agricultural, the other political – have caused no little apprehension at Fine Gaels Mount... Read more »

On the button

December 1, 2016
OUTRIGHT opposition to the recent Dublin City Council budget from People Before Profit’s three councillors as well as a blood and thunder speech from... Read more »

LABOUR HANDLERS FLEE TO PRIVATE SECTOR

December 1, 2016
LABOUR’S 30 or so defeated TDs as well as the 80-plus councillors who lost their seats in 2014 have spent much time venting their... Read more »

BRENDAN OGLE’S NEW LEFT PARTY

November 3, 2016
A PROJECT to set up another socialist party, in the Dáil and outside, is being masterminded by Unite trade union official Brendan Ogle, a... Read more »

ROSS RUNS RINGS AROUND O’DONOVAN

November 3, 2016
WATCH out for a severe rebuke to the government and implicitly for junior sports minister Patrick O’Donovan from Sports Ireland (SI) chairperson Kieran Mulvey... Read more »

Harris retracts

November 3, 2016
A SIGN that Leo Varadkar is edging ahead of Simon Coveney in the Fine Gael leadership stakes is the cringing effort by Sindo columnist... Read more »

FF POISED FOR FIFTY PLUS SEATS

October 20, 2016
THE perceived wisdom on Fianna Fáil’s medium term strategy – Fine Gael dissidents’ paranoia notwithstanding – is that Micheál Martin will wait for at... Read more »

VLAD AND SIMON WOO COUNCILLORS

October 20, 2016
WHAT a disappointment Simon Coveney delivered to councillors at a meeting of the local authority members’ association in Bantry this month when he had... Read more »

Enda’s dynasty

October 20, 2016
THERE has been a great falling out between Enda Kenny and one of his longest and most loyal party colleagues in Mayo, Castlebar neighbour... Read more »

FEMINISTS IN FIGHT FOR MAYO

October 20, 2016
AN honourable and unusual mention in Miriam Lord’s Irish Times column for Sinn Féin Seanad leader Rose Conway Walsh – “a very impressive addition... Read more »