Article Category: Last Refuge

FF targets Varadkar

August 10, 2016
FIANNA FÁIL’S demand for the government to increase the pension by “at least” €5 a week, five times that proposed by social protection minister... Read more »

‘IRONMAN’ MURPHY TO SUCCEED MCGUINNESS?

August 10, 2016
HEAVILY TIPPED to succeed Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister in the northern executive is Conor Murphy as part of Sinn Féin’s transitional leadership... Read more »

FINE GAEL’S ELECTION POST MORTEMS

July 28, 2016
BRIAN HAYES is the most likely to be targeted in the two Fine Gael election post mortems – if they ever see the light... Read more »

ALAN KELLY RELOADED

July 28, 2016
ALAN AK47 KELLY has neither gone away nor been decommissioned and after a temporary ceasefire is firing off salvoes against the government in a... Read more »

Renua’s money

July 28, 2016
RENUA HAS no TDs or senators but is being kept alive by state funds of €250,000 a year and is already making preparations to... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S LONG-TERM GAME PLAN

July 28, 2016
FINE GAEL’S Brendan Griffin is not the only member of his party terrified of Fianna Fáil suddenly pulling the plug and racing to the... Read more »

BERTIE STILL LURKS IN DUBLIN CENTRAL

July 15, 2016
WITH Fianna Fáil flying high in the polls, the battle in Dublin Central between last February’s candidate, Mary Fitzpatrick and the BEGOBs (Bertie’s Good... Read more »

FRANKIE FEIGHAN’S FIGHT-BACK

July 15, 2016
RUN out of politics because of his loyalty to Enda Kenny (or disgraced because of broken pledges to retain Roscommon hospital’s A&E unit), Senator... Read more »

ENDA KENNY GIFTED A REPRIEVE

July 15, 2016
BAD politics and even worse journalism combined to give the Taoiseach a lifeline, however temporary, last week with RTÉ and The Sunday Times being... Read more »

REGINA DOHERTY’S SELF CONFIDENCE

July 15, 2016
A revealing insight into government chief whip, Regina Doherty’s self esteem came in a most supportive Irish Times article last weekend. Revealing a detailed... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S INNER CIRCLE

July 2, 2016
THAT little-commented-on poll in The Sunday Times last weekend shows Fine Gael ahead of Fianna Fáil, which fell 2%. This is a reversal of... Read more »

THE ‘COPING’ POLITICAL CLASS

July 2, 2016
PAT ‘The Cope’ Gallagher must be happy that discussion about his determined bid to take the Leas-Cheann Comhairle’s job has not focused on the... Read more »

Kate’s U-turn

July 2, 2016
IT looks as though the penny has dropped with newly elected Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell, who has resiled from her strident position on... Read more »

LABOUR WEIGHED DOWN WITH OLDIES

June 17, 2016
BRENDAN HOWLIN’S effort to resurrect the Labour Party began with a successful Dáil motion on workers’ rights and, despite his Mr Austerity epithet, it... Read more »

Bertie’s Handball Alley Feud

June 17, 2016
IT’S a long way from the Middle East, Russia and Turkey to the Clonliffe Road area, but Bertie has been asked to arbitrate in... Read more »

EU COMMISSION WATER LEAKS

June 17, 2016
THE EU Commission has issued a statement on the contentious water charges directive which contradicts statements given off the record to RTÉ and which... Read more »

RENUA ‘CONFIDENTIAL’

June 1, 2016
LAST weekend’s media leaks about Renua’s name change carried nothing like the full flavour of the party post mortem that has gone on at... Read more »

RÓISÍN TO REJECT BRENDAN

June 1, 2016
WHO does Brendan Howlin think he’s kidding? Howlin may have assumed leadership of Labour via a clause in the party’s constitution that confers divine... Read more »

ENDA KENNY’S FAVOURITES

June 1, 2016
SURPRISE, surprise, the FG internal inquiry has found those most responsible for the election disaster were the HQ officials (mainly general secretary Tom Curran)... Read more »

LABOUR PARTY FACING CIVIL WAR

May 18, 2016
THE trouble with the six Labour TDs’ plot to stop the seventh, Alan Kelly, becoming party leader is that a negative strategy usually leads... Read more »

FINIAN AND CHARLIE

May 18, 2016
IT’S Cuban cigars, not fags, that super junior minister Finian McGrath should be smoking. During negotiations for government with Fine Gael’s foreign minister, Charlie... Read more »

Lowry FG ‘deal’

May 18, 2016
THE Healy-Rae brothers may be cute, but Michael Lowry is cute out, as they say beyond the Red Cow roundabout. Lowry’s claim that he... Read more »

ENDA’S ‘INDEPENDENT’ SENATOR?

May 18, 2016
IT’S a good thing Irish Independent editor Fionnan Sheahan is not an arrogant control freak with megalomaniac tendencies, given the embarrassing efforts of senior... Read more »

REGINA Vs HELEN IN MEATH

May 18, 2016
ENDA KENNY’S stunt in leading his cabinet women into the Dáil ahead of the lads saw him include his new chief whip and junior... Read more »

TONY COUGHLAN EXCORIATES SINN FÉIN

May 5, 2016
IRELAND’S most enduring and intellectually powerful opponent of the EU for nearly half a century is Tony Coughlan, associate professor emeritus at TCD. That... Read more »

HANG DOWN YER HEAD TIM DOOLEY

May 5, 2016
SENATE director of elections for Fianna Fáil, Timmy Dooley, is taking some flak inside the party over a poor result with a lower than... Read more »

WHEN ZAPPONE ZAPPED LONE PARENTS

May 5, 2016
KATHERINE ZAPPONE’S bid for a cabinet seat with her early vote for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach was tastefully dressed up as a childcare deal... Read more »

MICHAEL McDOWELL ON THE GO AGAIN

April 21, 2016
HE’S BACK. The notion that Michael McDowell is running for the Senate merely to secure a platform was never an adequate explanation for the... Read more »

JOAN BURTON CLINGS TO POWER

April 21, 2016
LABOUR leader Joan Burton and most of her TDs, supported by a growing number of ever so sensible media voices, want the party to... Read more »

McCONALOGUE MARTIN’S MAN

April 21, 2016
FIANNA FÁIL’S team negotiating with Fine Gael is a little lopsided, with big beasts Michael McGrath and Jim O’Callaghan alongside second team players Barry... Read more »

Enda Kenny’s Ace Card

April 21, 2016
GOLDHAWK predicted recently that Enda Kenny would not easily be dislodged from his perch as Taoiseach and Fine Gael party leader (see The Phoenix... Read more »

SINN FÉIN ON THE SIDELINES

April 7, 2016
THE party political leader watching the slow dance towards a government – more monochrome (blue) than rainbow coloured – with greater anxiety than even... Read more »

FF Coalition Split

April 7, 2016
AT least five senior Fianna Fáil figures are now in favour of a ‘grand’ coalition with Fine Gael, and it comes as no surprise... Read more »