
FINE GAEL KNEW DEFEAT WAS NIGH
FINE GAEL KNEW DEFEAT WAS NIGH
July 15, 2021
FINE GAEL handlers – director of elections Simon Harris, Leo Varadkar and others – knew well before the day of the byelection vote that... Read more »
BACIK’S MANY ISSUES
July 15, 2021
IVANA BACIK’S brand of south Dublin liberal feminism was more than enough to secure the support of Ireland’s media class ahead of the Dublin... Read more »
RIGHT-WING RETREAT
July 15, 2021
IT’S BEEN a bad year for former chairperson of the Irish Freedom Party Dolores Cahill, forced to resign from the party last March for... Read more »
FINE GAEL’S CUNNING BYELECTION PLAN
July 1, 2021
WHAT A clever ploy Fine Gael came up with in the Dublin Bay South (DBS) byelection (before that Irish Times poll) with minister Simon... Read more »
BLUESHIRTS REVOLT
July 1, 2021
DISCONTENT AMONG the Fine Gael grassroots at what is described as the control freakery of Leo Varadkar and the party’s career officials has simmered... Read more »
MINUTE MEATH MATTERS
July 1, 2021
EFFORTS BY nine Meath county councillors to prise from council officials the recordings of their own council deliberations on the county development plan (see... Read more »
LABOUR’S MESSAGE NOT FOR PROLES
June 17, 2021
LABOUR LEADER Alan Kelly put on a lot of pressure to have Labour first in the Dublin Bay South (DBS) byelection field with posters,... Read more »
KATE O’CONNELL’S SUCCESSOR?
June 17, 2021
UNLESS JAMES GEOGHEGAN totally bombs in the Dublin Bay South byelection, he is most likely to stand for Fine Gael in the general election.... Read more »
PROTESTANTS AND PROTOCOLS
June 17, 2021
RTÉ’S CLAIRE BYRNE was not available to protect DUP hard man Gregory Campbell last week as she did recently when closing down sports pundit... Read more »
BARRY (WO)MANS UP
June 17, 2021
HAS FORMER Young Fine Gael president Barry Walsh been emasculated by Blueshirt harpies following his social media outbursts about ‘bitches’ back in 2017? Barry... Read more »
CORRECTION: TATE DONNELLY
June 17, 2021
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GEOGHEGAN’S MEMORY LAPSES
June 3, 2021
FINE GAEL’S perfectly modelled candidate in the Dublin Bay South byelection, James Geoghegan, has had the shine taken off him since declaring his intention... Read more »
MEATH MINUTES UNDER LOCK AND KEY
June 3, 2021
A STAND-OFF between elected councillors and executive officials in Meath could be heading for an embarrassing public confrontation. Seven Independent councillors, as well as... Read more »
JOHN PAUL PHELAN’S ANGST
June 3, 2021
JOHN PAUL PHELAN certainly has a way with words. His description of Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney bluffing their way through a Fine Gael... Read more »
BOYLAN WON’T BE PRESS-GANGED INTO DUBLIN BAY SOUTH
May 20, 2021
MUCH AGONISING in Sinn Féin about its choice of candidate in the Dublin Bay South (DBS) byelection with electoral asset, former MEP Lynn Boylan... Read more »
KATE GETS DOSE OF THE BLUES
May 20, 2021
KATE O’CONNELL’S melodramatic wail about a Leo Varadkar leadership faction undermining her prospects of a nomination in the Dublin Bay South byelection is wide... Read more »
SEÁN LEMASS DOUBLY HONOURED
May 20, 2021
SO ESTEEMED is the late taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Seán Lemass in the eyes of today’s party members that the party held not... Read more »
THE FIRST (AND LAST) ITEM …
May 20, 2021
BRENDAN BEHAN suggested that the first item on the agenda of any organisation should be the Split. It seems that this same proposition is... Read more »
BOYLAN WON’T BE PRESS-GANGED INTO DUBLIN BAY SOUTH
May 20, 2021
MUCH AGONISING in Sinn Féin about its choice of candidate in the Dublin Bay South (DBS) byelection with electoral asset, former MEP Lynn Boylan... Read more »
KATE GETS DOSE OF THE BLUES
May 20, 2021
KATE O’CONNELL’S melodramatic wail about a Leo Varadkar leadership faction undermining her prospects of a nomination in the Dublin Bay South byelection is wide... Read more »
SEÁN LEMASS DOUBLY HONOURED
May 20, 2021
SO ESTEEMED is the late taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Seán Lemass in the eyes of today’s party members that the party held not... Read more »
THE FIRST (AND LAST) ITEM …
May 20, 2021
BRENDAN BEHAN suggested that the first item on the agenda of any organisation should be the Split. It seems that this same proposition is... Read more »
HAZEL CHU’S CUL-DE-SAC
May 6, 2021
THE POINTED reference last weekend by Green councillor Claire Byrne to her status as “not a stranger” to the constituency was actually a dig... Read more »
KATE O’CONNELL COMEBACK?
May 6, 2021
THERE IS a perception abroad that former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell is a busted flush and that any residual delusions of ministerial power... Read more »
DUBLIN BAY SOUTH FF SHOOT-OUT
May 6, 2021
THE REAL battle in the Dublin Bay South byelection will be the effort by Micheál Martin’s favoured candidate, barrister and councillor Claire O’Connor, to... Read more »
PRESIDENT’S UNCIVIL LINE ON CENTENARIES
April 22, 2021
THE LOOMNG centenaries of the Treaty and Civil War are causing tremors among various politicians, especially those in Fine Gael and especially also because... Read more »
RICHMOND’S ROAD TO TOP OF GREASY POLE
April 22, 2021
THE SCENT of long-term leadership ambition wafts from the utterances and persona of Neale Richmond, Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown, who has made... Read more »
DONNELLY’S ROLLERCOASTER
April 22, 2021
HOW DID Stephen Donnelly go from zero to hero and back again to zero in a fortnight? When the health minister sensibly proposed to... Read more »
IRELAND’S WAR GAMES IN AFRICA
April 22, 2021
THE ONLY article among 29 contributions in the Defence Forces Review 2020 that does not openly support or presume Ireland’s integration into an EU... Read more »
MARTIN SET FOR LONG HOT SUMMER
April 8, 2021
THE LATEST polls have concentrated minds in Fianna Fáil in a way they have not done since the general election and this could serve... Read more »
IRISH FREEDOM PARTY’S NEW CHAIR
April 8, 2021
PROF DOLORES Cahill’s resignation from the Irish Freedom Party (IFP) following some whacky – not to say dangerous – statements about face masks and... Read more »
BRUTON DOES STRUMPET CITY
April 8, 2021
SOUNDS LIKE Fine Gael chairperson Richard Bruton believes in method acting judging by his performance as William Martin Murphy at a virtual on-screen shoot... Read more »
DANNY V MICHAEL HEALY-RAE
April 8, 2021
THE DIVIDE between the Healy-Rae brothers – TDs Michael and Danny – is an open secret in Kerry and it appears to be reflected... Read more »
O’CALLAGHAN GIRDS HIS LOINS
March 25, 2021
THE BATTLE for the Fianna Fáil leadership went transatlantic and even to the southern hemisphere in the last week as Micheál Martin and Jim... Read more »
MICHEÁL AND LEO v THE MEDIA
March 25, 2021
IT MAY be that in the absence of his golden source at the top level of Fine Gael – Big Phil Hogan – that the Irish... Read more »
SINN FÉIN’S AMBITIOUS PLANS
March 25, 2021
ANGUISHED NOISES from Sinn Féin general election candidate Séighin Ó Ceallaigh, about the imposition of a male gender ban in his constituency, Limerick County,... Read more »