Last Refuge Archives

Last Refuge

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 »

MCGUIRK AND RTÉ

March 25, 2021
RIGHT-WING commentator John McGuirk railed against RTÉ for paying out €20,000 recently to several charities nominated by left-republican group Éirígí on foot of McGuirk’s... Read more »

UNARMED MILITARY COMMITTEE

March 11, 2021
IF CETA, the EU Canada trade deal, threatens what remains of Green Party unity, then just wait until its position on Irish neutrality and... Read more »

REBEL CORK POPULISM

March 11, 2021
LEADER OF the Cork People’s Convention (CPC) Diarmaid Ó Cadhla made an effort to break out of the marginal political ghetto he has been... Read more »

SWP TOP OF THE TROTS

March 11, 2021
THAT MERGER of TD Paul Murphy’s Rise movement – he had previously been part of Solidarity – with TD Richard Boyd Barrett’s People Before... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL PLOTTERS DIVIDED

March 11, 2021
A FASCINATING zoom meeting last week of the Cosmhuintir Fianna Fáil faction within the party heard TDs Seán Haughey and Jim O’Callaghan, as well... Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S ELECTORAL GROUND WAR

February 25, 2021
SINN FÉIN’S spectre is stalking the land again as its extraordinary election result last February was diminished only by its failure to run enough... Read more »

FRIENDS AT COURT

February 25, 2021
THE INDO’S Fionnan Sheahan mischievously remarked recently that Fine Gael Seanad byelection candidate Maria Byrne is “a real favourite of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s office”,... Read more »

Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MEDIA OFFENSIVE

February 25, 2021
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S media offensive has caused him some problems (‘mixed messages’ etc) but it also appears that he has had some traction recently and... Read more »

BERTIE’S LONG GAME

February 11, 2021
THE MEDIA focus, as well as that of Micheál Martin, was fixed on the number of rebel TDs that attended one or more Zoom meetings... Read more »

EUGENE MCCARTAN’S COMRADES

February 11, 2021
DISSENT IN the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) has seen factions from Belfast and Cork focus their dissent on the perennial figure of Eugene... Read more »

MARTIN’S CRITICS

February 11, 2021
WILY WILLIE O’Dea used his Sunday Independent platform recently to have a go – ostensibly at the Green Party – for obstructing the road... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S CUNNING PLAN

February 11, 2021
WITH 13 Fianna Fáil Seanad hopefuls vying for the nomination to replace Sinn Féin’s Elisha McCallion on the Industrial and Commercial Panel (Fine Gael... Read more »

CHAMBERS CASHIERED BY COVENEY

January 28, 2021
FLUSHED, APPARENTLY, with promotional success, Jack Chambers, told the Business Post on January 10 of a catalogue of initiatives he would be driving given... Read more »

BLUESHIRT VENGEANCE

January 28, 2021
THE NEXUS between judges, legal eagles and politicians was unwittingly underlined by barrister Rossa Fanning’s recent onslaught in the Sunday Independent against ex-minister Shane... Read more »

SF COALITION PARTNERS

January 28, 2021
RECENT REMARKS by Sinn Féin brainbox, housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin, about potential coalition government with Fianna Fáil will have been listened to with... Read more »

CORRECTION

January 28, 2021
In an article in The Phoenix, 15 January, 2021, headlined ‘HEALTH MINISTER’S FUTURE’, Cllr Rory O’Connor was incorrectly named as Seán O’Connor, and Wicklow... Read more »

JIM O’CALLAGHAN’S PROGNOSIS

January 14, 2021
FIANNA FÁIL TD, Jim O’Callaghan, has gone all quiet about the pandemic in recent weeks after several months of energetic and robust criticisms of... Read more »

MAKE INCHICORE GREAT AGAIN

January 14, 2021
HARD LEFT TD, Bríd Smith, would greatly resent being compared to the stormtroopers of Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) that attacked the... Read more »

HEALTH MINISTER’S FUTURE

January 14, 2021
A SIGN of the political times – or near future – in Wicklow is the not entirely innocent Facebook comment posted by Cllr Rory... Read more »

CAN’T SEE THE GOOD FOR THE TREES

December 16, 2020
WHAT AN unusually flattering article the Irish Times published last weekend about the involvement of junior agriculture minister Senator Pippa Hackett in the planting... Read more »

BRIAN STANLEY’S FOES

December 16, 2020
INTERESTING to see that Fianna Fáil members on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) did not row in with abandon behind Fine Gael’s onslaught against... Read more »

EXTRA DUBLIN DÁIL SEAT

December 16, 2020
ALL BETS are off in Dublin Fingal, where the five-seat constituency is likely to be divided into two three-seaters by the time of the... Read more »

JENNIFER WHITMORE’S GREEN CONCERNS

December 16, 2020
IF SINN Féin stands accused of deliberately embarrassing the government parties with confidence motions and other tactics, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, party spokesperson... Read more »

SINN FÉIN MEMBERS SUSPENDED

December 3, 2020
SINN FÉIN has just got tough with recalcitrant members in Leitrim, suspending two of them for breaching party policy on the direct provision issue.... Read more »

POLLS: REBELS PAUSE

December 3, 2020
A GLIMMER of hope for Fianna Fáil and its leader, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin, came with weekend polls showing the party up one point... Read more »

O’ROURKE FIGHTS FOR GOOD NAME

December 3, 2020
BATTLING EX-TD Frank O’Rourke is taking on Facebook and Twitter in the High Court and, if the Kildare North Fianna Fáil politician’s record is... Read more »

FIONNÁN SHEEHAN LETS FLY

December 3, 2020
IRELAND EDITOR at Independent News & Media Fionnán Sheahan’s past affiliation to Fine Gael (Young FG chairman at UCC) has been cited by some... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CORK REBELS

November 19, 2020
RTÉ AND its Drivetime host, Sarah McInerney, managed last week to transform a most interesting story about Fianna Fáil abandoning its republican traditions –... Read more »

IVANA TRIES AGAIN

November 19, 2020
LABOUR SENATOR Ivana Bacik has let it be known to her fans in Dublin Bay South (DBS) that she will – for the fourth... Read more »

The confidence-and-supply deal reflected Micheál Martin’s lack of belief in his party’s ability to take on FG in a general election.

ANNUAL 2020: A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR LEADERS

November 19, 2020
THIS YEAR at times resembled a science fiction B movie as civilisation virtually succumbed to the plague in most countries with politics, economics, sport... Read more »

Mary Lou McDonald is managing to stick clearly to a well-thought-out line on Covid and the economic support necessary.

ANNUAL 2020: SINN FÉIN ON THE BRINK

November 19, 2020
IF 2019 was an annus horribilis for Sinn Féin, 2020 has been the year of resurrection, of Aiséirí. From the depths of a major... Read more »

The geographic spread of the Social Democrats, which was co-founded by Catherine Murphy, is even more Dublin-centric than Labour’s. Solidarity/People Before Profit TDs, such as Richard Boyd Barrett (below), are all lively and effective political operators.

ANNUAL 2020: FRINGE PARTIES TRAPPED

November 19, 2020
As they considered who to vote for to lead our government in February, the electorate faced the choice of TweedleFF or TweedleFG. Perennial predictions... Read more »