Last Refuge Archives - The Phoenix Magazine

Last Refuge

EAMON RYAN’S MEDIA CRUSADE

October 16, 2019
WHO KNEW what champions of free speech and the media the main Dáil parties are, as exemplified by their leaders’ bold call to Denis... Read more »

BLUESHIRT SURGERY IN SLIGO AND CAVAN

October 16, 2019
THE SPECTRE of former MEP Marian Harkin haunts Fine Gael in Sligo-Leitrim, where the already nervous party members believe that her possible entry to... Read more »

FG’S PRODIGAL SON, FLANAGAN

October 16, 2019
GOD LOVES a trier and former Dublin North-East Fine Gael poll topper in the 2011 general election, Terence Flanagan, might well believe that his... Read more »

SINN FÉIN DAMAGE LIMITATION

October 16, 2019
SINN FÉIN’S local election plunge to 9.5% from 16% in 2014 (and 13.9% in the 2016 general election) is far more significant than its... Read more »

FF FRONTBENCH MEDICATION

October 3, 2019
MICHEÁL MARTIN will not be pleased to see the row between Willie O’Dea and the more ‘responsible’ Fianna Fáil frontbench members spilling over into... Read more »

FG WHITEWASH IN BY-ELECTIONS?

October 3, 2019
LEO VARADKAR delivered a decidedly downbeat prediction for Fine Gael in the four upcoming by-elections – “only one of the seats is guaranteed” –... Read more »

THE FIRST ITEM

October 3, 2019
INTERNECINE FEUDING within the far Left can be incomprehensible, but two things are clear about TD Paul Murphy’s apostasy and departure from the Socialist... Read more »

LABOUR’S ‘NEW GENERATION’

October 3, 2019
‘GENERATIONAL CHANGE’ is how the party has pitched the withdrawal of Labour’s Wicklow general election candidate, Jack O’Connor, with Cllr Paul O’Brien replacing the... Read more »

MARIA BAILEY FIGHTS BACK

September 19, 2019
IT LOOKS like controversial TD Maria Bailey is not going to go quietly, despite the leadership stratagem of leaving it to Blueshirts in her... Read more »

BLUESHIRT’S RURAL REALITY

September 19, 2019
THINGS ARE going from bad to worse for Fine Gael in rural Ireland. According to the latest analysis, Sligo-Leitrim (where the party took two... Read more »

PRESIDENT’S LATITUDE

September 19, 2019
YET AGAIN President Michael D Higgins has incurred the displeasure of a po-faced media for allegedly ‘pushing the boundaries’ of his office and breaching... Read more »

MICHAEL CREED’S BACK YARD

September 19, 2019
AGRICULTURE MINISTER Michael Creed has issues of national importance to deal with (those bolshie beef farmers, see profile, p14), but he also has a... Read more »

COVETOUS COVENEY LURKS STILL

September 5, 2019
LAST WEEKEND Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris tipped Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney to take out Leo Varadkar as leader if Fine Gael loses the next... Read more »

LEFT-RIGHT FIANNA FÁIL SPLIT

September 5, 2019
EVERY YEAR since the 2016 general election, Willie O’Dea has led a charge to bolster Fianna Fáil’s working-class base, with the parliamentary party and... Read more »

SHANE ROSS’S CONFIDENCE

September 5, 2019
AN UNEASY calm has settled on the Seanad since Shane Ross’s Judicial Appointments Commission Bill was allowed to pass through committee stage last July... Read more »

POST DEASY CIVIL WAR

September 5, 2019
FRESH FROM feeding off the political carcass of local TD John Deasy, Waterford Blueshirts are now divided into three new factions behind the candidates... Read more »

ISRAELI IRISH OFFENSIVE

August 22, 2019
THE ONSLAUGHT against alleged anti-semitism in Britain is driven by efforts to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership, while in Ireland the claim that criticism... Read more »

BITCHIN’ BLUESHIRT BARRY

August 22, 2019
WITH ONE Young Fine Gael (YFG) leader, Killian Foley-Walsh, in a spot of bother about his attendance at a right-wing youth conference in the... Read more »

LABOUR AND BIG TOBACCO

August 22, 2019
WHAT IS it about the Labour Party and Big Tobacco? Several leading Labour players down the years have been involved in lobbying and PR... Read more »

TIMMY DOOLEY’S DEMISE

August 8, 2019
TIMMY DOOLEY’S public dressing down by his boss, Micheál Martin, for his unpatriotic remarks on the Taoiseach as he confronted the old foe, represent... Read more »

JOAN BURTON’S LAST STAND

August 8, 2019
THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT was kind to former Labour leader, Joan Burton, in its recent front page splash about tens of thousands of pensioners being... Read more »

JOSEPHA, SHANE, SHAY AND NEALE

August 8, 2019
SHAY BRENNAN’S win at the Fianna Fáil Dublin Rathdown convention last week is but a small step in the party’s seemingly hopeless quest to... Read more »

BERNARD MCCABE’S RETURN

August 8, 2019
MANY OF the dinner ‘guests’ at the recent barristers fund raiser for Fine Gael (see The Phoenix, 28/6/19) would have political as well as... Read more »

CHOPPING MARIA BAILEY

July 25, 2019
FOLLOWING recent adverse developments, Maria Bailey has lost her role as chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, but the axe could fall even... Read more »

TARGETING RICHARD BOYD BARRETT

July 25, 2019
With colourful political drama in Dún Laoghaire dominating headlines, the real political news has been submerged – namely, the rise of the Green Party... Read more »

MICHELLE’S MAYO MADNESS

July 25, 2019
FINE GAEL farming members, a mainstay of the party for generations, are not enamoured of their Galway West TD, the fragrant Hildegarde Naughton, but... Read more »

FALLING STAR DEIRDRE KINGSTON

July 25, 2019
THE REAL political drama in Kingstown involving Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey, as well as other high-profile candidates (see p10), was eclipsed briefly last... Read more »

GENDER IMBALANCE IN CORK FG

July 25, 2019
LEO VARADKAR and Fine Gael general secretary Tom Curran have a serious gender problem in Cork City and County with not a single woman... Read more »

MARY LOU RESHUFFLES SF DÁIL TEAM

July 11, 2019
SINN FÉIN’S post-election revamp will see the restructure of various layers of the party, but already Mary Lou McDonald’s Dáil reshuffle involves a refocus... Read more »

BLUESHIRTS BATTLE FOR TOP JOBS

July 11, 2019
THE BACK-room machinations by EU states’ leaders in the divvy up of EU top jobs last week were naïve child’s play compared to the... Read more »

ANYBODY BUT REILLY

July 11, 2019
ABR is the acronym of the message and mission handed down from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to his chief of staff, Brian Murphy, in the... Read more »

FINE GAEL BULLIES?

July 11, 2019
REPORTS OF bullying, racist remarks and persecution of female members in Meath East Fine Gael have led to an inquiry by the party’s national... Read more »

VARADKAR TO BAIL OUT BAILEY?

June 27, 2019
LEO VARADKAR is again exhibiting a recently observed trait of indecision and prevarication, this time in the Maria Bailey ‘compo’ controversy. This characteristic is... Read more »

BRENDAN AND RÓISÍN

June 27, 2019
STRATEGIC ARGUMENTS inside both the Labour Party and the Labour Party Mark II (aka the Social Democrats) concern not only whether to enter coalition... Read more »

SOC DEMS TARGET EIGHT DÁIL SEATS

June 27, 2019
THE MEDIA’s new political love objects are the Greens, but the Soc Dems are also feeling some love, as illustrated by a recent Irish... Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL AND MARIA BAILEY

June 27, 2019
THE SPECIAL relationship between VBFs Fine Gael TDs Maria Bailey and Kate O’Connell appears to have been challenged due to the unfortunate misunderstanding and... Read more »