Article Category: Last Refuge

HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI, IRISH ROULETTE

July 10, 2025

PERHAPS THE most unctuous words that Taoiseach Micheál Martin has ever uttered were delivered during his visit to Hiroshima last week, where he... Read more »

UNAPPROVED BORDER ROAD

July 10, 2025

SINN FÉIN TDs in Donegal, Pearse Doherty and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, issued a mournful statement following last month’s High Court ruling in Belfast... Read more »

BACIK RETREATS FROM LEFT UNITY

July 10, 2025

THE LABOUR PARTY appears to have backed off its initial proposal for left unity, touted originally in the form of a united left... Read more »

BROWNE UNITES DUBLIN ON HOUSING

June 26, 2025

THE FULL extent of the political crisis on housing was revealed at Dublin City Council (DCC) this month, when housing minister James Brown... Read more »

PROXY FIANNA FÁIL ÁRAS CANDIDATE

June 26, 2025

HAS THE dearth of persuasive Fianna Fáil candidates – apart, perhaps, from Bertie Ahern – persuaded some sneaking regarders of the ‘republican’ party... Read more »

COLUM EASTWOOD – ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID

June 26, 2025

IS FORMER SDLP leader Colum Eastwood suffering from some sort of political personality disorder brought on by persistent political abuse at the hands... Read more »

OOH AH, YOU’RE IN THE ’RA, SAID THE BBC

June 12, 2025

THE BBC must cough up millions and lose face over its astonishing decision to broadcast an allegation of murder against Gerry Adams, citing... Read more »

MARTIN WRONG ON ISRAELI WAR BONDS

June 12, 2025

HEATED POLITICAL polemic on the Occupied Territories Bill (OTB) a fortnight ago saw the Government contradicted on the legal front, at home and... Read more »

COUNTER-COLONIAL CATHAL CROWE

June 12, 2025

FIANNA FÁIL TD Cathal Crowe has been making strident statements about the global issues of the day but all politics is local. Last... Read more »

THE FIRST ITEM

June 12, 2025

RED NETWORK, a far-left group claiming around 40 members, announced this week that it had voted “unanimously” to leave Richard Boyd Barrett’s People... Read more »

STAR-STUDDED ÁRAS HOPEFULS

May 29, 2025

THE LATEST Fianna Fáil no-hoper for the FF presidential nomination whose name is being floated (this time by the aspirant herself, not party... Read more »

TOOLE’S TRACK RECORD

May 29, 2025

THE LONE TD that remained sitting next to Michael Lowry, ‘chairman’ of the Regional Independent Group (RIG) – after Barry Heneghan had abandoned... Read more »

INSECURE SECURITY COMMITTEE (CH. II)

May 29, 2025

READERS WILL remember that there was consternation at the Dáil reform committee meeting to organise draft orders of reference for Oireachtas committees when... Read more »

BERTIE BANGS ON ÁRAS DOOR

May 15, 2025

MUCH MEDIA attention was given – as intended – to a rather self-serving organisation, which is entitled the InterAction Council. It is composed... Read more »

‘INSECURE’ OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE

May 15, 2025

THERE WAS consternation among certain members of the Dáil reform committee when it met to ratify the draft Orders of Reference and Establishment of... Read more »

HAS BACIK BACKED OFF LEFT UNITY?

May 15, 2025

THE GROWING movement pushing for broad left unity among the opposition received two signals last week at a large rally to retain the... Read more »

BLUESHIRTS CORK CIVIL WAR

May 1, 2025

THERE IS a lot more than has been reported to that cross-party letter about the underfunding of the tenant-in-situ scheme, which was sent... Read more »

McDOWELL SAYS NO TO PRESIDENCY

May 1, 2025

MICHAEL McDOWELL was pretty defiant when it was put to him in March that, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael each intent on... Read more »

DONOHOE FOR EUROGROUP JOB?

May 1, 2025

GROUP THINK in the media Greek chorus of the Irish financial establishment is that finance minister Paschal Donohoe only has to turn up... Read more »

VARADKAR V MARTIN

May 1, 2025

FOR TAOISEACH and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to be battling with former taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar over a united... Read more »

MICHAEL LOWRY’S POLITICAL CHUMS

April 17, 2025

MICHAEL ‘NO MATES’ LOWRY is more isolated (outside the company of Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, that is) than many have realised and... Read more »

GENDER QUOTA BACKLASH

April 17, 2025

THE MOTHER of all political battles could be on the cards if disgruntled noises from inside the parliamentary parties of Fianna Fáil and... Read more »

LEFT UNITY THREAT

April 17, 2025

THE CENTRE-RIGHT parties and their media supporters ought to make up their minds about whether they support left unity or not. Recent reaction... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S POLITICAL PEDIGREE

April 17, 2025

UNIONIST COMMENTATOR Sam McBride positively gurgled with pleasure in the Irish Independent and Belfast Telegraph at Micheál Martin’s dismissal last week of a... Read more »

LEFT UNITY ÁRAS CANDIDATE

April 3, 2025

THE BIG question for Mary Lou McDonald and the Sinn Féin leadership in their tight, internal debate about who to run in the... Read more »

TWO FINGERS AGAIN FROM GOVERNMENT

April 3, 2025

SINN FÉIN’S Gaeltacht and arts spokesperson, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, has discovered that the Government’s innovative approach to political democracy has spread beyond the... Read more »

OPPOSITION SPLIT ON SPEAKING RIGHTS

April 3, 2025

UNITY IN the opposition ranks may still be intact on the issue of speaking rights for the schizophrenic group of TDs led by... Read more »

GUNS NOT BUTTER: GET READY

March 20, 2025

THERE ARE various reasons for the more outlandish media and political hyperbole about the monsters Trump and Putin and their iniquitous behaviour but... Read more »

FF PRESIDENTIAL PROBLEMS

March 20, 2025

IN THE absence of a strong leftist-republican candidate, November’s presidential campaign is a contest which Fianna Fáil would surely be favourites to win... Read more »

CATHAL CROWE’S STEPPING STONE

March 6, 2025

WHAT A dramatic speech, full of resonance with modern Irish history, Clare Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe made last week during a Dáil... Read more »