Affairs, 10 February 2020

FIANNA FÁIL’S election plans have come up short in more ways than one. Micheál Martin’s miracle comeback has not materialised with the party trailing well behind its target of 55 seats. On top of this, two key planks of Martin’s recovery strategy have failed. In 2011, FF were cut down to just 20 TDs. Later… Read more »

Affairs, 10 February 2020

AFTER JUST ONE Dáil term, Eoin Ó Broin has emerged as a key figure in Sinn Féin’s popular appeal. As housing spokesperson he has been instrumental in the party’s rebranding as socialists and his command of policy detail has won admirers among even SF sceptics. It would represent a major coup for the party should… Read more »

Affairs, 10 February 2020

FIANNA FÁIL TDs believe that Micheál Martin will be forced to do the U-turn of the millennium and form a coalition government with Sinn Féin after the arithmetic reality in the next Dáil kicks in. Others believe Martin will stand and fight against ‘the Provisionals’, as Eoghan Harris calls them, in which case Martin will… Read more »

Affairs, 7 February 2020

MANY WERE LEFT horrified and confused this week following an Irish Times report that new Tusla guidelines may see victims of child and sexual assault questioned by alleged perpetrators. The policy is prompted by a number of court decisions finding that an accused party has the right to challenge the complainant’s evidence. The special rapporteur… Read more »

Affairs, 7 February 2020

GOLDHAWK IS INTERESTED to see that the sun may be setting on one of the most insidious practices in Irish journalism. The full weight of the media has been brought to bear on Sinn Féin over remarks made by Conor Murphy following the death of Paul Quinn in 2007. Murphy’s suggestion that Quinn had been… Read more »

Affairs, 7 February 2020

GOLDHAWK WAS ALMOST DIZZY watching some of the contortions on display during the election campaign. Politicians and commentators are at once aghast over internal democracy within Sinn Féin and flabbergasted that, for example, Saoirse McHugh could be at odds with the Green Party line. The Achill candidate’s forthright and off script remarks have been held… Read more »

Affairs, 7 February 2020

MEDIA MONSTERING of Sinn Féin over the 2007 Paul Quinn murder and the contradictions between Mary Lou McDonald and SF’s northern finance minister, Conor Murphy reached hysterical proportions this week. The Sunday and Irish Independent, the Irish Times and RTE lost the run of themselves, descending from their usual anti-SF electoral combat mode to McCarthyite… Read more »

Affairs, 6 February 2020

FIANNA FÁIL STANDS out in this election as the only the party not to include reference to the night time economy in its manifesto. The party, which has struggled with voters under 35 since the crash, has overlooked that liberalisation of licensing laws, appointment of night mayors and other continental ideas are now in fashion…. Read more »

Affairs, 6 February 2020

AFTER ALMOST a decade in the wilderness, Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath is, at last, Finance Minister in waiting. Having completed his apprenticeship in the dark days of fiscal rectitude, how will his orthodox approach fit in with a new coalition, one likely to stake its reputation on big spending in housing, health and the environment…. Read more »

Affairs, 4 February 2020

SURELY NO FIGURE in recent years has attracted negativity from so many quarters as Shane Ross. As a cabinet minister he has received as much opprobrium from government partners as they directed at the opposition and drove a successful media campaign against him. Why? Because Ross and his Independent Alliance had the gall to insist… Read more »

Affairs, 4 February 2020

RECENT OPINION POLLING has thrown up some surprises and the reaction has been stranger still. The BBC’s Andrew Neill was pick of the bunch on Saturday when he opined that “Varadkar [is] learning the hard way you can’t anti-Brit SF” and that “Varadkar’s FG, campaigning on anti-British ‘small Country’ ticket [is] down 7 points”. Irish… Read more »

Affairs, 4 February 2020

Further to Goldhawk pointing out that RTÉ were over enthusiastic in reporting a “record breaking” drop in homeless figures last week, it seems that Eoghan Murphy’s department made a significant oversight. In the midst of an election campaign, Fine Gael was given a boost on the stubborn issue of housing when the national broadcaster announced… Read more »

Affairs, 4 February 2020

ACCORDING TO a legal notice published last week, property vehicle Lugano Properties Company Ltd has been wound up by the High Court. There seems to be some confusion, however, over the actual status of the company, which is owned by concert promoter Eamonn McCann – former business partner of Denis ‘MCD’ Desmond. The intriguing story… Read more »

Affairs, 3 February 2020

A STORY of triumph over adversity; of sporting heroism against financial doom; and Corinthian players against entrenched bureaucrats in the FAI was relayed in the Sunday Independent yesterday (02/02/20). The article described how the government and in particular, sports minister, Shane Ross faced down those who resisted a solution to the financial crisis and reform of… Read more »

Affairs, 30 January 2020

NO SOONER had Richard Bruton got backs up at the Irish Times when Billy Kelleher started taking lumps out of RTÉ. Late on Wednesday night, the Fianna Fáil MEP recounted his decision to buttonhole “Tommy Connelly” in Strasbourg over the national broadcaster’s “pitiful” coverage of EU affairs. While Kelleher has been away since June, he… Read more »

Affairs, 30 January 2020

WITH POLLING DAY edging near Phil Hogan has made his customary intervention on behalf of Fine Gael. Big Phil’s previous role as European Commissioner for Agriculture saw him well placed to opportunistically shore up the party’s rural support. Ahead of the 2016 general election, Hogan descended from Olympus to make soothing noises about the need… Read more »

Affairs, 30 January 2020

BRENDAN HOWLIN’S ELECTION pledge for Shannon Airport could hardly be more meaningless. The party manifesto promises that “Labour will end the use of Shannon and Irish airspace by the US military while the US is involved in any warfare that does not have UN approval”. American foreign policy for decades has involved perpetual war across… Read more »

Affairs, 29 January 2020

WHAT TO MAKE of the silence surrounding new evidence in the Miami Showband massacre? Ministry of Defence (MOD) documents made public during a court hearing in Belfast last week, indicate that British Army Capitan Robert Niarac not only provided assistance to the so called Glenanne gang but planned and directed the botched conspiracy. This is… Read more »

Affairs, 29 January 2020

MNÁ NA hÉIREANN were surely thrilled to see party leaders flex their feminist credentials in an Irish Independent questionnaire. New men like Varadkar, Martin and Howlin lined up to retrospectively claim credit for polices their parties had been dragged into implementing. Among all the fine-tuned responses, Varadkar’s decision to congratulate himself on ratifying the Istanbul… Read more »

Affairs, 29 January 2020

FINE GAEL’S EFFORTS to bolster its green credentials have routinely included reference to work of Galway West TD, Hildegard Nauoghghton as Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action. It will come as a sting then that the same committee has delivered a frank rebuke of government’s efforts. In recommendations submitted to the Draft National… Read more »

Affairs, 28 January 2020

FINE GAEL’s Catherine Noone is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. The senator’s campaign in Dublin Bay North had already gone quiet following a bust up over bus parking and she faces another storm of her own making following an ill-judged diagnosis of her own party leader. Goldhawk has had his eye… Read more »