Affairs, 23 January 2020

THIS WEEK’S DISMAL POLL figures may not have come as a total surprise for Leo Varadkar who has just seen almost 20% wiped off his approval rating since October. Vlad will have had some difficulty in acquiescing to the party producing election materials which feature Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney just as prominently as the leader himself…. Read more »

Affairs, 23 January 2020

SINN FÉIN’S CAMPAIGN for inclusion in head to head television debates has proven to be an effective rallying cause. Fighting a parallel battle away from the election proper has done no harm for the party’s image and keeps the narrative on a terrain more comfortable than selling policies and defending the finer points of budgets…. Read more »

Affairs, 22 January 2020

THIS ELECTION marks the first major vote since the Eighth Amendment was repealed in 2018. That long and arduous process saw much agonising on the part of politicians but will any of it have an impact come the day of reckoning? The memory of culture wars past had left a deep apathy in Leinster House…. Read more »

Affairs, 21 January 2020

PADDY COSGRAVE FIRED off some typically restrained political analysis this week when he said that a vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil is “voting for the guaranteed continuance of the indefensible privileges” enjoyed by “the thin layer of scum that sits atop Irish society”. It was not until he turned his attention to journalism,… Read more »

Affairs, 21 January 2020

TREMORS OF DREAD ran through the Fine Gael membership on Sunday as opinion polls showed an ominous seven percent wiped off their support. Coveney, Donohoe and other senior figures put on a brave face and spoke of “motivation” but morale will not have been improved by Monday’s Irish Times poll confirming similar levels of discontent…. Read more »

Affairs, 21 January 2020

THE SIGHT of Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan spending the weekend canvassing with Green Party candidate, Saoirse McHugh, has raised eyebrows all round. On one side, Ming will not have endeared himself to farmers in the West where perception of the Greens as a high tax anti-rural party runs deep. On the other, bike riding urban liberals… Read more »

Affairs, 21 January 2020

MONDAY SAW publication of new rules for ministerial advisors in Belfast as Stormont braces itself for conclusion of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) inquiry and likely endgame in the so called ‘cash for ash’ scandal. In future, Ministers will be directly responsible for the “conduct and discipline” of their staff, who will now be expected… Read more »

Affairs, 19 January 2020

THIS TIME FOUR YEARS AGO, armed gardaí were posted on every corner in Dublin’s inner city. The Regency Hotel shooting became an opportunity for an unprecedented and highly visible performance of police might. In the media, hacks battled to outdo one another with the darkest of speculation and hyperbolic prose. Each eruption framed as more… Read more »

Affairs, 19 January 2020

GOLDHAWK WOULD LIKE to have been a fly on the wall when Eoghan Murphy’s team were alerted to photos of the minister beaming down on the scene where a homeless man had suffered “life changing injuries”. Expressing how “saddened” he was by the incident, Murphy assured the public that the offending election poster had been… Read more »

Affairs, 19 January 2020

THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN went off script again on Thursday as Sinn Féin faced pressure over some seriously dubious remarks from Paddy ‘hooligan’ Holohan. After much toing and froing the party eventually announced that their newly elected councillor has been “suspended with immediate effect”. The party were slow to act, not least in the midsts of… Read more »

Affairs, 16 January 2020

LEO VARADKAR met his election target date, but the manner of its announcement was belated and cack-handed. Fine Gael’s delicate political choreography came undone a week ago as plans to call the election last weekend had to be aborted due to adverse political and PR conditions. Storm ‘Charlie’ had a lot to do with it,… Read more »

Affairs, 16 January 2020

THOSE MODERATE Irish Europhiles who are so aghast at Donald Trump’s belligerent foreign policy have managed to use his latest excess against the Iranians as another argument to create an EU army. Some 24 hours after a US drone killed Iran’s General Qassem Suleimani, an Irish Times column by EU proselytiser Professor Brigid Laffan told… Read more »

Affairs, 16 January 2020

THE SOCIAL Democrats might be staring into the abyss at this election. The centre-left group, headed by TDs Catherine Murphy and Roísin Shortall, had pretensions of replacing the moribund Labour Party. Now Labour, the resurgent Green Party and even Fianna Fáil threaten to put the kibosh on that Soc Dem breakthrough. The party’s best chance… Read more »

Affairs, 15 January 2020

THE STAGE IS SET for an intriguing battle in Wicklow where Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly has announced his desire to become the new Minister for Health. An ambition not lost on the present incumbent and constituency rival, Simon Harris. Donnelly had has plenty of opportunity to get stuck in as FF health spokesman since 2018… Read more »

Affairs, 15 January 2020

SOZZLED READERS of the Irish Times will surely raise a glass to Mark Paul for his spirited defence of industry funded alcohol awareness campaigns. The business hack suggests that Simon Harris is “drunk on power” for questioning the advice peddled by DrinkAware, which is jointly funded by Diageo and Heineken. The health minister’s warnings may… Read more »

Affairs, 14 January 2020

THIS ELECTION IS NOT just the most important of Leo Varadkar’s career but quite possibly the last. Despite his relative youth, Vlad has already spent longer in politics than most. After joining Fine Gael while in still secondary school, he later described the party’s youth wing as his “main social outlet” during studies in Trinity… Read more »

Affairs, 14 January 2020

THE COMING GENERAL ELECTION will mark the first in over a decade in which the next Taoiseach is not yet a forgone conclusion. While Fianna Fáil’s recovery remains still a shadow of the days when they would claim to be the “natural party of government”, it is, at last, finally in a position to challenge… Read more »

Affairs, 10 January 2020

WILL FINE GAEL’S INTEREST in climate ever extend beyond PR? It is no accident that Richard Bruton lined up the Climate Action Bill as government’s first media splash of the new year. At present the legislation exists only in draft form, however, and government’s ambition for this crucial long term framework be sufficiently wrapped up… Read more »

Affairs, 10 January 2020

IT WAS PORRIDGE at Christmas dinner for some of Ireland’s far-right provocateurs. Dale Lutton of Portadown and Belfast born Deirdre McTucker (sometimes Damhnait McKenna), who attended UCD and resides in Loughlinstown, were each convicted of violent disorder following farcical scenes in a Kent carpark. The pair became involved in a brawl with protesters outside Marks… Read more »

Affairs, 10 January 2020

FITTING that Maura Hopkins would announce her decision not to contest the general election in the week that childcare workers escalate concerns over underfunding. In a statement, the Fine Gael Senator said that as a new mother it would not be possible to balance the responsibilities and demands of personal and professional life. It is… Read more »

Affairs, 10 January 2020

THE DRUMS OF WAR can only mean busy times for Shannon Airport. A steady stream of US military have passed through Ireland on route to Kuwait since the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Friday. On Monday, Varadkar said that government are “very much concerned about any escalation of tensions in the Middle East”… Read more »

Affairs, 10 January 2020

NEWS THAT Julian Smith hosted a reception with leading loyalists received little interest in newspapers south of border. Representatives and organisations linked to the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando were invited to the Secretary of State’s official residence at Hillsborough after Christmas to outline concerns about Brexit and what the Tory government has now… Read more »

Affairs, 8 January 2020

THE OUTCOME of December’s Westminster election in Northern Ireland brought further recrimination and debate about a border poll. In response to the defeat of Nigel Dodds in North Belfast, Arlene Foster suggested simply that “the demography just wasn’t there” and that “the pan-nationalist front has come to fruition again”. A most gracious statement given this… Read more »