Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

IRON LADY’S GAME PLAN

March 6, 2025

IRISH TIMES diarist Miriam Lord must have good sources in the health department or perhaps in health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s retinue. Last... Read more »

MARTIN’S NON-NORTHERN POLICY

March 6, 2025

THE SPLENDIDLY titled Ireland and Britain editor of the Irish Times, Mark Hennessy, told readers last November that Irish unity would occupy much... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL FEMALE FEALTY

February 20, 2025

FIANNA FÁIL’s female election candidates have doubled down against sustained criticism from feminists and others of the alleged male control freaks in their... Read more »

MATTIE McGRATH’S OLD FRIENDS

February 20, 2025

FOLLOWING REPORTS of talks between Independent TD Mattie McGrath and his former party, Fianna Fáil, that never happened/broke down/are ongoing/were exaggerated in the... Read more »

BARRY BOTTLES BILL ON PALESTINE

February 20, 2025

DYNAMIC NEW Independent TD Barry Heneghan, who came over fierce radical like during the general election, has caused outrage among Palestinian supporters for... Read more »

MAYO’S LOST LEADERS

February 20, 2025

TIME WAS when Mayo Fianna Fáil harboured two would-be taoisigh – Dara Calleary and Lisa Chambers. That was some years ago but even... Read more »

HOUSING MINISTER’S ANGST

February 6, 2025

DESPITE HIS elevation to the most challenging department in government (that’s a polite euphemism for the job of housing minister, the most arduous... Read more »

PRESIDENT O’TOOLE (POT)

February 6, 2025

THAT SECULAR Irish Times preacher, Fintan O’Toole, declined to rule himself out of the running for the presidency in the Sunday Independent last... Read more »

LONESOME COWBOY TD, MATTIE

February 6, 2025

FOR SOME years Mattie McGrath was the archetypal rural Independent having left Fianna Fáil in 2010, partly over the EU-IMF bail-out and in... Read more »

MOLLY, MY IRISH MOLLY: ZAPPONE IS BACK

January 23, 2025

MEDIAHUIS GROUP political editor Philip Ryan restored some semblance of balance in the daily Indo to coverage of Katherine Zappone’s return to Ireland... Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S NEW SENATOR

January 23, 2025

SINN FÉIN’S decision to transfer its northern economy minister to the Seanad has provoked much curious comment but little of the usual media... Read more »

FLIGHT OF THE WILD GREENS

January 23, 2025

THE LAST Green standing, party leader Roderic O’Gorman, recently slid his stiletto with surgical precision into both his party chair, ex-senator Pauline O’Reilly,... Read more »

NORMA FOLEY’S POOR HOMEWORK

January 9, 2025

EDUCATION MINISTER Norma Foley is expecting to either retain her current role or be moved sideways in Cabinet and with party leader Micheál... Read more »

JIMMY CARTER’S IRISH POLICY

January 9, 2025

IN THE second public reference recently to his stewardship of Anglo-Irish policy at home and abroad, Seán Donlon wrote in the Irish Times... Read more »

INDEPENDENT SUPER JUNIORS

January 9, 2025

LITTLE OR NOTHING was discussed between the two big Government parties and Independent TD groups over Christmas, despite insinuations and hints to media... Read more »

VENGEANCE BEJAYSUS IN NORTH CORK

January 9, 2025

FIVE YEARS ago the failure of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to reward one of his most loyal followers, Cork North-West’s Michael Moynihan,... Read more »

McENTEE REVIVES LEADERSHIP DREAM

December 12, 2024

FIANNA FÁIL’s election strategy selected justice minister Helen McEntee as its prime target but the Fine Gael princess focussed on a game plan... Read more »

SCHULL-DUGGERY UNDERMINES FREE STATERS

December 12, 2024

FOR THE second election in a row, Fine Gael has emerged with no seat in Cork South-West (CSW), a notable change of fortune... Read more »

MARTIN TO KEEP O’CALLAGHAN CLOSE?

December 12, 2024

WILL MICHEÁL MARTIN honour his accord and reconciliation with former leadership challenger Jim O’Callaghan or will he welch on a deal that Fianna... Read more »

HUTCH TO TAKE OUT STEENSON?

November 28, 2024

THE SPECTRE of master criminal Hutch or right-wing, anti-immigrant councillor Malachy Steenson – or both – entering Leinster House after the general election... Read more »

NEW GOVERNMENT TO MOVE SHARP RIGHT?

November 28, 2024

AFTER THE votes are counted this weekend, the action will move to government formation and there is a real possibility that a much... Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL’S SOLO RUN

November 28, 2024

THE POLAR opposite of the Dublin Central constituency – Gerry Hutch, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, new-right councillor Malachy Steenson etc –... Read more »

RED FLAGS FOR FF

November 28, 2024

THE RISE of Fianna Fáil in the polls would seem to be inexorable and FF leader Micheál Martin and party activists are convinced... Read more »