Last Refuge Archives

Last Refuge

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 »

Janice Boylan Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

REINVENTING VARADKAR

January 23, 2025

IS LEO VARADKAR trying to reinvent himself as a retired western statesman turned champion of the oppressed in the manner of late US... 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 »

GREEN GLOBAL GLOOM

December 12, 2024

‘APRÈS-NOUS, le déluge’ summed up the atmosphere at the European Greens convention last weekend in the cavernous Dublin Convention Centre. The poorly attended... 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 »

HUTCH: ‘PUT HIM IN TO GET HIM OUT’

November 14, 2024

SOMEONE IN Hutch’s retinue appears to be aware of the famous 1917 by-election slogan in South Longford, when Sinn Féin candidate Joseph McGuinness... Read more »

Micheál Martin was most active in 2024 on Ireland’s need to involve itself more in militarisation of the EU.

ANNUAL 2024: GOVERNMENT – SAME OLD GOVERNMENT AGAIN?

November 14, 2024

LAST YEAR ended and this year began with a chorus line that said then taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar would be... Read more »

ANNUAL 2024: OPPOSITION – CAN SINN FÉIN RECOVER?

November 14, 2024

HOW THE mighty have fallen! A year ago, Sinn Féin was riding high in the opinion polls at 35% and confidently expected to... Read more »

Michael Collins’s Independent Ireland could sideline the Green Party in a coalition government after the next election.

ANNUAL 2024: INDEPENDENTS/TROTS – DIVIDED LEFT TO STAY IN OPPOSITION

November 14, 2024

DESPITE THE decline in Sinn Féin’s vote, the minor left parties have failed to capitalise on SF’s drop in support and joining in... Read more »

LEST WE FORGET…

November 14, 2024

HAS SIMON HARRIS dropped his first clanger in Anglo-Irish matters with a deliberate failure to attend the annual Remembrance Sunday Commemoration in Enniskillen... Read more »

SLOWLY DOES IT

November 14, 2024

IN THE last edition of The Phoenix it was noted that Sinn Féin has for some years been guided by a comprehensive, 40-page... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S U-TURN

October 31, 2024

WHAT A rollicking Micheál Martin gave to coalition ‘partners’ Fine Gael last weekend, with justice minister Helen McEntee in particular and Taoiseach Simon... Read more »

FINE GAEL IGNORES PALESTINE EU BODY

October 31, 2024

FINE GAEL MEPs have brought a new meaning to the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign by Palestinian supporters with their own shunning of... Read more »

SHATTER: TD AGAIN OR MERE DISRUPTER?

October 31, 2024

FINE GAEL activists in Dublin Rathdown are becoming a little edgy about former justice minister and Israel champion Alan Shatter’s general election campaign,... Read more »

DALY TO HIT SOC DEMS AND GREENS?

October 31, 2024

FORMER MEP Clare Daly lost her EU seat last June due to a combination of factors, with one being a media witch hunt... Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL’S INDEPENDENT GAMBLE

October 17, 2024

FINE GAEL handlers are being stingy with the truth when they claim that Kate O’Connell was not asked to run for the party... Read more »

INFALLIBLE ATTORNEY GENERALS

October 17, 2024
GOLDHAWK IS not one bit surprised at former foreign minister Simon Coveney’s complaint about a “lack of balanced debate” regarding the Middle East conflict... Read more »

MARY LOU NOT NOW IN FIRING LINE

October 17, 2024

MARY LOU McDONALD’S leadership is under enormous pressure, according to the media, which is more ferocious even than Government parties in its pursuit... Read more »

TERRY GEORGE’S PICKET PLOT

October 17, 2024

THERE WAS consternation among Palestinian solidarity groups in Galway when famed film screenwriter and director Terry George ignored a picket placed on the... Read more »

KATE NEGOTIATES ELECTORAL RETURN

October 3, 2024

THE ASCENSION of Simon Harris to the Taoiseach’s job and leader of Fine Gael was supposed to mean that one of his most... Read more »

VARADKAR OUT TO EMBARRASS MARTIN

October 3, 2024

FORMER TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar’s call for all political parties to declare during the general election that a united Ireland is an “objective, not... Read more »

MARY LOU’S BACK YARD

October 3, 2024

IF MARY Lou McDonald’s presidential speech sounded a bit flat, it is because she had to search hard-to-find, dramatic attack points against the... Read more »

ENRIGHT QUELLS KERRY REVOLT

October 3, 2024

GOLDHAWK WROTE last August how Fine Gael members in Kerry and in Dublin HQ were in disarray over how to replace former minister... Read more »

BIG PHIL’S GENDER-BENDER LAW

September 19, 2024

BIG PHIL HOGAN’S return to the centre of Fine Gael, via its internal election committee, is not without irony as well as a... Read more »

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill Military Spending

JENNIFER BENDS THE KNEE TO MARTIN

September 19, 2024

TÁNAISTE AND defence minister Micheál Martin has torn off the epaulettes and snapped the sword of Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, his junior officer or... Read more »