Article Category: Last Refuge

SEÁN LEMASS DOUBLY HONOURED

May 20, 2021

SO ESTEEMED is the late taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Seán Lemass in the eyes of today’s party members that the party held... Read more »

THE FIRST (AND LAST) ITEM …

May 20, 2021

BRENDAN BEHAN suggested that the first item on the agenda of any organisation should be the Split. It seems that this same proposition... Read more »

HAZEL CHU’S CUL-DE-SAC

May 6, 2021

THE POINTED reference last weekend by Green councillor Claire Byrne to her status as “not a stranger” to the constituency was actually a... Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL COMEBACK?

May 6, 2021

THERE IS a perception abroad that former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell is a busted flush and that any residual delusions of ministerial... Read more »

DUBLIN BAY SOUTH FF SHOOT-OUT

May 6, 2021

THE REAL battle in the Dublin Bay South byelection will be the effort by Micheál Martin’s favoured candidate, barrister and councillor Claire O’Connor,... Read more »

RICHMOND’S ROAD TO TOP OF GREASY POLE

April 22, 2021

THE SCENT of long-term leadership ambition wafts from the utterances and persona of Neale Richmond, Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown, who has... Read more »

PRESIDENT’S UNCIVIL LINE ON CENTENARIES

April 22, 2021

THE LOOMNG centenaries of the Treaty and Civil War are causing tremors among various politicians, especially those in Fine Gael and especially also... Read more »

IRELAND’S WAR GAMES IN AFRICA

April 22, 2021

THE ONLY article among 29 contributions in the Defence Forces Review 2020 that does not openly support or presume Ireland’s integration into an... Read more »

MARTIN SET FOR LONG HOT SUMMER

April 8, 2021

THE LATEST polls have concentrated minds in Fianna Fáil in a way they have not done since the general election and this could... Read more »

IRISH FREEDOM PARTY’S NEW CHAIR

April 8, 2021

PROF DOLORES Cahill’s resignation from the Irish Freedom Party (IFP) following some whacky – not to say dangerous – statements about face masks... Read more »

DANNY V MICHAEL HEALY-RAE

April 8, 2021

THE DIVIDE between the Healy-Rae brothers – TDs Michael and Danny – is an open secret in Kerry and it appears to be... Read more »

BRUTON DOES STRUMPET CITY

April 8, 2021

SOUNDS LIKE Fine Gael chairperson Richard Bruton believes in method acting judging by his performance as William Martin Murphy at a virtual on-screen... Read more »

O’CALLAGHAN GIRDS HIS LOINS

March 25, 2021

THE BATTLE for the Fianna Fáil leadership went transatlantic and even to the southern hemisphere in the last week as Micheál Martin and... Read more »

MICHEÁL AND LEO v THE MEDIA

March 25, 2021

IT MAY be that in the absence of his golden source at the top level of Fine Gael – Big Phil Hogan – that... Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S AMBITIOUS PLANS

March 25, 2021

ANGUISHED NOISES from Sinn Féin general election candidate Séighin Ó Ceallaigh, about the imposition of a male gender ban in his constituency, Limerick... Read more »

MCGUIRK AND RTÉ

March 25, 2021

RIGHT-WING commentator John McGuirk railed against RTÉ for paying out €20,000 recently to several charities nominated by left-republican group Éirígí on foot of... Read more »

UNARMED MILITARY COMMITTEE

March 11, 2021

IF CETA, the EU Canada trade deal, threatens what remains of Green Party unity, then just wait until its position on Irish neutrality... Read more »

REBEL CORK POPULISM

March 11, 2021

LEADER OF the Cork People’s Convention (CPC) Diarmaid Ó Cadhla made an effort to break out of the marginal political ghetto he has... Read more »

SWP TOP OF THE TROTS

March 11, 2021

THAT MERGER of TD Paul Murphy’s Rise movement – he had previously been part of Solidarity – with TD Richard Boyd Barrett’s People... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL PLOTTERS DIVIDED

March 11, 2021

A FASCINATING zoom meeting last week of the Cosmhuintir Fianna Fáil faction within the party heard TDs Seán Haughey and Jim O’Callaghan, as... Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S ELECTORAL GROUND WAR

February 25, 2021

SINN FÉIN’S spectre is stalking the land again as its extraordinary election result last February was diminished only by its failure to run... Read more »

FRIENDS AT COURT

February 25, 2021

THE INDO’S Fionnan Sheahan mischievously remarked recently that Fine Gael Seanad byelection candidate Maria Byrne is “a real favourite of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s... Read more »

BERTIE’S LONG GAME

February 11, 2021

THE MEDIA focus, as well as that of Micheál Martin, was fixed on the number of rebel TDs that attended one or more Zoom... Read more »

MARTIN’S CRITICS

February 11, 2021

WILY WILLIE O’Dea used his Sunday Independent platform recently to have a go – ostensibly at the Green Party – for obstructing the... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S CUNNING PLAN

February 11, 2021

WITH 13 Fianna Fáil Seanad hopefuls vying for the nomination to replace Sinn Féin’s Elisha McCallion on the Industrial and Commercial Panel (Fine... Read more »

CHAMBERS CASHIERED BY COVENEY

January 28, 2021

FLUSHED, APPARENTLY, with promotional success, Jack Chambers, told the Business Post on January 10 of a catalogue of initiatives he would be driving... Read more »

BLUESHIRT VENGEANCE

January 28, 2021

THE NEXUS between judges, legal eagles and politicians was unwittingly underlined by barrister Rossa Fanning’s recent onslaught in the Sunday Independent against ex-minister... Read more »

SF COALITION PARTNERS

January 28, 2021

RECENT REMARKS by Sinn Féin brainbox, housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin, about potential coalition government with Fianna Fáil will have been listened to... Read more »

CAN’T SEE THE GOOD FOR THE TREES

December 16, 2020

WHAT AN unusually flattering article the Irish Times published last weekend about the involvement of junior agriculture minister Senator Pippa Hackett in the... Read more »