Last Refuge Archives

Last Refuge

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 »

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

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MEDIA OFFENSIVE

February 25, 2021

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S media offensive has caused him some problems (‘mixed messages’ etc) but it also appears that he has had some traction recently... 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 »

EUGENE MCCARTAN’S COMRADES

February 11, 2021

DISSENT IN the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) has seen factions from Belfast and Cork focus their dissent on the perennial figure of... 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 »

CORRECTION

January 28, 2021

In an article in The Phoenix, 15 January, 2021, headlined ‘HEALTH MINISTER’S FUTURE’, Cllr Rory O’Connor was incorrectly named as Seán O’Connor, and... Read more »

JIM O’CALLAGHAN’S PROGNOSIS

January 14, 2021

FIANNA FÁIL TD, Jim O’Callaghan, has gone all quiet about the pandemic in recent weeks after several months of energetic and robust criticisms... Read more »

MAKE INCHICORE GREAT AGAIN

January 14, 2021

HARD LEFT TD, Bríd Smith, would greatly resent being compared to the stormtroopers of Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) that attacked... Read more »

HEALTH MINISTER’S FUTURE

January 14, 2021

A SIGN of the political times – or near future – in Wicklow is the not entirely innocent Facebook comment posted by Cllr... 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 »

BRIAN STANLEY’S FOES

December 16, 2020

INTERESTING to see that Fianna Fáil members on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) did not row in with abandon behind Fine Gael’s onslaught... Read more »

EXTRA DUBLIN DÁIL SEAT

December 16, 2020

ALL BETS are off in Dublin Fingal, where the five-seat constituency is likely to be divided into two three-seaters by the time of... Read more »

JENNIFER WHITMORE’S GREEN CONCERNS

December 16, 2020

IF SINN Féin stands accused of deliberately embarrassing the government parties with confidence motions and other tactics, Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, party... Read more »

SINN FÉIN MEMBERS SUSPENDED

December 3, 2020

SINN FÉIN has just got tough with recalcitrant members in Leitrim, suspending two of them for breaching party policy on the direct provision... Read more »

POLLS: REBELS PAUSE

December 3, 2020

A GLIMMER of hope for Fianna Fáil and its leader, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin, came with weekend polls showing the party up one... Read more »

O’ROURKE FIGHTS FOR GOOD NAME

December 3, 2020

BATTLING EX-TD Frank O’Rourke is taking on Facebook and Twitter in the High Court and, if the Kildare North Fianna Fáil politician’s record... Read more »

FIONNÁN SHEEHAN LETS FLY

December 3, 2020

IRELAND EDITOR at Independent News & Media Fionnán Sheahan’s past affiliation to Fine Gael (Young FG chairman at UCC) has been cited by... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CORK REBELS

November 19, 2020

RTÉ AND its Drivetime host, Sarah McInerney, managed last week to transform a most interesting story about Fianna Fáil abandoning its republican traditions... Read more »

IVANA TRIES AGAIN

November 19, 2020

LABOUR SENATOR Ivana Bacik has let it be known to her fans in Dublin Bay South (DBS) that she will – for the... Read more »

The confidence-and-supply deal reflected Micheál Martin’s lack of belief in his party’s ability to take on FG in a general election.

ANNUAL 2020: A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR LEADERS

November 19, 2020

THIS YEAR at times resembled a science fiction B movie as civilisation virtually succumbed to the plague in most countries with politics, economics,... Read more »

Mary Lou McDonald is managing to stick clearly to a well-thought-out line on Covid and the economic support necessary.

ANNUAL 2020: SINN FÉIN ON THE BRINK

November 19, 2020

IF 2019 was an annus horribilis for Sinn Féin, 2020 has been the year of resurrection, of Aiséirí. From the depths of a... Read more »

The geographic spread of the Social Democrats, which was co-founded by Catherine Murphy, is even more Dublin-centric than Labour’s. Solidarity/People Before Profit TDs, such as Richard Boyd Barrett (below), are all lively and effective political operators.

ANNUAL 2020: FRINGE PARTIES TRAPPED

November 19, 2020

As they considered who to vote for to lead our government in February, the electorate faced the choice of TweedleFF or TweedleFG. Perennial... Read more »

ALAN KELLY REINVENTS HIMSELF

November 5, 2020

LABOUR LEADER Alan Kelly and his handlers have been busy with a relentless campaign to replace AK-47’s image with a brand new persona... Read more »

GOVERNMENT SEANAD PACT

November 5, 2020

SINN FÉIN senator Elisha McCallion’s resignation from the Seanad has done both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil a big favour, producing a political... Read more »

RYAN’S VICTORY

November 5, 2020

THE SURPRISING thing about the recent exodus of some of the more forceful radicals in the Green Party is that leader Eamon Ryan... Read more »

BLUESHIRT ORDER

November 5, 2020

FINE GAEL’S Dún Laoghaire constituency chairman, Edward Kennedy, may have delivered the last of his portentous letters to members, depending on the imminent... Read more »

REGINA TO OUST FARRELL IN FINGAL

October 22, 2020

“I CAN’T wait to get stuck in and do my best to fight for Fingal alongside Alan (Farrell),” said former minister, Regina Doherty,... Read more »

GREEN STRIFE CONTINUES

October 22, 2020

GREEN PARTY chairperson and Dublin Lord Mayor, Hazel Chu’s casual remark, “You can never rule these things out,” when asked if she might... Read more »

GREEN HANDLERS FOR HIRE

October 22, 2020

THOSE IRRESPONSIBLE leftists in the Green Party who seem to think they can change (save, even?) the world, cavilled predictably at the appointment... Read more »

BLUESHIRT CALL TO ARMS

October 8, 2020

THAT’S A slightly unnerving group of right-wing Fine Gael TDs now ensconced in a political bunker hammering out a battle plan to revive... Read more »