Article Category: Last Refuge

FINE GAEL GOES FOR SHANE ROSS’S THROAT

May 3, 2018

THE Greek chorus that most of the media has become in Fine Gael’s campaign against Shane Ross has gone into overdrive again. Independent... Read more »

FERGUS FINLAY’S FUTILE FANTASIES

May 3, 2018

FERGUS FINLAY received a pointed riposte from President Michael D Higgins to his bombastic yet crafty statement that his presidency would be quite... Read more »

FINE GAEL SIRENS’ SEANAD BID

April 19, 2018

THE Newman blue blouse coven – TD Kate O’Connell, her sister and parliamentary aide, Theresa Newman, and third sister, would-be senator Mary Newman... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S REPEAL THE 8th RISK

April 19, 2018

IS the political media corps so invested in a Yes to repeal the 8th referendum that none of them wants to consider the... Read more »

SINN FÉIN BLOCKS DUBLIN MAYOR FROM DÁIL

April 19, 2018

DUBLIN’S Sinn Féin mayor Mícheál Mac Donncha raised his already high profile stint as mayor with pimpernel activities in Israel and the occupied... Read more »

MARTIN’S DECK CHAIRS

April 5, 2018

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S last throw of the dice in the gambling den of electoral politics now approaching end game has as much to do... Read more »

JUSTIN McALEESE FALTERS

April 5, 2018

THE prospects of Justin McAleese taking a seat for Fianna Fáil in the lush pastures of Dublin Rathdown have been talked up a... Read more »

Kate O’Connell’S Choir Girls

April 5, 2018

KATE O’CONNELL, Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney’s altar girl in the Fine Gael leadership contest, famously described Leo Varadkar’s supporters as “choir boys singing for... Read more »

Brendan Howlin’s bland buddies

March 22, 2018

LIMPING Labour leader Brendan Howlin appeared this week at a public meeting organised by his party on the topic of Brexit. He was... Read more »

CATHERINE NOONE’S DÁIL AMBITION

March 22, 2018

FINE GAEL Senator Catherine Noone is preparing to parachute into Dublin South-West (DSW) as a candidate at the next general election and her... Read more »

MATT CARTHY: SF’S NEW CROWN PRINCE

March 22, 2018

THE retirement at the next election of long serving Sinn Féin TD, Caoímhghin Ó Caoláin – as weighty and formidable as Mary Lou... Read more »

Fine Gael MEPs DEMAND HUGE DEFENCE SPEND

March 22, 2018

THE four Fine Gael MEPs demanding an end to Irish neutrality and massive defence spending have repeatedly protested – like the lady that... Read more »

Catherine Noone’s complaint

March 8, 2018

SENATOR Catherine Noone’s complaint about a Fine Gael colleague and senator’s dismissive, misogynist and patronising treatment of her appears to have died a... Read more »

‘PAYBACK TIME’

March 8, 2018

IN an amusing article in the Sunday Independent last weekend Liam Collins accused Rupert Murdoch’s Irish titles of regularly “taking a side” in... Read more »

CORK PROBLEMS FOR BLUESHIRTS

March 8, 2018

THE shrieks of betrayal from former Cork North-West Deputy Áine Collins at the recruitment of Independent Cllr John Paul O’Shea indicates Fine Gael’s... Read more »

KATE HOEY’S TRACK RECORD

March 6, 2018

NOT even the DUP has explicitly called for the abandonment of the Good Friday Agreement but British Labour Party MP Kate Hoey, originally... Read more »

MARY LOU’S COALITION DILEMMA

March 6, 2018

THE only people more horrified by the prospects of a Fine Gael/Sinn Féin coalition than the Sunday Independent are many members of SF.... Read more »

RINGER THREATENS TO GO INDEPENDENT

February 22, 2018

ONLY when Enda Kenny became Fine Gael leader and then Taoiseach did he manage to best his Mayo running mate, Michael Ring, at... Read more »

SINN FEIN DISSIDENT IS IN DEMAND

February 22, 2018

SINN FÉIN’S latest political casualty, Cllr Noeleen Reilly, will be a loss to the party and will doubtless take a chunk of first... Read more »

AK47 Ultimatum

February 22, 2018

IT IS just under five months since Deputy Alan Kelly gave Labour leader Brendan Howlin “less than” six months to either shape up... Read more »

FINE GAEL’S CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

February 8, 2018

THE portrayal of ethical and personal agonising by Fine Gael ministers and TDs over the abortion referendum and the planned 12 weeks abortion... Read more »

SF’s right to choose

February 8, 2018

LOUISE O’REILLY’S compliment to Leo Varadkar’s statement on the referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment was apt but surprisingly amicable coming from a... Read more »

OPINION POLLS – THE REAL STORY?

February 8, 2018

NATIONAL opinion polls show Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael streaking ahead of Micheál Martin’s Fianna Fail but there is something strangely unreal about... Read more »

IREXIT PARTY BORN

February 8, 2018

IT LOOKS as if an anti-EU party with candidates running in the EU elections next year will definitely emerge from last weekend’s Irexit... Read more »

McDowell v Ross

February 8, 2018

LEGAL EAGLES can be as bitchy as politicians when they fall out and former justice minister Alan Shatter – a mere solicitor –... Read more »

MATTIE McGRATH’S LEGION OF THE REARGUARD

January 25, 2018

FRESH from his mischief making at the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment, Mattie McGrath is now creating discord in Fianna Fáil following... Read more »

LEO THE PROVO

January 25, 2018

SURPRISINGLY little comment followed the sharply contrasting responses in the Dáil from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to blundering... Read more »

Israeli Embassy

January 25, 2018

THE withdrawal of the Israeli Embassy from Dublin indicates just how ineffective the government’s softly-softly diplomacy on recognition of the Palestinian state has... Read more »

SAVING PASCHAL DONOHOE

January 25, 2018

THE recent nomination of Mary Fitzpatrick as sole Fianna Fáil candidate in Dublin Central at the next general election marked the final rout... Read more »

Taking on Michael Twee

January 11, 2018

THERE will be a presidential contest, regardless of current incumbent Michael D Higgins’ agenda, and Fianna Fáil will face unbearable pressure from its... Read more »

NIMBY: NOT IN MURPHY’S BACK YARD

January 11, 2018

FRESH from the PR blunder of Conor Skehan’s reappointment as chair of the Housing Agency, the minister for housing, Eoghan ‘Tory Boy’ Murphy,... Read more »

MICHAEL NOONAN’S LEGACY

January 11, 2018

DESPITE Fine Gael’s national poll lead, Fianna Fáil apparatchiks claim that polls on the ground in various constituencies show seat gains for the... Read more »

MARTIN TO PULL PLUG?

January 11, 2018

THE chances of an early election have been dismissed by all and sundry in the media/political bubble, but the debate inside Fianna Fáil... Read more »

GLOVES OFF IN THE DAIL BAR

December 14, 2017

WHO needs a Strategic Communications Unit (SCU) when the Fine Gael press office is so adept at the dark art of media spin... Read more »