Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

PROVOS V FRANCES

December 14, 2017

FRANCES FITZGERALD was forced to resign by Fine Gael TDs withdrawing their support rather than the pious claims of acting in the national... Read more »

Billy Timmins’s return

December 14, 2017

BILLY TIMMINS re-entry to Fine Gael has upset calculations in Wicklow and may prove to be particularly upsetting to local junior minister, Andrew... Read more »

PESCO PARANOID NEUTRALITY PESTS

December 14, 2017

THE government’s decision to join Pesco, the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (a military alliance but not an army at all, at all), has... Read more »

COVETOUS CORK BLUESHIRTS

November 30, 2017

THAT most earnest of journalists, Newstalk’s Chris Donoghue, has joined equally earnest foreign minister Simon Coveney as special adviser and his responsibilities will... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN GETS OUT OF JAIL

November 30, 2017

THE discovery of documents buried within the justice department and which destroyed Frances Fitzgerald saw Micheál Martin leap from bungling Fianna Fáil leader... Read more »

Alan Kelly’s leadership race

November 30, 2017

THE Frances Fitzgerald/Maurice McCabe crisis threatened the leadership of both Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin in the event of poor results for either... Read more »

Fine Gael’s military ambitions

November 30, 2017

TUCKED away on page 7 of The Irish Times recently readers of the paper of record were informed in a short article of... Read more »

MICHAEL McDOWELL GIRDS HIS LOINS

November 2, 2017

SEANAD leader, Fine Gael’s Jerry Buttimer, was quick to point out to the House that Michael McDowell had recently circulated a full colour... Read more »

Letters to the Editor

November 2, 2017

Dear Editor In your edition (20th October) you suggested that I have “flitted around the Left, including Sinn Féin, in recent years but... Read more »

Little Confidence

November 2, 2017

MICHEÁL MARTIN and the Fianna Fáil leadership have become increasingly anxious to reassure Fine Gael ministers that the party will adhere to the... Read more »

VARADKAR WHIPS RINGER INTO LINE

November 2, 2017

HAVING finally made it into cabinet as rural affairs minister, Michael Ring has become disillusioned to the point of rebellion against his new... Read more »

TERRY LEYDEN’S DYNASTY BID

November 2, 2017

SENATOR Terry Leyden (aka El Tel) is busy master minding what he describes as the saving of the single Fianna Fáil seat –... Read more »

VLAD’S EYES AND EARS

October 19, 2017

CONGRATS to the universally liked former senator Jim D’Arcy, who has been appointed to the role of northern advisor to Leo Varadkar, working... Read more »

Labour Poll

October 19, 2017

LABOUR’S latest poll rating (4%) will have disappointed SIPTU boss Jack O’Connor, not merely because he is party chairman but also because he... Read more »

MARTIN FLEES FROM VARADKAR

October 19, 2017

FIANNA FÁIL ard fheis delegates and the media have been obsessing about the wrong argument inside the party. The real debate is not... Read more »

15 EXTRA FINE GAEL SEATS?

October 19, 2017

IT was no accident that Leo Varadkar told the Fine Gael think-in that Tipperary is the party’s number one on a list of... Read more »

ZAPPONE ON THE MOVE AGAIN?

October 5, 2017

WHAT a dependable and supportive cabinet member the ‘Independent’ minister for children, Katherine Zappone, is turning out to be as her weekend remarks... Read more »

Ogle’s New Party

October 5, 2017

BRENDAN OGLE’S putative plans for a new quasi party or movement of the Left are well advanced. Resources have been secured from his... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL AND THE NORTH

October 5, 2017

THE Vlad v. Mary Lou WWE show in the Dáil is the latest blood sport to grip the body politic. It is working... Read more »

DARA MURPHY’S EURO JOB

October 5, 2017

THE post of director of elections for the European People’s Party (EPP) at the European elections in 2019 sounds like a most responsible... Read more »

WILD COLONIAL MINISTER

September 21, 2017

JUNIOR minister, Brendan Griffin, has played a blinder in the last few years, starting with a selfless public gesture on his first general... Read more »

BLUESHIRT SISTERS TO UNSEAT ALAN KELLY?

September 21, 2017

THE Blueshirt political waste land that is Tipperary will not necessarily be reclaimed by the entry of Mary Newman – sister of Kate... Read more »

FF TARGET TEN DUBLIN SEATS

September 21, 2017

IF the latest Sunday Times poll (Fine Gael 33%/Fianna Fáil 25%) was to translate into real electoral figures then Fianna Fáil could forget... Read more »

MARTIN WILL DEAL WITH SINN FÉIN

September 21, 2017

MICHEÁL MARTIN delivered yet another thundering disavowal of any coalition deal with Sinn Féin at this week’s Fianna Fáil think-in in Longford. But... Read more »

Mary Hanafin’s last shot

September 7, 2017

THE mother of all Fianna Fáil faction fights is gearing up in Dún Laoghaire where ex-minister, now humble councillor, Mary Hanafin, is preparing... Read more »

CABINET PENSION CALCULATIONS

September 7, 2017

THE delicate political calculations about when Leo Varadkar might call the next general election will be determined by a number of fluctuating circumstances... Read more »