Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »