Article Category: Last Refuge

THE JEAN MONNET OF CASTLEBAR

January 25, 2017

MUCH wincing as well as suppressed giggling at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last week as junior minister for European affairs Dara... Read more »

SF LEADERENES

January 25, 2017

THE switch from South Armagh’s ex-IRA man Conor Murphy to health minister Michelle O’Neill as Sinn Féin’s chosen leader in Stormont, surprised everyone,... Read more »

REGINA AND HELEN

January 12, 2017

BLUESHIRT dominatrix and government chief whip Regina Doherty’s sweet nothings to Sinn Féin have much to do with her antipathy to her constituency... Read more »

Preying on Lowry

January 12, 2017

MICHAEL Lowry would appear to be safe as houses in Tipperary where he topped the poll by a country mile in last year’s... Read more »

OGLE’S NEW PARTY FALTERS

January 12, 2017

APOLLO HOUSE spokesman, union official and Right2Water campaigner Brenda Ogle continues to cut an Arthur Scargill type figure and is now leading the... Read more »

ZAPPER ZAPS APPLE — AGAIN

January 12, 2017

IS Apple Inc aware of the threat posed to them by that indefatigable champion of Irish taxpayers, namely minister Katherine Zappone, who also... Read more »

O’CALLAGHAN’S LEGAL BRAIN

December 14, 2016

FIANNA FÁIL’S increased poll ratings may or may not have something to do with the party’s new, more responsible (rightward) turn on various... Read more »

REGINA’S SOFT SPOT

December 14, 2016

IS government chief whip, Regina Doherty, a secret admirer of Fidel Castro? Did the teenage Regina have a Che Guevara poster in her... Read more »

CATHERINE BYRNE’S MEMBERS REVOLT

December 14, 2016

CATHERINE BYRNE is a loyal, supine supporter of Enda Kenny which qualities earned her the position as minister of state for communities and... Read more »

BLUESHIRT BAR LOBBY(ISTS)

December 1, 2016

THERE is more than one Fine Gael faction working against the Alcohol Bill being steered through the Oireachtas by junior health minster Marcella... Read more »

TOM CURRAN STAYS PUT

December 1, 2016

TWO recently announced employment decisions of great import – one agricultural, the other political – have caused no little apprehension at Fine Gaels... Read more »

On the button

December 1, 2016

OUTRIGHT opposition to the recent Dublin City Council budget from People Before Profit’s three councillors as well as a blood and thunder speech... Read more »

LABOUR HANDLERS FLEE TO PRIVATE SECTOR

December 1, 2016

LABOUR’S 30 or so defeated TDs as well as the 80-plus councillors who lost their seats in 2014 have spent much time venting... Read more »

BRENDAN OGLE’S NEW LEFT PARTY

November 3, 2016

A PROJECT to set up another socialist party, in the Dáil and outside, is being masterminded by Unite trade union official Brendan Ogle,... Read more »

ROSS RUNS RINGS AROUND O’DONOVAN

November 3, 2016

WATCH out for a severe rebuke to the government and implicitly for junior sports minister Patrick O’Donovan from Sports Ireland (SI) chairperson Kieran... Read more »

Harris retracts

November 3, 2016

A SIGN that Leo Varadkar is edging ahead of Simon Coveney in the Fine Gael leadership stakes is the cringing effort by Sindo... Read more »

FF POISED FOR FIFTY PLUS SEATS

October 20, 2016

THE perceived wisdom on Fianna Fáil’s medium term strategy – Fine Gael dissidents’ paranoia notwithstanding – is that Micheál Martin will wait for... Read more »

VLAD AND SIMON WOO COUNCILLORS

October 20, 2016

WHAT a disappointment Simon Coveney delivered to councillors at a meeting of the local authority members’ association in Bantry this month when he... Read more »

Enda’s dynasty

October 20, 2016

THERE has been a great falling out between Enda Kenny and one of his longest and most loyal party colleagues in Mayo, Castlebar... Read more »

FEMINISTS IN FIGHT FOR MAYO

October 20, 2016

AN honourable and unusual mention in Miriam Lord’s Irish Times column for Sinn Féin Seanad leader Rose Conway Walsh – “a very impressive... Read more »

BRENDAN HOWLIN’S SOUNDBYTES

October 5, 2016

LABOUR leader, Brendan Howlin, is given to issuing the occasional, bombastic soundbyte as when he sneered at Syriza in his final budget speech... Read more »

FG’S NEW POLITICS

October 5, 2016

FINE GAEL’S star chamber has hauled general election candidate, Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy, in front of it to face disciplinary charges following her... Read more »

SINDO PLAYS THE O’CONNELL CARD

October 5, 2016

HAVING helped in no small way to create the girl-band politician that is Dublin Bay South Fine Gael TD, Kate O’Connell – by... Read more »

MAYO MAN’S MOJO IS MELTING

September 21, 2016

IT IS paralysis at the top and the bottom of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, and not Enda Kenny’s rejuvenated mojo, that is... Read more »

GOVERNMENT’S ABORTION BUDGET DEAL

September 21, 2016

ANOTHER political crisis is creeping up on the coalition government as AAA/PBP TD Ruth Coppinger’s cunningly timed bill to repeal the eighth Amendment... Read more »

FG’S HAPPY FAMILY IN NEWCASTLE WEST

September 21, 2016

THE political and enterprising activities of sport and tourism junior minister Patrick O’Donovan’s extended clan in Limerick brings a whole new meaning to... Read more »

DENIS NAUGHTEN’S GAME PLAN

September 7, 2016

WHAT a dependable cabinet member Fine Gael defector turned Independent Denis Naughten has turned out to be. Independent Alliance ministers Shane Ross, Finian... Read more »

In praise of Peter Barry

September 7, 2016

“TOO gentlemanly for a fight” and acting from “more a sense of noblesse oblige than any burning ambition”, were just two of many... Read more »

SINN FÉIN GOING SOFT ON ISRAEL?

September 7, 2016

THERE is consternation at Sinn Fein’s dalliance with the ruling Israeli Likud party – lead party in perhaps the most discriminatory and murderous... Read more »

September 7, 2016

THE WAVE of barely disguised leaks from Fine Gael of a most bellicose kind against Ross’s “showboating” on the Apple tax appeal and... Read more »

FF FRONT BENCH SPLIT ON PENSIONS

August 24, 2016

WILLIE O’DEA has been chiding Fine Gael ministers for not committing to their own electoral commitment to raise pensions by €30 over the... Read more »