Article Category: Last Refuge

Brendan Howlin’s Headache

April 19, 2017

RTÉ coverage of Labour leader Brendan Howlin’s conference speech this weekend will help sustain the illusion that the party is still a player... Read more »

Squeezing John McGuinness

April 19, 2017

IT’S hard to keep John McGuinness down, as Micheál Martin knows only too well. Motor Mouth McGuinness, as loyal frontbenchers call him, was... Read more »

BIFFO’S BROTHER V MICHEÁL MARTIN

April 19, 2017

IT’S BEEN a bad week or so for Fianna Fáil and inside the party the choice of scapegoats for the water charges gyrations... Read more »

LEO’S SOUNDBYTES V SIMON’S CHAT-UP

April 5, 2017

IN THE space of just nine days to last weekend, Leo Varadkar made eight pointed leadership statements or gestures highlighting the political differences... Read more »

REACTIONARY RENUA RENEWAL

April 5, 2017

RENUA leader and Offaly councillor John Leahy is hardly Lucinda Creighton but he has moved to the fore as the single saviour of... Read more »

FF Split on Gardaí

April 5, 2017

WHO speaks for the bulk of Fianna Fáil members on the question of whether Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan should be forced out of... Read more »

BERTIE’S BOY ABANDONED?

April 5, 2017

THE latest effort to reintroduce Bertie Ahern to Fianna Fáil crashed and burned at last week’s Comhairle Dáil Ceantair meeting in Dublin Central.... Read more »

Vlad’s Numbers

March 23, 2017

LEO VARADKAR’S supporters have been spooked by that Irish Times poll showing that Simon Coveney was ahead in the Fine Gael leadership contest... Read more »

TERRY PRONE’S SISTERLY ADVICE

March 23, 2017

ENDA KENNY’S emotional hand wringing about the “truly appalling” uncovering of hundreds of babies at the Tuam mother-and-baby home – “he was personally... Read more »

MARY LOU’S TIME HAS COME

March 23, 2017

THAT Sunday Times poll showing Sinn Féin overtaking Fine Gael (23% to 22%) will hardly be realised in a general election, although the... Read more »

COVENEY GOOD FOR (CORK) BUSINESS

March 23, 2017

THE MESSAGE being purveyed by Simon Coveney’s political and business supporters is that Simon is good for business and has the support of... Read more »

LORD ROSS TO CURB JUDGES?

March 9, 2017

THAT recent report about “leading judge” George Birmingham proposing a watering down of transport minister Shane Ross’s judicial appointments bill omitted one small... Read more »

SOC DEMS: STICKIES IN DISGUISE?

March 9, 2017

ARE Social Democrats TDs Catherine Murphy and Roísín Shortall along with Irish Times ideologue Fintan O’Toole trying to recreate the Workers Party? It... Read more »

O’Brien backs Simon

March 9, 2017

LEO VARADKAR’S campaign team is getting jittery and it is not just because of that Irish Times poll showing Fine Gael members swinging... Read more »

WILL AOIBHINN SUCCEED ENDA IN MAYO?

March 9, 2017

THERE is much fretting among Mayo Blueshirts about the future without An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and even more anxiety about the possibility that... Read more »

FINE GAEL LEADERSHIP CONTEST – SIMON COVENEY

February 23, 2017

SIMON COVENEY’S Fine Gael leadership pitch is heavily dependent on securing support from the Enda Kenny old guard. But while the latter regard... Read more »

FINE GAEL LEADERSHIP CONTEST – LEO VARADKAR

February 23, 2017

THE gay genie is out of the bottle in the Fine Gael leadership contest and two former Fine Gael operators-turned-hacks – ex-minister Ivan... Read more »

SIPTU BOSS CHALLENGES HOWLIN

February 9, 2017

IS LABOUR preparing for a new party chief already? Current leader Brendan Howlin’s “welcome” for Siptu boss Jack O’Connor’s bid for chair of... Read more »

Greedy-Raes

February 9, 2017

KERRY’S EYE turned its beady focus on TD brothers Mikey and Danny Healy-Rae recently with a wealth of detail about the mountain of... Read more »

WICKLOW’S SOCIAL DEMOCRAT

February 9, 2017

MEDIA punditry about Stephen Donnelly reneging on his Independent, social democrat principles was predicated on the notion that he had cunningly negotiated his... Read more »

SINN FÉIN’S COALITION STRATEGY

February 9, 2017

A CAREFULLY formulated article on coalition government by key Sinn Féin strategist Eoin Ó Broin in the Sunday Business Post recently was, if... 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 »

ONE, TWO, THREE – BINGO!

January 25, 2017

A BRIEF but fascinating discussion at last week’s Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting has caused much anxiety among the party leadership and they... Read more »

FG DISMANTLING THEIR OWN BILL

January 25, 2017

FINE GAEL is playing a most insidious game with its own Alcohol Bill and is effectively caving in to the blitzkrieg of lobbying... Read more »

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 »

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 »