Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »