Last Refuge Archives

ALAN KELLY RELOADED

July 28, 2016

ALAN AK47 KELLY has neither gone away nor been decommissioned and after a temporary ceasefire is firing off salvoes against the government in... Read more »

Renua’s money

July 28, 2016

RENUA HAS no TDs or senators but is being kept alive by state funds of €250,000 a year and is already making preparations... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S LONG-TERM GAME PLAN

July 28, 2016

FINE GAEL’S Brendan Griffin is not the only member of his party terrified of Fianna Fáil suddenly pulling the plug and racing to... Read more »

ENDA KENNY GIFTED A REPRIEVE

July 15, 2016

BAD politics and even worse journalism combined to give the Taoiseach a lifeline, however temporary, last week with RTÉ and The Sunday Times... Read more »

REGINA DOHERTY’S SELF CONFIDENCE

July 15, 2016

A revealing insight into government chief whip, Regina Doherty’s self esteem came in a most supportive Irish Times article last weekend. Revealing a... Read more »

31/01/2011. Statement of Micheal Martin TD Leader of Fianna Fail Announcement of Frontbench and Deputy Leader. Pictured are appointees not currently elected to the Dail These include are Averil Power, Political Reform(left) and Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick with Spokesperson on Financial Sector Reform Michael McGrath(right) Housing and Urban Development out side of the Dail. Photograph: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

BERTIE STILL LURKS IN DUBLIN CENTRAL

July 15, 2016

WITH Fianna Fáil flying high in the polls, the battle in Dublin Central between last February’s candidate, Mary Fitzpatrick and the BEGOBs (Bertie’s... Read more »

FRANKIE FEIGHAN’S FIGHT-BACK

July 15, 2016

RUN out of politics because of his loyalty to Enda Kenny (or disgraced because of broken pledges to retain Roscommon hospital’s A&E unit),... Read more »

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S INNER CIRCLE

July 2, 2016

THAT little-commented-on poll in The Sunday Times last weekend shows Fine Gael ahead of Fianna Fáil, which fell 2%. This is a reversal... Read more »

THE ‘COPING’ POLITICAL CLASS

July 2, 2016

PAT ‘The Cope’ Gallagher must be happy that discussion about his determined bid to take the Leas-Cheann Comhairle’s job has not focused on... Read more »

Kate’s U-turn

July 2, 2016

IT looks as though the penny has dropped with newly elected Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell, who has resiled from her strident position... Read more »

WOLFE TONE IS ALIVE AND GAY

July 2, 2016

SMASHING a lot of stereotypical images is Sinn Féin’s young senator, Fintan Warfield (24), whose gay, arty profile will come as something of... Read more »

LABOUR WEIGHED DOWN WITH OLDIES

June 17, 2016

BRENDAN HOWLIN’S effort to resurrect the Labour Party began with a successful Dáil motion on workers’ rights and, despite his Mr Austerity epithet,... Read more »

Bertie’s Handball Alley Feud

June 17, 2016

IT’S a long way from the Middle East, Russia and Turkey to the Clonliffe Road area, but Bertie has been asked to arbitrate... Read more »

EU COMMISSION WATER LEAKS

June 17, 2016

THE EU Commission has issued a statement on the contentious water charges directive which contradicts statements given off the record to RTÉ and... Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL IN LUCINDA MOULD

June 17, 2016

IS newly elected TD Kate O’Connell grateful for the concerted and hugely resourced Fine Gael campaign that delivered her to the Dáil for... Read more »

RENUA ‘CONFIDENTIAL’

June 1, 2016

LAST weekend’s media leaks about Renua’s name change carried nothing like the full flavour of the party post mortem that has gone on... Read more »

RÓISÍN TO REJECT BRENDAN

June 1, 2016

WHO does Brendan Howlin think he’s kidding? Howlin may have assumed leadership of Labour via a clause in the party’s constitution that confers... Read more »

ENDA KENNY’S FAVOURITES

June 1, 2016

SURPRISE, surprise, the FG internal inquiry has found those most responsible for the election disaster were the HQ officials (mainly general secretary Tom... Read more »

LABOUR PARTY FACING CIVIL WAR

May 18, 2016

THE trouble with the six Labour TDs’ plot to stop the seventh, Alan Kelly, becoming party leader is that a negative strategy usually... Read more »

Janice Boylan Irish Military Mali Coolock Says No IFP Hermann Kelly Timmy Dooley Aontú Mal O’Hara Fintan O’Toole Josepha Madigan Eoghan Harris Ukraine War Micheál Martin Middle East Philip Ryan Seán Clancy Simon Coveney Hugo MacNeill Mountbatten Neasa Hourigan Green Party Martin NPT Ivana Bacik Independents Limerick Hospital Overcrowding Barry Cowen

FINIAN AND CHARLIE

May 18, 2016

IT’S Cuban cigars, not fags, that super junior minister Finian McGrath should be smoking. During negotiations for government with Fine Gael’s foreign minister,... Read more »

Lowry FG ‘deal’

May 18, 2016

THE Healy-Rae brothers may be cute, but Michael Lowry is cute out, as they say beyond the Red Cow roundabout. Lowry’s claim that... Read more »

ENDA’S ‘INDEPENDENT’ SENATOR?

May 18, 2016

IT’S a good thing Irish Independent editor Fionnan Sheahan is not an arrogant control freak with megalomaniac tendencies, given the embarrassing efforts of... Read more »

REGINA Vs HELEN IN MEATH

May 18, 2016

ENDA KENNY’S stunt in leading his cabinet women into the Dáil ahead of the lads saw him include his new chief whip and... Read more »

TONY COUGHLAN EXCORIATES SINN FÉIN

May 5, 2016

IRELAND’S most enduring and intellectually powerful opponent of the EU for nearly half a century is Tony Coughlan, associate professor emeritus at TCD.... Read more »

HANG DOWN YER HEAD TIM DOOLEY

May 5, 2016

SENATE director of elections for Fianna Fáil, Timmy Dooley, is taking some flak inside the party over a poor result with a lower... Read more »

WHEN ZAPPONE ZAPPED LONE PARENTS

May 5, 2016

KATHERINE ZAPPONE’S bid for a cabinet seat with her early vote for Enda Kenny as Taoiseach was tastefully dressed up as a childcare... Read more »

THE RISE AND RISE OF JIM O’CALLAGHAN

May 5, 2016

IF Micheál Martin is the big winner in the recent election and in subsequent negotiations with Fine Gael, then the other winner is... Read more »

MICHAEL McDOWELL ON THE GO AGAIN

April 21, 2016

HE’S BACK. The notion that Michael McDowell is running for the Senate merely to secure a platform was never an adequate explanation for... Read more »

JOAN BURTON CLINGS TO POWER

April 21, 2016

LABOUR leader Joan Burton and most of her TDs, supported by a growing number of ever so sensible media voices, want the party... Read more »

Enda Kenny’s Ace Card

April 21, 2016

GOLDHAWK predicted recently that Enda Kenny would not easily be dislodged from his perch as Taoiseach and Fine Gael party leader (see The... Read more »

McCONALOGUE MARTIN’S MAN

April 21, 2016

FIANNA FÁIL’S team negotiating with Fine Gael is a little lopsided, with big beasts Michael McGrath and Jim O’Callaghan alongside second team players... Read more »

SINN FÉIN ON THE SIDELINES

April 7, 2016

THE party political leader watching the slow dance towards a government – more monochrome (blue) than rainbow coloured – with greater anxiety than... Read more »

FF Coalition Split

April 7, 2016

AT least five senior Fianna Fáil figures are now in favour of a ‘grand’ coalition with Fine Gael, and it comes as no... Read more »

ENDA’S POTENTIAL NEW CABINET

April 7, 2016

THAT 50:50 gender-based cabinet pledged by Enda Kenny before the election can be binned under the new circumstances. The appointment of probably four... Read more »

MORE POWER TO LEO’S LEADERSHIP BID

April 7, 2016

WHAT is Leo Varadkar playing at with his outspoken support for Averil Power in the TCD Senate election? The Irish Independent, edited by... Read more »

FAR LEFT: FIRST ITEM

March 24, 2016

THE ‘united front’ of AAA/PBP aka, the SP (Paul Murphy) and SWP (Richard Boyd Barrett), have six TDs between them, three each, whereas... Read more »