Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Lisa Chambers’s appeal

March 24, 2016

IF Micheál Martin experienced a bitter sweet moment at Mary Hanafin’s election defeat in Dún Laoghaire he was gratified by the victory of... Read more »

WASTED WEST WINGERS

March 24, 2016

HAVE former advisers, Fine Gael’s Frank Flannery and would-be Fianna Fáil handler, Noel Whelan, over-extended themselves just a tad? Flannery, in particular, has... Read more »

SIMON COVENEY MOVES TO SUCCESSION SLOT

March 24, 2016

SIMON COVENEY is now playing a central role in Fine Gael’s efforts to construct a rainbow coalition and is acting in tandem with... Read more »

LABOUR MINISTERS SURVIVE BLOODBATH

March 9, 2016

THE most fascinating statistic in the entrails of Labour’s general election massacre is that out of the seven surviving TDs, no less than... Read more »

PARTIES’ (MIS)FORTUNES

March 9, 2016

THE new Dáil arithmetic occupied the minds of various parties’ leaders and handlers post-election, but attention quickly turned to the knock-on effects on... Read more »

Kenny to Survive?

March 9, 2016

IS Enda Kenny really a dead duck? Enda may not be Francois Mitterrand or Winston Churchill but he is one of the canniest... Read more »

KENNY TO FORCE FF COALITION

March 9, 2016

ENDA KENNY is determined to drag Fianna Fáil into coalition government – by any other name – and will threaten a general election... Read more »

INTRIGUING SCENARIO AHEAD FOR SENATE

February 25, 2016

THE most intriguing scenario will transpire should Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs not form a joint majority in the Dáil and a... Read more »

Sexist Labour

February 25, 2016

WOMEN voters in Louth will surely flock to support Senator Mary Moran following her persecution by Labour’s ‘sexist old boys’ club’. Moran’s running... Read more »

ENDA’S NEXT CABINET

February 25, 2016

IF Enda Kenny only has eight places to fill in a Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil cabinet, then who are the winners and losers, and... Read more »

FIANNA FÁIL’S CABINET MEMBERS

February 25, 2016

IF the Dáil arithmetic breaks down the way the polls predict and if Micheál Martin can persuade Fianna Fáil delegates to support a... Read more »

O’Callaghan AG?

February 25, 2016

HAS Jim O’Callaghan’s time come at last? The Fianna Fáil legal advisor’s election record is not a happy one but he has had... Read more »

ADAMS TO LOSE TOP SPOT IN LOUTH?

February 11, 2016

GERRY ADAMS will not be deposed as Sinn Féin leader nationally any time soon, but he could well lose his pre-eminence in Louth... Read more »

Union Blueshirts

February 11, 2016

WHO are the Larkinites in the Fine Gael parliamentary party and why did five of them (out of 94) sign up for the... Read more »

MONEY ON FF TO TAKE SIX IN DUBLIN

February 11, 2016

DUBLIN is supposed to be a graveyard for Fianna Fáil but perusal of Paddy Power’s constituency odds – a combination of research and... Read more »

KATE O’CONNELL Vs LUCINDA IN DBS

February 11, 2016

ENDA KENNY and most of Fine Gael in Dublin Bay South would be ecstatic if they were able to retain two seats in... Read more »

Gender Fodder

January 28, 2016

FEMINISTS will hardly be impressed at the remarkable appetite that Enda Kenny and Micheál Martin are exhibiting for candidate gender quotas in recent,... Read more »

HANAFIN’S FAUSTIAN PACT

January 28, 2016

MARY HANAFIN’S electoral strategy in Dún Laoghaire is converging with that of Fine Gael nationally as she delivers daily two-finger gestures to her... Read more »

JOAN’S GOOD NEWS

January 14, 2016

JOAN BURTON’S Department of Social Protection jumped to her defence recently against a most impertinent suggestion from rival general election candidate, Dublin West... Read more »

PERRY DISASTER FOR FG

January 14, 2016

PRESUMABLY the Standards in Public Office (Sipo) will not insist that the massive half-a-million euro legal costs for Fine Gael’s High Court case... Read more »