Article Category: Last Refuge

DUBLIN EU NEW RIGHT COMPETITORS

May 16, 2024

THE RASH of candidates on the new right in the Dublin EU constituency – seven candidates come under this category – constitutes a... Read more »

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NEW RIGHT TO WIN LOCAL/EU SEATS?

May 2, 2024

THE NEW right is dominating headlines now with vituperative social media comments and arson attacks on buildings supposedly intended to house immigrants and... Read more »

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EU ELECTION STAKES

May 2, 2024

WITH JUST weeks to go, campaigns for the Euro seats are hotting up – if that’s the right word to use for the... Read more »

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AONTÚ: A ONE-TRICK PONY?

May 2, 2024

PREVIOUSLY A splinter from Sinn Féin, Peadar Tóibín’s Aontú may yet establish itself as a serious political player, with recent opinion polls putting... Read more »

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FIANNA FÁIL’S TWO FINGERS TO SDLP

May 2, 2024

REMARKABLY, EVEN for the Government-compliant Dublin media, there was no coverage of the snub delivered to the SDLP by Micheál Martin’s Fianna Fáil... Read more »

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WHITHER KATE O’CONNELL?

April 18, 2024

THE RE-ENTRY of Kate O’Connell to national politics via a place on Fine Gael’s general election ticket in Dublin Bay South (DBS) is... Read more »

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HELEN OF NAVAN SURVIVES

April 18, 2024
MUCH MYSTERY and knowing punditry surrounded the survival of Helen McEntee as justice minister given all the indications that persuaded most people to believe... Read more »

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MAL O’HARA’S SEANAD SEAT

April 18, 2024

THE COALITION parties have continued the sharing (among themselves) policy of divvying up Seanad seats if and when they become available – a... Read more »

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WILL SINN FÉIN BOUNCE BACK?

April 18, 2024

GLEEFUL NOISES from Government parties and media critics at Sinn Féin’s poll slide as well as its political confusion indicate a new confidence... Read more »

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HELEN McENTEE’S FUTURE

April 4, 2024
JUSTICE MINISTER (as we speak) Helen McEntee has been pleading via the media and in person with her former rival and now leader, Simon... Read more »

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IVANA BACIK’S NEW GENERATION

April 4, 2024

LABOUR LEADER Ivana Bacik recently deployed her considerable legal and verbal skills to exonerate the party’s local election Ringsend candidate, Carol Reynolds, who... Read more »

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KATE O’CONNELL THE DISRUPTER

April 4, 2024
THE CLEAR desire of Simon Harris to add Kate O’Connell as a ‘partner’ to councillor James Geoghegan on the Dublin Bay South (DBS) general... Read more »

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MARTIN TO PROVOKE MORE REFERENDUMS?

April 4, 2024
MICHEÁL MARTIN’S move to legislate for the abolition of the triple lock could run into political, constitutional and even EU legislative trouble, judging by... Read more »

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COMRADES STAGG AND PRESIDENT HIGGINS

March 21, 2024
THE WHIFF of authentic sincerity marked the tributes of President Michael D Higgins to the recently departed ex-Labour minister Emmet Stagg and the two... Read more »

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LISA: ‘NON, JE NE REGRETTE RIEN’

March 21, 2024

WAS THERE ever a more controversial ‘no’ vote by one individual in a referendum? The last-minute decision of Fianna Fáil Seanad leader Lisa... Read more »

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FINTAN O’TOOLE’S FUTURE

March 21, 2024

RECENTLY RETIRED Irish Times seer Fintan O’Toole will surely feel compelled to do what he has been threatening to do for some years... Read more »

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LEADERSHIP PARANOIA IN GOVERNMENT

March 21, 2024

THE WELTER of criticism levelled at integration minister Roderic O’Gorman about the near Gaza-like conditions of Tent City in Dublin’s Mount Street was... Read more »

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RTÉ’S SENIOR HURLEY DIRECTOR

March 7, 2024

VERY LITTLE attention has been paid to the political affiliation of Mari Hurley, RTÉ’s new chief financial officer appointed last week, although her... Read more »

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MARTIN’S FEMALE FAVOURITES

March 7, 2024

ONE ASPECT of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin’s new way has been the electoral emphasis on young, middle-class females and prominent among these... Read more »

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VARADKAR’S EU JOB ENDANGERED

March 7, 2024

WHEN THE support of Fine Gael MEPs ensured the passage of a key stage of the Nature Restoration Law (NLA) in the European... Read more »

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IRELAND’S EU LEFT-OVERS

March 7, 2024
WITH THE elections for the European Parliament to take place in early June, much speculation has focused on the prospects of the far right,... Read more »

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WILL HOLLY CAIRNS RETAIN HER SEAT?

February 22, 2024

THE MEDIA darling that is Holly Cairns is regarded by the same media as the best thing going for the Soc Dems as... Read more »

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JETTISONING JOSEPHA

February 22, 2024

THE FINE GAEL establishment and supporters of junior minister Josepha Madigan received a shock following senator Regina Doherty’s victory at the convention for... Read more »

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MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CUNNING PLAN

February 22, 2024

THE GROWING pressure on the reluctant Social Democrats to unite with Labour does not primarily come from the latter party but from the... Read more »

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BEWARE MINISTERS BEARING GIFTS

February 22, 2024

FURTHER EVIDENCE of the growing rift on Gaza between Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin emerged last week when the Taoiseach joined with Spain... Read more »

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YOUNG BLUESHIRTS CHAMPION McMANUS

February 8, 2024

HEALTHY RIVALRY is how Fine Gael councillor David McManus would likely describe a leaflet due to be distributed in his local election area... Read more »

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REGINA V JOSEPHA V BARRY

February 8, 2024

THE THREE-CORNERED battle between Fine Gael ex-minister and now senator Regina Doherty, junior education minister Josepha Madigan and senator Barry Ward for the... Read more »

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EARLY ELECTION?

February 8, 2024

REPETITIVE SPECULATION about an early general election – before the local and EU elections in June – is being argued about among ministers... Read more »

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IRISH FREELOADING ON ‘BRITISH ISLES’

February 8, 2024
A RECENT report by British think-tank Policy Exchange describes our foreign security policy as “persistent Irish security freeloading” just as “Russia once more poses... Read more »

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FINE GAEL’S WILD GEESE

January 25, 2024
IT’S NOT yet known where the soon-to-be-departed TDs and senators of Fine Gael will next surface, like some buccaneering wild geese marauding through board... Read more »

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FINIAN McGRATH RIDES AGAIN

January 25, 2024

THE RETIREMENT of Fine Gael former minister and failed leadership candidate Richard Bruton from the electoral fray has alerted the minds of those... Read more »

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SF ‘HARD AND FAST ON MEDIA’

January 25, 2024

THE GOVERNMENT parties, especially Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, will be pleased that the decade-long delay in doing anything in the face of... Read more »

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FINE GAEL’S LEAN, MEAN MACHINE

January 25, 2024

READING A list of the generals that Leo Varadkar has appointed to his GHQ staff for the upcoming local, European and general elections... Read more »

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Ó RÍORDÁIN’S EU ELECTION TACTIC

January 11, 2024

COMMENTARY ON the EU election bid of Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has noted that it is effectively another defection from the Labour Party as... Read more »

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LABOUR AND SOC DEMS: NO DEAL

January 11, 2024

FOR YEARS the debate between left and right in the Labour Party was over whether or not to enter coalition government with ‘right-wing’... Read more »

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EOGHAN HARRIS’S GRIPE

January 11, 2024

EOGHAN HARRIS may have lost his platform in the country’s biggest-selling newspaper – the Mediahuis-owned Sunday Independent – but he appears to be... Read more »

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