Article Category: Last Refuge

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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MICHEÁL MARTIN’S ‘SHAMELESS’ NEW POLITICS

January 11, 2024

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENTS appear to be disinterested in the discernible differences between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Israel’s genocidal assault on... Read more »

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REGINA V JOSEPHA – AND MAYBE BARRY

December 14, 2023
LEO VARADKAR and his command staff officers in the bunker have one issue to deal with before others when it comes to the Dublin... Read more »

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THE 2023 GIRL

December 14, 2023
THE FIRST and one of the most intriguing Fine Gael selection conventions for the next general election takes place in the new year (January... Read more »

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KINGSTOWN FG: THE ENEMY WITHIN

December 14, 2023

A FRISSON of anti-Russian paranoia ran through a number of Dún Laoghaire Blueshirts recently, causing the postponement of the convention for candidates to... Read more »

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SIMON COVENEY’S AMBITIONS

December 14, 2023

YOU REALLY have to wonder who, apart from one of Simon Coveney’s people, inspired that Sunday Times story last weekend headlined, “TDs tip... Read more »

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MARIA BAILEY’S FORTUNE SWINGS

November 30, 2023

WHAT A reversal of fortune ex-Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey secured last month when Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) apologised unreservedly for two articles... Read more »

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McENTEE: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ENDS

November 30, 2023
UNLESS SOME additional, damaging information emerges in the next week or so, justice minister Helen McEntee will survive the current crisis. However, the real... Read more »

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LOYAL MEDIA ‘NO’ TO RESIGNATIONS

November 30, 2023

There was much vexed huffing and puffing from Government politicians and the media alike last weekend over the perceived failure of the justice... Read more »

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FINE GAEL – THE UNITED IRELAND PARTY

November 30, 2023
LEO VARADKAR recently revived the old title of Fine Gael, the United Ireland Party, in the introduction to the party’s policy on the north.... Read more »

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FOREIGN AGENTS THREAT TO GARDAÍ

November 15, 2023

JUSTICE MINISTER Helen McEntee’s latest problem concerns that most powerful lobby, senior Garda officers worried about huge tax bills for anyone that fills... Read more »

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ANNUAL 2023: GOVERNMENT – VARADKAR TO CALL EARLY ELECTION?

November 15, 2023

THE POLITICAL debate right now – public and private – is not simply who will win the next general election but when it... Read more »

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ANNUAL 2023: OPPOSITION – SINN FÉIN: LEFT OR RIGHT?

November 15, 2023
Can the forward march of Sinn Féin be halted? Will the party be left like Peri at the gates of paradise gazing on the... Read more »

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ANNUAL 2023: INDEPENDENTS/TROTS – NON-REPUBLICAN LEFT SQUEEZED

November 15, 2023

READING HEADLINE coverage of political opinion polls, things could hardly be better for opposition parties and for the left in general. The conventional... Read more »

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ALAN DILLON KEEPS TABS ON TUBS

November 2, 2023
THE NEW chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, Alan Dillon, is also leas chathaoirleach of the joint committee on media and a member... Read more »

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EOGHAN HARRIS IS BACK

November 2, 2023

DUBLIN UNIONISTS are called to a small room in Buswell’s Hotel on November 8 to discuss ‘Irish Protestant minority experiences’. There, northern unionists... Read more »

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NATO AND ‘IRISH TIMES’ ADULTS

November 2, 2023
THERE WERE two types of media reaction to Dame Louise Richardson’s recent report of Micheál Martin’s forum on international security. One was to play... Read more »

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