Article Category: Last Refuge

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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CLONGOWES WOOD ‘IRREGULARS’

November 2, 2023
As the Decade of Centenaries comes to a close there seems to be a bit of unfinished business and even a hint of Civil... Read more »

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LABOUR’S RUFFLED FEATHERS

October 18, 2023
FEATHERS THEN LABOUR TD Colm Keaveney received a white feather in his internal Leinster House mailbox in 2012 with a message that said: “This... Read more »

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FF FEAR VLAD AMBUSH

October 18, 2023
ONE OF the few real advantages Leo Varadkar has over Micheál Martin is that he is currently the rotating Taoiseach in situ and, therefore,... Read more »

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HOW ‘AL-QUDS FLOOD’ ALTERED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL FOREVER

October 18, 2023
THE MASSACRE by Hamas of over 1,000 Israeli civilians a fortnight ago has been the justification for the current slaughter by Israel of at... Read more »

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SHINNERS AT THE GATE

October 5, 2023
THE FIRST line of defence from the Government and its Greek chorus in the media against the increasing likelihood of Sinn Féin coming to... Read more »

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‘IRISH TIMES’ AND MICHEÁL MARTIN

October 5, 2023
THE IRISH TIMES appears to have offered itself as a surrogate platform for internal political and leadership debate in Fianna Fáil given the absence... Read more »

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TÁNAISTE’S LONG WAR

October 5, 2023
THE WESTERN-NATO pact driving the Ukraine war with Russia has long been seen as primarily an American initiative. But cracks are appearing in this... Read more »

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POLEMIC ON CHILDCARE PROVIDERS’ ‘STRIKE’

October 5, 2023
LONG-TIME socialist, union activist and Siptu researcher Michael Taft can hardly be accused of being soft on the ‘right-of-centre’ FFG-led Government. So given the... Read more »

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DUBLIN BAY NORTH AFTER BRUTON

September 21, 2023
AFTER ALL the recent paeans of praise lavished upon Richard Bruton, the former minister and former leader of a failed coup in Fine Gael,... Read more »

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SEERY KEARNEY’S LAW ‘N’ ORDER PITCH

September 21, 2023

SENATOR MARY Seery Kearney was a little OTT with her demand that the Oireachtas media committee draw up protocols to guide journalistic standards.... Read more »

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KYIV’S YURII FURY

September 21, 2023

A STORY about a pacifist being prosecuted by his government that is engaged in all-out war with a neighbour would receive much sympathetic... Read more »

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AOIFE MOORE’S SHORT GAME

September 21, 2023
AOIFE MOORE, political journalist and author of the latest ‘tell-all’ book on Sinn Féin, The Long Game — Inside Sinn Féin, has cleverly developed... Read more »

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GOVERNMENT ACHIEVEMENTS!

September 7, 2023

MICHEÁL MARTIN and his backroom team must be flummoxed at Fianna Fáil’s latest poll rating – at 18% the party is 3% behind... Read more »

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BARRETT’S BLUNDER

September 7, 2023

NATIONAL PARTY ‘leader’ Justin Barrett (see profile, p14) gave 24 hours advance notice on social media last Sunday of a speech he intended... Read more »

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MICHEÁL MARTIN’S MISSION

September 7, 2023

THE PRESS statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs about the visit of Micheál Martin to the Middle East is measured and make... Read more »

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DID COMMISSION DO DOWN LABOUR?

September 7, 2023
SUPPORTIVE MEDIA pundits and Labour members themselves have already seized on the constituency revisions to explain why the party faces electoral Armageddon in the... Read more »

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MULTI-TASKING DARA MURPHY

August 24, 2023

NEWS WINGS its way to Goldhawk of the revitalised political and military career in European circles of former Fine Gael minister Dara Murphy,... Read more »

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BLUESHIRT LAW LIBRARY REVOLT

August 24, 2023
JUNIOR ENTERPRISE minister Neale Richmond will not have been pleased at being described by Fine Gael spin doctors as the person responsible for the... Read more »

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SIMON HARRIS’S TACTICS

August 24, 2023

IF RESENTFUL Fine Gael colleagues really believe that Simon Harris leaks like a sieve, they should have a word with Mediahuis political hack... Read more »

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THE COSTELLOS’ LABOUR LEGACY

August 24, 2023
A GLOWING political obituary of former Labour minister Joe Costello was delivered from the appropriate pulpit of the Irish Times last week. The lengthy... Read more »

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SUMMER SELECTION

August 24, 2023

ONE SUMMER school the Irish Times won’t be covering is the 33rd Desmond Greaves Summer Weekend School at the Irish Institute, 27 Pearse... Read more »

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MICHEÁL MARTIN’S CAREER CURVE

August 10, 2023

CONSTANT ASSERTIONS by Micheál Martin – repeated at the weekend in a statement to the Sunday Times – that he will lead Fianna... Read more »

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O’FLYNN’S HOUSING ‘GUIDELINE’

August 10, 2023

THE SPLIT on the Government’s Housing Commission sees one side, led by developer Michael O’Flynn, arguing that a housing referendum should be more... Read more »

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GENERAL CLANCY’S CALL

August 10, 2023

THE DEFENCE Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, made quite a statement at the recent unveiling of a monument to honour... Read more »

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