Article Category: Last Refuge

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

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 »

---

LIMERICK’S FIRST CITIZEN

August 10, 2023
FEW CANDIDATES of calibre have stepped forward yet to proclaim their candidacy for the Limerick mayor’s job, although ex-finance mandarin John Moran wrapped the... Read more »

---

CLIMATE-FRIENDLY BANKS

August 10, 2023

LISTENERS TO RTÉ’s Morning Ireland awoke last week to the sound of Bank of Ireland’s new CEO, Myles O’Grady, reading a statement about... Read more »

---

HELEN’S WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

July 27, 2023

FOR ONCE justice minister, Helen McEntee’s accomplished PR handlers made an error of judgement in their staging of a photo opportunity with Helen... Read more »

---

McGUINNESS PLAYS HARD TO GET

July 27, 2023
DESPITE A glowing profile in the Business Post who last weekend depicted Heather Humphreys as a hot tip to be Fine Gael’s presidential candidate... Read more »

---

MARTIN GAZUMPS VLAD

July 27, 2023
NO SOONER had Tánaiste Micheál Martin departed on a week-long trip to South Africa and Mozambique that he hoped would further burnish his reputation... Read more »

---

O’KEEFFE DYNASTY AWAKENS

July 27, 2023

SPECULATION ABOUT candidates for the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has alerted some of the more paranoid members of both Fianna Fáil and Fine... Read more »

---

HELEN’S LEADERSHIP CAMPAIGN REVIVAL

July 13, 2023

WHAT A remarkable exclusive the Irish Times delivered to its readers last Saturday week, with a large colour photo of justice minister Helen... Read more »

---

MILITARY COUP INSIDE GREENS

July 13, 2023

REACTION INSIDE the Green Party to its barely reported debate about abandoning the triple-lock mechanism – which requires Dáil, government and UN Security... Read more »

---

THE TRAVELLER’S RETURN

July 13, 2023
ANTI-TRAVELLER and anti-social welfare recipient, presidential campaigner Peter Casey has been negotiating a pact with TD Mattie McGrath’s Rural Independent Group (RIG) to form... Read more »

---

MICHEÁL MARTIN’S STRATEGY

July 13, 2023

If Micheál Martin is indeed eyeing up a top EU job, it might explain his discretion on the issue of the US supplying... Read more »

---

GREEN ATTACK ON SF

June 29, 2023

The ongoing pearl-clutching about the prospect of a Sinn Féin government has been joined recently by the Green Party – and where better... Read more »

---

IVANA’S FEMINIST RECORD

June 29, 2023

THE INTERNAL debate about the report on Labour’s near demise currently being held behind closed doors is really a re-run of the now... Read more »

---

SIMON HARRIS’S LEADERSHIP TIMING

June 15, 2023
HAS ANYONE noticed that of the two junior ministers now increasingly mentioned as possible Fine Gael leadership rivals to senior minister Simon Harris, both... Read more »

---

MURPHY’S SOC DEMS OWN GOALS

June 15, 2023
WAS THE blundering performance put in by Catherine Murphy in the Denis O’Brien/Siteserv saga one of the reasons for the change in the Social... Read more »

---

SIMON COVENEY’S CONSTITUENCY

June 15, 2023
IS SIMON COVENEY trying to emulate British Tory prime minister Harold McMillan’s electoral slogan, “You’ve never had it so good”, in an effort to... Read more »

---

PACIFISTS SILENCED AT MARTIN’S FORUMS

June 15, 2023
INDICATIONS OF the militarist tenor of Tánaiste and foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin’s Forum on International Security were noted in The Phoenix (see edition... Read more »

---

TRIPLE-COCK-UP BY GREENS

June 1, 2023

THE BUSINESS POST recently had on its front page a piece about the Green Party’s shift towards abolition of the triple lock –... Read more »

---

BURYING MOUNTBATTEN

June 1, 2023
ANOTHER EXAMPLE of the ‘special relationship’ between the US and Britain is the revelation – covered in the British media but not, for some... Read more »

---

KATE HASN’T GONE AWAY, YOU KNOW

June 1, 2023

AN AIR of mystery and intrigue surrounds Fine Gael councillor Emma Blain’s step onto the political chess board of Dublin Bay South (DBS)... Read more »

---

HUGO MACNEILL’S GONG

June 1, 2023

THE EXCITED word among the goys in south Dublin rugger clubs is that Hugo MacNeill will shortly receive a measure of compensation for... Read more »

---

CONTENDERS CIRCLE VARADKAR

May 18, 2023

THE FEAR of an unseemly power struggle being displayed in public is one reason for the paralysis in Fine Gael over increasingly poor... Read more »

---

WATT’S PUBLIC SPENDING CONTROLS

May 18, 2023

While many politicians and commentators have been falling over themselves to characterise health department secretary general Robert Watt as “dismissive”, “cocky”, “combative” or  “arrogant”, civil... Read more »

---

LEO SWINGING TO THE LEFT?

May 18, 2023

Fine Gael’s staunch defence of the publicly owned Irish rail system against the EU’s Railway Directive continues to raise eyebrows in many quarters.... Read more »

---

SINN FÉIN ‘UNITY’ IN CORK EAST

May 18, 2023

THE CORK EAST constituency was the scene of one of the triggers that provoked a rash of stories about ‘bullying’ by sensitive Sinn... Read more »

---