Article Category: Last Refuge

DON’T MENTION THE WAR!

June 30, 2022

THE MYSTERY surrounding Green Party policy on defence, security and — once that most cherished Green principle of all — neutrality, had, until... Read more »

FRIENDLY, PEACEFUL NATO

June 30, 2022

MANY PEOPLE will have heard of the splendidly titled ‘Nato Partnership for Peace’, which Ireland joined more than 20 years ago amid earnest... Read more »

DARRAGH O’BRIEN V. CLIFFORD LEE

June 30, 2022

THE FIRST signs of just how horrid supporters of current housing minister, Darragh O’Brien, were behaving towards Darragh’s ‘colleague’ and Fianna Fáil running... Read more »

COVENEY ABANDONS HIS CONSTITUENCY

June 16, 2022

FEVERISH SPECULATION about the future political intentions of Simon ‘Covetous’ Coveney, already rife, have greatly intensified due to not only the usual gossip... Read more »

‘NEGLIGENT BEHAVIOUR’

June 16, 2022

NO POLITICIAN in the current Dáil typifies how instant political success can sometimes be followed by rapid decline than Fine Gael’s Josepha Madigan... Read more »

POLLS: LEO V MARTIN AS MARY LOU RISES

June 2, 2022

THE STATISTIC that jumped off the Red C/Business Post page at the weekend was that showing Sinn Féin at 36%, up two points... Read more »

FG’S FACTION FIGHTS IN MEATH EAST

June 2, 2022

JUSTICE MINISTER Helen McEntee certainly came to her ministerial post well equipped with the knowledge of legal and other altercations in her Meath... Read more »

MICHEÁL’S BORDER POLL COYNESS: RICHMOND ET AL POUNCE

June 2, 2022

MUCH CONFUSION surrounds the political parties’ positions on the mooted issue of a border poll and, Fine Gael in particular, is playing a... Read more »

VARADKAR FACES PARTY CRISIS

May 19, 2022

THE ROW over the maternity hospital has many fathers and chief among the suspects is a certain panic in the ranks of Fine... Read more »

WHITHER STEPHEN DONNELLY?

May 19, 2022

HEALTH MINISTER Stephen Donnelly has become a convenient target again in health controversies, this time at the national maternity hospital. The minister now... Read more »

FF-FG COALITION STRAINS

May 19, 2022

THE OUTRAGED accusations from Fianna Fáil TDs and ministers against alleged dirty tricks by their Fine Gael counterparts over the National Maternity Hospital... Read more »

BLUESHIRT KULAKS REGROUP

May 19, 2022

NOT SINCE Stalin massacred the Kulaks in the USSR did farmers receive such treatment as that meted out to the 11-year-old Fine Gael... Read more »

McENTEE’S SOFT FOCUS MEDIA PITCH

May 5, 2022

JUSTICE MINISTER and Fine Gael leadership aspirant Helen McEntee made a rather obvious sales pitch for the post in the Irish independent last... Read more »

VARADKAR, DPP AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

May 5, 2022

WHAT A speedy riposte came from the Irish Times last week to the Sunday Independent’s unnerving front page story that said the DPP... Read more »

ABOLITIONIST SENATOR SHARON KEOGAN

May 5, 2022

INDEPENDENT SENATOR Sharon Keogan is ‘provocative … speaks her mind … tells it like it is’ etc, but despite her feminist and left-wing... Read more »

‘I COME TO BURY NOT TO PRAISE TONY’

April 20, 2022

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER (CMO) Tony Holohan was effectively buried by Micheál Martin when he ‘paused’ (shafted) his sweet deal at Trinity College Dublin.... Read more »

GALWAY BAY FM BLUES

April 20, 2022

STAFF AT Galway Bay FM and local members of Fine Gael will be hoping that things settle down following turmoil at the station... Read more »

CIAN O’CALLAGHAN V AODHÁN Ó RÍORDÁIN

April 20, 2022

NEW LABOUR leader Ivana Bacik’s dead cat bounce has not deterred Labour handlers from predicting seat gains that will double their complement of... Read more »

MICHAEL D HIGGINS’S NEUTRALITY WARNING TO GOVERNMENT

April 20, 2022

MESSRS MARTIN, Varadkar and Ryan cannot say they were not warned should there be open confrontation between them and President Higgins over neutrality... Read more »

MARTIN’S PACKED AGENDA

April 7, 2022

PAUL CLARKSON is turning out to be the most effective spin doctor that an taoiseach Micheál Martin could have hoped for. In particular... Read more »

‘UPPITY’ BOGUE ET AL VS CORK ‘BOYS’ CLUB’

April 7, 2022

THE CREATION of a women’s caucus on Cork City Council has not been greeted with enthusiasm by their male counterparts and the females... Read more »

VARADKAR: FOLLOW ME UP TO MALLOW

March 24, 2022

PREPARATIONS FOR the replacement of the Fine Gael Agriculture Affairs Group (FGAAG) (see The Phoenix, 25/2/22) have not been running smoothly. This is... Read more »

LABOUR AND SOC DEMS TO UNITE?

March 24, 2022

UNITY OF the left – or the Labour/Social Democrats part of the left – is highly prized by the former of these two... Read more »

PRINCESS IVANA TAKES THE CROWN

March 10, 2022

GOLDHAWK AS well as the few remaining old Labour types in the party were surprised at the omission of Ged Nash TD from... Read more »

BIG PHIL AND FINE GAEL’S NEXT LEADER

March 10, 2022

CONTRADICTORY POLL messages indicating that Simon Coveney is still the favourite to take the Fine Gael leadership will have surprised the media cognoscenti,... Read more »

LABOUR’S FEMINIST ALBATROSS

March 10, 2022

JUSTIFICATION FROM Alan Kelly’s assassins relied greatly on the view that the former minister’s role in government hung like an albatross around his... Read more »

FG’S ‘GENDERGATE’ PAY-OFF

March 10, 2022

IT IS indeed heartening for Goldhawk to know that senior Fine Gael persons not only read his scribblings but, from time to time,... Read more »