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LABOUR’S election strategy committee in 2015 was initially dominated by its four senior ministers, Joan Burton, Alan Kelly, Brendan Howlin and Alex White. Pat Rabbitte graciously agreed to attend later on, thus lending the committee a gravitas of Churchillian (circa 1945) dimensions. More recently this committee has been replaced by mainly full time functionaries supplemented… Read more »

LOOKS like Fine Gael candidate, solicitor Josepha Madigan (author of Negligent Behaviour, a novel containing “steamy sex sessions”), is heading for a Dáil seat in that most rarified constituency, Dublin Rathdown. Independent ex-Blueshirt Shane Ross is topping the poll in Paddy Power’s constituency odds and stands at 1/50 with Josie second at 4/11. The really… Read more »

WITH COUNTLESS local battles being fought around the country as the election gains momentum, in Mayo the issue of Westport House has garnered more than its fair share of headlines, not least due to the very unusual timing associated with the sale. Junior minister Michael Ring was not impressed but neither were many of the… Read more »

HAVE Fine Gael strategists been seduced by their own propaganda? The notion that they are fighting for civilisation and seats against the Provo-Bolsheviks of Sinn Féin is nonsense as both parties are fishing out of entirely different pools. But FG is contesting for votes and seats with Fianna Fáil and the Blueshirts may have taken… Read more »

THE leader of the Aryan super race in Ireland, Pegida founder Peter O’Loughlin, has until High Noon today (Thursday) to declare his intended general election candidacy in Cork North Central. Having recently collected nomination forms, O’Loughlin loftily declared to the Cork City Sheriff’s office that he would revisit the office by 12 noon on Thursday… Read more »

THE CURRENT chairman of Donegal County Council, Fianna Fáil’s Ciaran Brogan, is due before Letterkenny District Court next month on a drink-driving related charge. The charge relates to an alleged incident last June at Ballymacool, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in which Brogan was arrested in connection with an offence under Section 5(2) of the Road Traffic… Read more »

THERE WAS plenty of back-slapping going on this month after the announcement of the deal that sees Frank Gleeson’s Mercantile group of bars and restaurants ‘merge’ with the Capital Bars group, controlled by Setanta Sports founders Michael O’Rourke, Leonard Ryan and Mark O’Meara. O’Rourke was also recently toasting a multi-million euro deal that will see… Read more »

PAT RABBITTE (in)famously remarked that politicians say certain things during election campaigns, but Enda Kenny and Joan Burton’s cynical response to the gangland shootings is remarkable, with the Tánaiste in particular abandoning all semblance of traditional Labour values. Their remarks are also an effort to deflect public anger at the Government’s responsibility for the Garda’s… Read more »

IT’S back to the future for the Fianna Fáil election campaign with most of the core group of handlers being long time party strategists going back at least a decade and more. Peter McDonagh, aka the Child of Prague, due to his part-time domicile there, has been heavily involved in the last five general elections,… Read more »