In the aftermath of an election, it’s natural that all the attention is focused on those who got elected and their haphazard attempts to form a government, or more accurately, to avoid forming a government. It’s less newsworthy to talk about the political futures of those who did not get elected at all, but that […]
Politics is supposed to be a simple enough activity. The basic idea is that various parties put forward ideas for how the country should be governed, the voters choose between the various offerings, and the people who get the largest number of seats in the parliament then have the power to form a Government that […]
There was a very upsetting video doing the rounds on the internet a couple of weeks ago. A mother stork, in her nest, with her three young. Calmly, she picks up the smallest and weakest of her chicks and throws it out of the nest to its death, immune and, seemingly, uncaring to its desperate […]
In Ireland we like to name our coalition Governments – from 1994 to 1997, we famously had the “rainbow Government”, led by John Bruton. This week, Sinn Fein were talking about “a left coalition” comprising themselves and every other assorted left winger in Leinster House – sort of a Marxist pick-n’mix box of chocolates, where, […]
Mattie McGrath is a politician a lot of people deeply admire (full disclosure, since people writing about politics really should tell you these things: He got my number one vote last Saturday) but come on now, this is a bit of a rush of blood to the head, isn’t it? “Independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath […]
A strange sight this morning, as Sinn Fein’s newly elected TDs arrived in Dublin for a Parliamentary Party meeting to talk about their strategy ahead of the first meeting of the new Dáil: Sinn Féin gathering for a meeting of its expanded parliamentary party. Not sure who this new fella in the middle is. Anyone? […]
Greta Thunberg might think that she’s the one setting an example to the next generation on green issues, but she’s got a long way to go before she can go head to head with the master: At Oscars wearing Pomellato jewelry because it only uses responsible, ethically harvested gold and sustainable diamonds. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/IBfJzM84v2 — […]
One of the benefits of Sinn Fein’s electoral triumph is that the Irish public will soon see ideas beloved of the left for a generation put, at along last, into practice. For two decades now, for example, the Irish people have been told that if Sinn Fein was in Government, US troops would have to […]
In Ireland, the pundit class moves like a herd. Nobody wants to get too far away from the conventional wisdom, even when the conventional wisdom settles around a nonsense idea, as it is today. Fianna Fáil sources are now telling people that the party does not want to do business with Sinn Fein, and is […]
The RTE presenter couldn’t resist it, on Sunday afternoon. It might have been nearly six months after the incident, and it might have been in the shadow of several much bigger stories, but this was the opportunity she had been waiting for. “I hear you did well in the Oughterard boxes” was the opening line […]
This morning, many people in the political class are in shock. You could see it happening in real time yesterday, on the television, as Fine Gael politicians came on, one after another, to talk about how the party would now try to negotiate a new Government. It was as if the world was changing around […]
Leo Varadkar has suffered a humiliating defeat. That is being largely forgotten, this morning, with all the talk about the Sinn Fein surge. The Taoiseach was elected by Fine Gael because they believed him best placed to win a general election. He is young. He is based in Dublin. He is metropolitan, and liberal, and […]