Thank God it’s Thursday
Having written a piece in Tuesday’s paper that the cabinet “reshuffle” would not take place that day and probably not the next, I feel a certain sense of relief at being proved right. Thank God it’s Thursday! (more…)
Politics »
-
-
Titanics, Deckchairs and Zhou en-Lai
Another cliché of current political discourse (see also previous post) is that a cabinet reshuffle is like moving the deckchairs on the Titanic. I don’t believe I have used it myself but plead guilty that I was in the presence of people who did, and failed to protest. (more…)
-
Willie’s ouster: Was it a twick or Tweet?
There will be a lot of commentary about how Dan Boyle’s two blogs on his Twitter site on Wednesday night did for Willie O’Dea. Though new media enthusiasts will always point trimphantly to how some miracle was achieved Facebook or Twitter or whatever, all it is is a pretty basic form of communication, with its own benefits but also with its own limits.
-
The Gogarty EFF-ect.
It’s not pretty. The venom in which he uses it is disturbing. He hurled the expletives at Emmet Stagg.
-
Forty Shades of Green Sing Off Same Hymn-Sheet
The Green vote was something of a triumph for the party leadership. Whatever their critics think of them, you can’t quarrel with a tally of 84% for the revised Programme for Government and a 68% rejection of the anti-Nama motion.
Hmm, wish I could get that vote in Dublin South-East (Photograph by Brenda Fitzsimons)
-
A Last Word on Lisbon
There was a stark contrast between Dublin Castle last Saturday and the same place in June 2008, when the No side won the first Lisbon referendum. This time the place was like a morgue. Last time, photographers literally almost came to blows trying to take pictures of Gerry Adams and his colleagues in Sinn Féin.
Give us an aul’ smile, Brian (Photo by Alan Betson)
-
When Push Comes to Shove
The conventional wisdom now is that the Lisbon Treaty will pass by a respectable margin. The opening of the Nama debate in the Dáil seems to have calmed nerves. Suspense is not good for politics and the fact that we now know the extent of the “haircut” on the loans and the level of long-term economic value has stabilised the situation.
Hope for Cowen after all? (Photo: Brenda Fitzsimons)
-
Good Ship Nama Sails Close to the Rocks
On the face of it, the Government would appear to be in considerable difficulty after last weekend’s Green party deliberations on the National Asset Management Agency. But although the voting figures in the “Preferendum” (see below) are very negative, some Green sources keep insisting things aren’t as bad as they look.
What in the Nama Gawd are we gonna do now? (Photograph by James Flynn/APX)
-
Stark Honesty (for once) in Leinster House
Maybe it’s the Dog Days of August but there is an air of considerable fatalism in Leinster House these days. Talking to seasoned politicians this week, two strong messages came forward, both of them surprising to a greater or lesser extent.
Gloom and doom at Leinster House (Photograph by Alan Betson)
-
Thirty Years Waiting for Seanad Reform
It’s hard to believe that 30 years have elapsed since the people decided by referendum to extend the Seanad election franchise beyond Trinity and the National University of Ireland, to include graduates of other institutions of higher education.
‘Non-TCD and non-NUI graduates need not apply for a vote’ (Photograph of Seanad chamber by Alan Betson) (more…)
Search Politics
ADVERTISEMENT
