Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!
Almost upon us, Ladies and Gentlemen, 55hrs and counting. Arse End has a great aul piece on the political scrapping so far, and delights us with a few choice scraps of her own, including a fantasy one between Twenty Major and Damien Mulley.
Training for a scrap, of [...]

Eric Byrne steals the limelight again as far as political blogging goes. This time he’s updated on youtube as well. The Labour party could learn from Eric alright - it still refuses to allow comments on its official blog.
Meanwhile, on the rest of the web, Enda’s failure to bitchslap Miriam O’Callaghan while taking Bertie roughly [...]

My weblife roundup is dominated - nay, subsumed - by the weird and wonderful life of Jim Tallon.
Jim is standing in Wicklow, and here’s his party political broadcast.
View This Video on You Tube

Michael Reade of LMFM has a cracking new service whereby candidates from Louth, Meath East and Meath West who enter into debate each morning on LMFM’s Loose Talk programme can be heard online at Michael’s homepage www.loosetalkmichael.com.

Ok. Following on from Damien Mulley’s post about the Greens. Here’s Peader O’Donnell from the PDs.
All I say is, the hills have eyes, man, the hills have eyes.

Ok. Let’s try to make sense of all of this.
First of all, the tribunal has been unsuccessful in its attempts to discover details of Bertie Ahern’s separation agreement. The Taoiseach has not disclosed this information, despite his very public statements that he has revealed everything.
Another problem is that the Taoiseach has cited the financial settlement [...]

Twenty four hours is indeed a long time.
Last night, the imminent demise of the Fianna Fáil / PD coalition was assumed by many a blogger, including myself. alas, the PDs have decided to struggle on in government, according to Michael McDowell, in order to “look after the health service.”
so, what’s the reaction today?

The issues which arose last Autumn and which have re-emerged now and the disparities in the accounts given then and now are primarily matters for the Taoiseach and his party to resolve.
It is for them to address this issues. And it is for us in the Progressive Democrats to insist that they do.”

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.
Would that you were cold or hot!
So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew you out of my mouth.“
(Revelations, 3:15-16)
In Dante’s Inferno, at the threshold of Hell, lie abandoned the apathetic:- “That craven crew / Of angels who elected neither rebellion / [...]

I set out tonight to focus in on blogs from left-wing candiates, but first a quick mention of
Thomas Byrne, FF candidate for Meath East, who got into a bit of a tizz with Mary Hanafin over the issue of education and autism. His comments were reported in the Drogheda Indo, while Thomas gets to grips [...]

On Tuesday I wrote about Bertie’s claim that part of the money he received in 1994 was used to settle a stamp duty bill. Well below the fold you can see a photo I found of Bertie in 1994 which shows just what he was reading around that time.

I happened to be walking by Bertie’s constituency office in Drumcondra this morning, when I came across a protest by the parents and teachers of Gaelscoil Cholmcille. I asked them what it was about, and this is what they told me - below the fold.

According to the Irish Times today, Bertie claims that he spent £50,000 sterling on refurbishments, £30,000 sterling of which was the cash that Celia Larkin brought back from England - minus of course stamp duty.
But stamp duty only applies when there is a house purchase. Bertie didn’t buy the house, so he would not have [...]

Bertie’s election call is somewhat bizzare, to say the least. Were it called last Sunday, the Mahon tribunal would have been suspended.
This is not the first time Bertie has lost his nerve - remember his party address? Reminds me that Bertie might not be the political genius that he believes himself to be.
More [...]

John Dwyer, the Sinn Féin candidate for Wexford, has an interesting election poster.
At the moment only Fine Gael and the PDs have put billboards up in the town, and both are calling for your no.1, reminding us how great they are as people and as public representatives. The Fine Gaelers all wear suits, while [...]

It must be a bitch to date Fine Gael.
I mean, one day she’s promising to get all down and dirty, the next she’s in the church saying rosaries for our souls. All hard-on and no pay-off. It’s enough to make any sane man despair.
The allegations in the Sunday independent regarding Bertie Ahern – allegations [...]