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

The people of the country have spoken, for good or ill. That must be respected.
Accordingly, I do not want to see another referendum - the outcome of this one must be heeded. The people are sovereign. The Constitution, deeply flawed as it is, governs this country over anything else; it is the source of power [...]

The time of the departure of Bertie Ahern has now been announced. What of his legacy, his place in Irish history? Here are some points that might be considered.

Bertiegate has been gone over again and again, particularly since Bertie Ahern has come before the Tribunal in recent weeks, so I’ll keep this brief.
I expect Bertie Ahern, a member of the Cabinet in 1994 and as the head Government that represents Ireland to the world, to remember every single detail of every single punt [...]

UPDATE: The following letter was printed in the July 28th edition of The Irish Times denying links with Justin Barrett, and also denying - to the “almost certain knowledge” - his presence at the election centre count. Senator Mullen also denied the same on Newstalk 106 this morning. This to be welcomed. The original [...]

Below are some questions which should be considered before you vote tomorrow.
Each person who reads this should give themselves an honest answer to these questions. I imagine that supporters of the FF/PD administration will not like to read this post, but perhaps they should ask themselves these questions as well.

This is old news now of course, but in the interests of picking up where I left off, I feel I should comment on the PDs in relation to Bertiegate.
Michael McDowell really did reveal his true colours in the end. After threatening to pull out of the Government in 2006, he criticised the Taoiseach Bertie [...]

Why did Mary Harney resign as leader of the Progressive Democrats a couple of weeks ago, after fighting over the job just a couple of months earlier? I can’t help but wonder that perhaps she knew something bad about Ahern was in the offing, and one of the reasons that she chose not to continue [...]

Bertie Ahern has now admitted to receiving “gifts” of €50,000 in the early 1990s. It remains now to be seen if the group of people named by Ahern and described by him as his personal friends, benefitted in any way as a result of giving Ahern money. What we do know is that Ahern did [...]

In a surprise announcement today, Mary Harney announced her decision to quit as leader of the Progressive Democrats.
Obviously, it is early days in terms of knowing who the new leader and Tánaiste will be, but the only real candidates would seem to be Michael McDowell and Liz O’Donnell.

As Fianna Fáil tries to head Sinn Féin and their nationalist rhetoric off at the pass before the next General Election in the hope of retaining some votes, it’s almost impossible to avoid hearing and seeing the Government trying to stir up the electorate in order to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter [...]

There really is something deeply disturbing in hearing reports that aircraft used in the practice of ‘extraordinary rendition’ have probably used Irish airports at some point during a ‘rendition’.
The Government’s indifference to recent reports about the possible transport of prisoners through Shannon leaves Ireland exposed to the possibility of breaching international law. Ireland is a [...]

The Irish Times reported yesterday on a day in the life of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who seems to have spent a large portion of that day at opening ceremonies. While the article provides details of his schedule, here’s a quick breakdown.
At 1pm, Ahern officially opens a hardware store in Dublin 11. Subsequently he proceeded to [...]

This weekend will see Sinn Féin gather in the RDS for their árd-fheis. Sinn Féin have come a long way in the past 20 years or so. In 1986, they were just the small political wing of an organisation that some would have said was fighting for freedom, and others would have said was a [...]