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

So Brian Cowen continues to slowly dismantle the Bertie Ahern machine (on which note, anyone see a Fianna Fail ‘Yes’ poster with Cowen’s face on it?). The announcement that the construction industry wont be dining in Ballybrit will be greeted with delight in the offices of the Green Party and Finian McGrath as a potential [...]

In a packed Dail chamber, Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach of Ireland after a vote to choose between him, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore. The vote was won by 88 to 76.
He was nominated by Bertie Ahern himself however it only became quite raucous as Mary Harney seconded Cowen’s nomination and defended the government’s record [...]

Its is all eyes on Cowen now as Bertie signals the end of his time at the top with today’s events in the Boyne Valley. Most interesting will be the signals sent to those who were thought to be his competitors in the leadership race - Michael Martin, Dermot Ahern and, to a lesser extent, [...]

One of Bertie Ahern’s home stretch events today was to launch the Dublin Airport Authority’s plan for Dublin Airport City.   Not to put too fine a point on it, this seems like one of the crazier proposals to have emerged over the last year, and symptomatic of much of what is wrong with governance and [...]

While the Indymedia commenters go on about the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition openly colluding with these US torturers and murderers, in their protest that involved putting Liam Mellows in a orange boiler suit, Niall O’Brolchain is in one of the pictures next to Michael D. What struck me about this is Labour are having problems [...]

There are two small but interesting pieces in the Irish Times today concerning Labour and the PDs. The PDs are meeting in Galway today in a meeting organised by Noel Grealish to discuss future direction. Though the meeting is due to be “councillor-driven” and Mary Harney won’t be present it is interesting and symptomatic of [...]

In a case that could prove very interesting, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy has had over £1.5 million worth of assets frozen and the Times Reports that there may well be £15 million worth of bills accruing. ‘Slab’ Murphy is a huge figure on the Republican landscape, described by Liam Clarke in the Times as “Chief of [...]

The report of the 2007 Consituency Commission is out, some would say a little bit too late but how and ever. Kerry is to remain split, with Kerry South a 3 seater while Kerry North joins to West Limerick in also remaining a 3 seater. Dublin Euro is a 3 seater, Dun Laoghaire is a [...]

Beverly is back in court today to finish up her proceedings with RTE. The court is due to strike out her proceedings with RTE following the repayment of the debts and costs. Speculation in the Sunday newspapers over her return to Fianna Fail even managed to suggest that she will be back in the party [...]

This post arose out of a discussion with Simon on Michael Taft’s C’mon Ye Know-Nothings, (18 September 2007). Fianna Fáil has produced an abundance of tax incentives to aid the construction industry. One of these schemes, the Rural Renewal Scheme 1999 (PDF FILE, 887KB), is set to run until 31 July 2008. According to the [...]

Indymedia is all alight with people cheering on the efforts of protesters who stormed the refinery (one commenter has likened it to 1916 which of course like this was a peaceful protest). With news that a person has be arrested for assaulting a Garda. I have talked in favour of the governments policy before thus [...]

It’s probably not on your regular websurfing list but the website of the Irish Stock Exchange has been very lively recently, as seemingly arcane company announcements can occasionally pertain to fallout from the US subprime mortgage crisis.  But sitting there today is Ryanair’s formal notification to the exchange that it is seeking an EGM, along [...]

A fairly comprehensive statement today from the up-to-now quiet Enda Kenny on SNN-LHR. Perhaps some of the time was spent reconciling the position that FG will now adopt with their non-opposition to the Aer Lingus privatization (although they had complaints at the time about how it was managed). A few interesting things in [...]

Here’s the text of the (hastily written?) press release from the Department of Transport following the Cabinet meeting on Shannon-Heathrow today.  The statement is mostly the familiar litany from the government and avoids the issue of the call for an Aer Lingus EGM or the purpose of the 25 percent shareholding.  But there might be [...]

Here’s an issue that has surfaced briefly at various times in the Shannon-Heathrow-Belfast dispute and has now been explicitly raised by IMPACT: is Belfast in Ireland?  We can probably all recall instances where one of the many usages for the two jurisdictions on the island has had a similar impact as fingernails being drawn across a [...]

Here’s an interesting profile from the Financial Times a few days ago of Padraig O’Ceidigh, now the chairman but at one time the hands-on businessman who developed Aer Arann out of its island service base into a decent sized regional point-to-point carrier.   It’s not clear whether this is the right model for Shannon, where long-haul [...]