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

Grealish keeps spinning the bottle

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 [...]

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 [...]

Niall O Brolchain took up some of the comments made in the Business Post attributed to Seamus Brennan on Sunday and called for a review of the whole Galway Races tent. Certainly it smacks of pretty uncomfortable symbolism but it would be an equally big win for the Green party if it got concessions on [...]

Fahy (FF) and Grealish (PD) elected.

2. Higgins            8,384
3. Fahey              7,234
4. McCormack      7,068
5. Grealish           7,065
6. Crowe              6,117
7. Ó Brolchain      4,332
Ó Brolchain eliminated - 10th Count is distribution of his votes

Eamon O’Cuiv Elected on first count current top 6
O’Cuiv (FF)
Fahey (FF)
Michael D (lab)
Grealish (PD)
P McCorrmick (FG)
Crowe (FF)
Mayo top 6
E Kenny (FG)
M Ring (FG)
Calleary (FF)
Mahoney (FG)
B Flynn (Ind)
J Carty (FF)
Dublin North Central
Richard Burton Elected on first count
Haughey will take seat 2.

Galway East 130 out of 149 boxes opened (87%)
1. Kitt 6780
2. Treacy 6503
3. Callanan 5504
4. Connaughton 5187
5. Burke [...]

Qu’est-ce que c’est? This picture of Michael D on a bus shelter in France went up on the Labour Flickr page a short while ago

Quel enthusiasm…
Update: Labour aren’t sure how it got there either.

Just heard that yesterday the Galway city manager said that they could not tank water to the people in Galway because they could not keep tabs on it . It would damage the local water businesses and people would sell it to other parts of the country. Piss off you twat. That was the kind [...]

In a move that has been building for weeks, Senator Margaret Cox has resigned from the Fianna Fail parliamentary party. [RTE].  She has not resigned from the party, yet, but the possibility of a run as an independent in Galway West remains open.  This follows her complaints last week about the Galway water crisis, but [...]

Galway West Fianna Fail TD and Minister of State Frank Fahey has launched a website allowing visitors to leave messages of support for the Galway Outer Bypass. However the site seems to have attracted more than a few detractors; comments so far include:
“This is another bad example of the ‘predict and provide’ approach to transport [...]

Another one slipping below today’s radar is the Radio na Gaeltachta Poll on Galway West. See below the fold for results and bottom of post for link to .xls of results.

Writing in the Irish Daily Mail today, Richard Waghorne quotes the judge who sentenced Galway County Councillor Michael “The Stroke” Fahy to prison for 12 months on fraud charges. “You have been declared a fraud”, the judge told the disgraced councillor.
Waghorne went on to make a far more important point:

From Fianna Fail Lough Corrib is under threat from dishwasher tablets Crowe  I know you are thinking of marauding Finish Tablets out to get Lough Corrib. With Fairy Tablets acting like sharks in the water. Thing is he does have a point

The Galway city-based councillor is spear heading a campaign to get phosphates removed from [...]