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

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 [...]

After drifting a little bit the SNN-LHR controversy and the related issue of the Aer Lingus strike are heating up again this evening.   The latest non-Bertie non-Dempsey spokesperson for the government is Mary Hanafin — perhaps she was the only one around given the Leaving Cert results.  And the employee trust has spoken up.  This [...]

A dog that hadn’t barked up to now — Aer Lingus staff — is barking. Tonight brings news of a 48 hour strike by pilots next week, not in protest against the Shannon withdrawal per se, but the fact that new Belfast base is hiring pilots outside the collective bargaining contract. This arises from the [...]

An absolutely atrocious job by the RTE Radio News at One today. Dermot Ahern, in the course of an interview about Irish prisoners overseas, was asked (at about the 3:30 mark in his interview) about the Shannon-Heathrow route removal. In his response he (1) referred to the Irish Aid decentralisation to Shannon as [...]

As predicted a couple of days ago, the first significant government statement on the Shannon-Heathrow controversy is a classic of distractions and selective or irrelevant claims. A debunking of the Department of Transport’s response which accompanied Noel “Father Ted” Dempsey’s statement below.

Moving the Heathrow slots from Shannon (a 4 hour drive from Dublin and airport of choice for those in Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, much of Connacht and the North West) to Belfast (now a two hour leisurely drive from Dublin Airport thanks to the M1 looks like it has had its first victim.
The Dromoland Castle development [...]

A day after Michael O’Leary’s letter to the government proposing a joint call for Aer Lingus to retain its Heathrow service from Shannon, Michael Noonan TD puts pen to paper to write an actual letter to Willie Walsh, British Airways chief executive, to ask him to consider a Shannon-Heathrow service. Does this move the [...]

What does a company do when a majority of its ownership wants to pursue a particular policy? This is the issue that Aer Lingus in theory faces with 50.3 percent of its ownership claiming that the Shannon-Heathrow route should be maintained. Thus the hot potato that Michael O’Leary has tossed towards the government.

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 [...]

Sinn Fein are one of the most anti-EU parties in Irish Politics summed up pretty much by their numerous releases along the lines of Sinn Féin wants a Europe of equals not a federal superstate. But in the Irish context they had the Eire Nua document of a while back which with the rise of [...]

The overturning of the Monaghan Development plan by John Gormley has gotten increasingly tetchy as first Sinn Fein press released (three times in one day) to air their displeasure at the “anti-democratic” nature of Gormley’s decision to overturn the plan. The decision taken by Gormley lacked a mandate since his party only received 3% of [...]

Just before the election Anthony Sheridan sent a letter of compliant to Donegal County Council about posters Pat “the Cope” Gallagher had erected posters which allegedly broke litter regulations. He has been for a while trying to get answers.
This is the reply he got.

Things have gone a bit quiet here at IE in the last few days, which could be despite or because of the fact that political life has reverted to form so quickly.  Nonetheless, it’s been a strange week for the Government even set against the apparently high standards of tolerance shown by the electorate, so [...]

Flynn: ‘I never believed I did anything wrong’
Insight into the people of Mayo’s strange dependence on the Flynn can be found in the following film.

In news that removes one minor headache for the Government, Beverly Flynn (artist’s rendition) announced in Castlebar last night that she has settled her debts to RTE arising from her libel action against them. RTE won’t comment, presumably because the matter has not yet been finalised by a court. But having rejected an earlier offer [...]