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

Big things are happening in a big week for Irish and European politics and, let’s be honest, most of us don’t really understand what’s happening, or why. The budget to be unveiled today and tomorrow will need to cut spending and increase taxes because of the banks, or something. The European summit being held on Friday will save [...]

With Sean Gallagher now taken out of his Presidential hopes, convicted fuel-smuggler and Gallagher-accuser Hugh Morgan has changed his story for a second time. He now says the invite to the FF fundraising event may not have been issued by Gallagher at all, but by former FF TD for Louth Seamus Kirk. Kirk himself says [...]

The Evening Herald has claimed that SF Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the murder of two policemen gunned down in an IRA ambush in Derry: SINN Fein Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the brutal murder of two policemen, the Herald can reveal. Sergeant Peter Gilgunn (26) and [...]

This year’s election campaign is less than a week old and already has jumped from the sublime to the ridiculous. Last night’s Nine News, case in point.

From the start, there have been questions about the government’s number10.gov.uk style website,  merrionstreet.ie.   Despite the presence of special advisers, media affairs units, and handlers in government offices, there’s supposed to be a clear line between political boosterism and the provision of taxpayer-financed official information.  Yet within an hour of the Taoiseach’s unscheduled Thursday statement [...]

Another day, another confidence motion. Well it may have been if #fgheave was not going on in the background. If you care to watch the main speeches you can watch Enda Kenny here (with James Reilly his new best friend/wannabe deputy leader sitting beside him) , Brian Cowen and him saying sorry for the government’s [...]

For anyone who missed it today, Newstalk ran a message to the nation at various points during their programming today. The station is part of communicorp. Owned by Denis O Brien. Tax Exile. We spend €56bn and have revenues of €34bn. Scarcely has any politician in the history of our State faced such difficulties as [...]

You’d swear Lisbon wasn’t on the cards. It’s not in the papers. I read Saturday’s Irish Times, it has one Lisbon article on page 8. Today’s Sunday Business Post has nothing. Looking at their website, The Sunday Times has a piece about the spending involved from private groups – not the politics though. The Tribune [...]

What’s Colm McCarthy up to? Trying to rehabilitate the Oireachtas? Make us believe that our political class have something relevant to contribute? Mc Carthy is right: there should be an investigation into how our banks got into the pickle they’re in. He’s also right that there needs to be a much greater public understanding of [...]

So, ‘turns out that Denis O’Brien has done interviews with all the Sunday broadsheets, The Sunday Times was just the first to update its website, hence was the centre of all the talk online, including my earlier post. Yes, the O’Brien spin cycle has gone into overdrive. Apart from the (Murdoch-owned) Sunday Times’ interview mentioned [...]

Michael Lowry released the statement below in the last hour, he’s airing some grievences about how he feels the Moriarty Tribunal is operating. Nobody seems to have done anything with it yet – maybe for reasons I am not aware of – the statement itself is fairly defensive.

Interesting report in this morning’s Irish Independent from Fionnan Sheehan, Senan Moloney and Conor Kane on the on-going will-they won’t-they in Fine Gael regarding coalition with Sinn Féin. The Indo’s team point out that Kenny did not rule out a coalition with any party when speaking to TG4 at the FG Ard Fheis earlier this [...]

Eddie Hobbs, Darina Allen, Duncan Stewart and Sean ‘dublin bay’ Loftus greeted me on page 5 of my Irish Times today – a full page spread bought by the Green Party to encourage people to vote green. Will those ringing endorsements be enough to get them over the line on election day? Eddie Hobbs might [...]

If there is one thing you should do today it’s buy The Irish Examiner. Go, g’wan, buy it. Even if you’re not from Cork. Even if you’re not from Munster. Feck it, go and buy it if you’ve never bought a paper or watched the news before. Please, for the good of the country, buy [...]

According to Ray D’Arcy on Today FM, whose researcher had been in touch with the artist of the paintings at the centre of #picturegate, the Gardai were in to the offices yesterday looking for email communications between the team and the artist. According to D’Arcy the team were told by gardai who showed up that [...]

Since they cannot get a hold of the artist – and the relevant authorities are trying – the government returned to the scene of the crime to get an apology for Brian Cowen and the office of the Taoiseach. RTE took down their report from last night’s Nine O Clock news of Cowen’s nude art [...]