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

Diarmaid Ferriter’s 10 part series on De Valera for RTE radio 1 concluded yesterday. It was very interesting and well worth a listen on the still-available podcasts. Of course the series is linked to his re-revisionist book about Dev which itself was the source of a pseudo-controversy regarding its distribution to schools. [...]

Video from yesterday’s Save Our Slots Rally
I am unable to embed them here, but they can be found at the below link
Link.
Update Simon. Video added below

I believe one motion on Shannon has been defeated by 1 vote. 68 to 67.  Watch or listen live.

Green Ink

Ongoing attempts to quantify the damage done by the Aer Lingus pullout suggest that 10,000 jobs may be at risk. Its primarily an issue of infrastructure and access to the region, which has become heavily populated with FDI and multinational companies thanks to Shannon Development. Fianna Fail is doing the usual trick of providing its [...]

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 [...]

Pat Breen elected

Clare tally - missing 1700 votes. See full details.

Clare tallies with Ennis boxes still to open
james breen 6.87, pat breen 12.37, carey 8%, b daly 11%, dooley 22%, fitz 1.6%, kileen 12.2%, Quinn 6%, Mulcahy 8.8
 

This is a story that we have not mentioned on this site for some reason. That of Clare TD Tony Kileen asking for early release for a convicted murderer. He claims that is was from his constituency office and he never saw it or had anything to do with it. This after he also [...]

There’s been an interesting trend in the recent TG4 polls conducted by TNS/MRBI compared to national figures being delivered by RedC and TNS/MRBI in the Sunday Business Post and The Irish Times respectively. Added to this can be the reporting in The Kerryman of two polls seen there.
There appears to be an increasing trend [...]

Giving in to terrorism seems to be the mantra down in Green Central:
Deputy Gormley said, “Security experts agree that this latest terror threat is ominous and should be taken very seriously. Stepping up security to the required level could prove to be extremely expensive and, as we know from the London bombings, does not always [...]

Síle de Valera has confirmed what she first said last February, that she will step down as junior minister for education in December. Thus Bertie’s clumsy attempt to ease her out sooner eventually bears fruit, though perhaps not soon enough to give someone else a shot at a higher constituency profile with the job. [...]

There has been a lukewarm reaction to the announcement of today’s visit by An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern visit to the region.
The Taoiseach, who has gotten himself caught up in several “scandals”, will have fifteen engagements in both the Limerick and Clare region.

In an exclusive for The Clare Champion, Mairtin MacCormaic reveals that a private poll taken by Fianna Fáil shows that they could lose a seat in Clare in the next election. According to MacCormaic, the results of the poll were so devastating that the party has not shown them to party members and indeed has [...]

RTE are reporting that a prisoner was seen being brought through Shannon. It seems the prisoner was a US Marine for minor offensives. However the Irish Government was not informed of this as they are supposed to be. The American ambassador has apologised for this but the cabinet has expressed “gravest concern.” In a statement [...]