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

Just what I caught off RTE radio.  Open to correction.
Cork North West
32% Fine Gael
56% Fianna Fail
5% Labour
4% Green
Cork South West
Dennis o Donavan 18%Jim O’keeffe 29%
SF 6%
O’Sullivan FF 24%
PJ Sheehan 5%

Cork NC in the mysay box Listen here Allen and Kelleher (<25%) are out in front with Gerrry Kelly and Kathleen lynch on 11%
Donegal North East tallies, McLoughlin (SF - 31%) Keaveney (FF) 30% McHugh 20% (a good result from boxes outside his area) Blaney (FF) 6% McDaid (FF) 2.9%
Geography doing its bit. McHugh most [...]

World by Storm awaits tomorrow’s flurry, to pass the time thought, the mysay widget is getting a bit of a test out. One of the early insights comes from Knott who is in Cork East. He was asked to take part in the Exit Poll for RTE, have a listen to what he thought of
a) [...]

Fine Gael’s outgoing TD for Cork South Central and standing MEP for Ireland South spoke to us while wrapping up his day of canvassing in Douglas, Cork.

I am lost for words. That is all
Full story

[originally posted to Comin's 'N Goin's]
Cork South West is the heartland of Fine Gael and has always one of the most predictable constituencies in the country.

At the least it seems Sinn Fein are hoping to pick up 6 additional seats in this election. Mary Lou McDonald reckons they can pick up seats in Donegal (not sure if one or both), Sligo-North Leitrim, Cork North Central, Waterford and Wexford. She also suggests seats in Dublin (well she would) though not specifying [...]

Tom Raftery of Pod Leader fame has been commissioned to interview Minister of State Batt O’Keefe for a series of podcasts in the run up to the General Election.  Questions are invited here. Is this a first in terms of commissioning podcast interviews of politicians?

Great stuff, another local poll. Cork North Central is under the microscope for the Echo. It is a four-seater this year (down from five). Was a 3-1-1 but one incumbent FF is retiring so the incumbency is 2-1-1 for the four seater. The poll predicts that Fianna Fail are likely to have a pretty major [...]

View This Video on You Tube Morgan Stack is the guy running on the 9/11 was a government conspiracy ticket in Kerry North and Cork South Central. Strange video, in some respects apart from the subject but also the credits at the start of the video. The video is quiet well shot (. And clearly [...]

Missed this earlier this morning, it appears senior handlers in Fianna Fail are worried about a possible split in the party in West Cork. The NEC have finalised the Fianna Fail candidates to go forward in Cork South West however they decided a convention was surplus to requirements.

From Fianna Fail
On the same day that a survey showed Irish people are the EU’s top binge drinkers, Tesco is running a buy-12-cans get-12-cans-free promotion in the national media for St Patrick’s weekend, according to Fianna Fáil Dáil candidate Cllr Michael McGrath.The supermarket’s promotion of a culture of excess on the same day that [...]

I understand the reason why the governments decision to remove funding from Cork Airport is a bad idea. How we need viable airports to help decentralise the state from the already overcrowded Dublin Airport. I get and support all that. It is just this that gets me. Fine Gael released a statement on [...]

OK – time to nail my colours to the mast. There are many politicians I dislike, but there are few for whom I hold little or no respect. Of those few, bottom of the pile has to be Micheál “The Chicken” Martin.
For me, he epitomises all that is wrong with Irish politics, particularly the stereotypical [...]

Starting on RTE 1 now (10:20). Updates following.
Its over now, watch it when it goes live here.
Health:

Interesting response to Caoimhghin O Caolain on health. Two out of fifty in the audience would like to see SF in government but in a head to head on health with Mary Harney the majority of the group were [...]

Amidst the plethora of “2006-in-review” articles populating today’s papers, there is one very interesting piece in the Tribune. The way our electoral system works makes polls slightly unhelpful—ignoring particularity within constituencies and also the nature of transfers—but the Tribune have taken a look across the most contested constituencies to attempt to predict the likely election [...]