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

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 [...]

Source sugests the Limerick East count to break as follows: From this count Power and Noonan to be elected on +100 and +400 respectively, not enough to get anyone elected so Trish Forde Brennan to go too. From that Jan O Sullivan to get elected (60% of transfers) Noreen Ryan eliminated and thanks to geography [...]

If he didn’t point that gun and get everywhere in the papers and media, would he have gotten so many votes? It’s all about identifying with the locals, right? Not at all related. O’Dea elected with almost 11,000 surplus.

no idea, insight welcome. 19,000+ votes on a first round. Amazing.

The scandal from Limerick East is that Kieran O’Donnell is looking strong to take O’Malley’s seat and even potentially pip Peter Power for the fourth (2 boxes missing or lost from the tally). Limerick West is looking set for a repeat performance with both Dan Neville and Michael Finucane only 350 votes apart after the [...]

Reports reach us this evening that activists canvassing in Limerick’s north side of the city had to withdraw from the Moyross estate after a group of youths hurled verbal abuse at them. The activists were travelling in a car which was fitted with a loud-hailer.

Sinn Féin’s Maurice Quinlivan is hoping his floating poster can attract some floating voters.

I mentioned this in the comments on the Day 12 Roundup, but the Irish Examiner covers it in more detail A CONTROVERSIAL solicitor yesterday sparked a security alert when he tried to brandish a plastic toy sword at the Taoiseach. The incident happened during a shopping centre walkabout in Limerick. Armed gardaí minders moved in [...]

But Willie didn’t really know what it was he was signing. Willie O’Dea thought he was putting his signiture to a leaflet for Niall Collins when he signed the dotted line. In reality, he was signing a letter urging former former constituents to give their Number One vote to Niall Collins. 1,300 copies of the [...]

Election candidates are going overkill on the election posters before the election has even been called. Picture : Limerickblogger.org Lashing up the election posters could prove to be a costly mistake for politicians in Limerick, given that it is a week before the traditional Bonfire night on April 30th.

When things like this happen, isn’t it fortunate that Noreen Ryan left other people’s names off of her posters. With thanks to Dan for spotting it.

Election candidate Noreen Ryan is threatening to sue any member of her party who removes her posters because they do not meet guidlines set down by party headquarters. Election posters for Fianna Fail candidates are required to have the names of party running mates however Cllr Ryan’s posters do not carry the names of either [...]

It seems the election posters are going up before the election has been called, contrary to anti-litter legislation. Photos can be found here.

Unanswered because it seems no one in the Dead Tree Press is asking them. I was drawn a fortnight ago to the Minister of Defence Willie O’Dea’s entry in the register of Oireachtas members interest. The minister as many people will know has a weekly column in the Sunday Independent. Now, politicians writing the occasional [...]

Nursing union, The Irish Nurses Organisation, is threatening to target incumbent politicians in the upcoming election, by voting against them in up to 18 key constituencies, one of which is Limerick East. At present, the junior minister for Health, Tim O’Malley (PD) and Deputy Peter Power (Fianna Fail) look to be the ones with most [...]