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

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 [...]

Do you fancy running for Libertas? That is a question they asked subscribers to their email list (subbed for research purposes) today. They are taking nominations from the floor to run against the Brussles political elite….wonder if we could have an x-factor selection convention for Eurosceptic candidates.
Maybe Simon Cowell wants some of that action….
Edit: Can [...]

The German ambassador’s reply to inquiries as to his comments at an event in Tralee on Tuesday. The ambassador was there because of new cultural linkups between Tralee and Frankfurt, his reported comments were incendiary locally – consdiering the high number of ‘no’ voters at the last Lisbon campaign and the re-election of Martin Ferris [...]

At the time of the first Lisbon referendum, Declan Ganley marched out on front of the cameras with three tickets for the leaders of the pro-Lisbon parties. We were, Ganley told us, to send these politicians back to Brussels to renegotiate the treaty. Many journalists mistook Ganley’s pro-social behaviour for a political stunt. After all, cheap stunts are to politicians what concrete blocks are to builders, but these commentators failed to remember that Ganley is not a politician.

The office of Czech President Vaclav Klaus has published the transcript of what apparently was a blazing row that erupted in a meeting between him and MEPs Daniel Cohn-Bendit (the ‘68 veteran) and Fianna Fail MEP Brian Crowley.  Elements of the row are reported on in the Irish Times today but Klaus has since decided [...]

Enda Kenny and David Cameron met for just under an hour yesterday.  It’s an interesting pairing (photo).  As Enda told the Irish Times, they have the common predicament of being in opposition against a long-standing incumbent party.  The actual common policy areas are tricky.  As Guido Fawkes has emphasized, the un-Labour approach to coping with [...]

Brian Cowen is talking to the EU Legal Service about drafting opt-outs and protocols to make the Lisbon Treaty “palatable to the Irish public” according to Jamie Smyth and others this morning.
Cowen, who said the France, which is the current president of the EU, had also asked the Council of Ministers’ legal services “to see [...]

It has been called “unhelpful” and “unwise” however I am not sure what the reasoning for that is. Dick Roche suggested that we may well have a second referendum on Lisbon as a means to keep us at the heart of Europe.
A SECOND referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would “ultimately” be required and ratifying key [...]

Today’s Humbert Summer schools has the opposition berating Cowen and attempting to frame the narrative for the upcoming election run-in. In her speech (wonderfully titled Brian Cowen and the Riddle of Cleopatra’s Nose)
Then, Brian Cowen enjoyed huge public and media approval and was received in his home county as a conquering hero. That has all [...]

Stephen Collins writes for the Irish Times so you would expect some sort of intelligent thinking. I mean it is his job after all. He is not a Kevin Myres columnist who is there to provoke, he does not need to be deeply incisive it is about filling the letters page. Stephen Collins is there [...]

Even before the Irish people’s democratic decision to reject the fatally-flawed Lisbon Treaty, (which would have deepened the democratic-deficit in Europe still further), the source of Libertas funding was a bane of “yes” campaigners. To the elite, the possibility of the ‘mainstream’ parties being so decisively outspent by this upstart pro-business [...]

Not sure if it was the Veni Vedi Vici, as it was in the UK when Nicolas and Carla wowed and charmed all around them. Yet he came and he did no more damage. Indeed his press conference was typical Sarkozy fare, combative, unflinching with its own gallic twist – ‘if I come it is [...]

I got this email from Georg Pichler of rigardi.org and I thought I would pass it on.
As you might have heard the governmenting parties, Social Democrats (SPOE) and Conservatives (OEVP) have decided to end their coalition. After 1 1/2 years of constant quarrel and hardly any progress, the Social Democrats have decided to switch their [...]

[Edit: To say hello and welcome stumblers. Take a look around and tell us what you think.]
The prevailing mantra of Irish and European politicians, still reeling at the Lisbon ‘No’ vote in Ireland, is that we as a small nation cannot hold up the EU. Apparently, if 26 nations have said ‘Yes’ the breaks should [...]

Ireland has long been one of the most pro-EU countries in the EU but this will change. It is not the Lisbon Treaty that will cause this to change it is the rest of the EU will cause this to change. A second treaty on Lisbon could have passed. With a massive information campaign and [...]

I posted after Friday’s results were finalised that Enda Kenny could well find himself in the most precarious position of the three major party leaders. Kenny has increasingly bolshie elements within the party, a few more years in opposition and the pressure of maintaining progress next year to deal with and no foreign negotiations to [...]