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

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 [...]

Recent months have seen the issue of prostitution come to prominence as the Presidential election approaches. A disturbing parallel with the Lisbon debate is evident in the near unanimity of the political and intellectual ‘Establishment’ for a blind support of traditional policy approaches. How can someone simultaneously claims the mantle of liberalism while also attempting [...]

RTE headline: Gardaí vote to take industrial action. Which sounds ominous. Except that when you read on, (1) only half of the eligible pool botherered to vote at all, (2) of those who did, the majority voted for work-to-rule type measures, and (3), “the [Garda Representative] Association will decide at its annual conference in April [...]

What exactly are the Government expecting in their Department of Justice budgeting:

A spokesman for the Garda Representative Association speaking 0n Newstalk’s Lunchtime with Eamon Keane today said young gardai would be more  susceptible to bribery if they were paid less. Newstalk don’t podcast their shows so I can’t quote the GRA man directly, his basic argument was “cutting the pay of young guards would make bribes [...]

President McAleese has signed the Criminal Justice Bill and Defamation Bill into law. Last night the Council of State discussed the bills in what many interpreted to be a symbolic, or tokenistic, meeting. This morning they were signed into law. Step in which direction? I know one or two regular participants on this website thought [...]

Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence this morning had a superb roundup of the Ryan commission report and the fallout from it, with a comprehensive panel discussion (segment begins 33 minutes in).  The panel discussion made news with an apparent nod from the hierarchy that the 2002 indemnity deal will have to be reopened.  A nod that [...]

The trial in Cork of Ted Cunningham, accused of laundering proceeds from the Northern Bank raid, heard detailed and sometimes bizarre testimony from the prosecution today — much of it drawn from transcripts of Garda interviews.  The most interesting twist is the return of the name of Phil Flynn, onetime chairman of Bank of Scotland’s [...]

In a carefully calculated Friday afternoon news dump which will be lost in all the financial excitement, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has added at least 6 months to his earlier timetable for a Victims’ Rights Bill.  This is a sequel to his killing of Alan Shatter‘s private member’s bill on the same subject back [...]

Fine Gael are criticising Brian Lenihan for a bit of news dumping today. The annual report of the Morris Tribunal into Garda misconduct in Donegal was released today amidst all the furore surrounding the ascension of Brian Cowen to the post of Taoiseach and perhaps Lenihan’s own promotion to Tanaiste. They have a point, this [...]

Well it didn’t take long for Leo Varadkar to join the queue for the ‘Will FG just stop’ treatise that Simon has started. Having watched Dr. Varadkar from afar during some of his student days I’m not surprised. I’m only waiting for Lucinda Creighton to call for women to be charged for post abortion counselling [...]

When asked about stopping crime Fine Gael seem to be one of the main advocates of harsher measures. They want to be the ones tough on crime and the stunt and lets be honest it was a stunt of putting the Army on the street is the ace in tough crime measures. People imagine that [...]

Fine Gael’s Charlie Flanagan raised the idea of using the Army to fight gangland crime. This is a bit loopy. Many countries have higher crime rates indeed most have higher rates and do not resort to putting the Army on the streets. Let alone the whole argument that this is not what they army is [...]

Drug allegations raised in the Dáil Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney asked Bertie Ahern if he was aware that a journalist had claimed an unnamed Minister had admitted taking drugs on a regular basis.Mr Coveney asked if the Taoiseach was planning to call in his Ministers to ask them if the claim was true.He read [...]

When I saw this headline (Sinn Féin condemn shooting of Garda) in the Party news section of this site. I thought to myself. Oh my god could this be true could this finally be Sinn Fein standing up like any party would and condemning the murder of Gerry McCabe. Alas no. Sinn Féin Group Leader [...]