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

So Bertie got money. Bertie gets paid more then the US president. Yet this is a guy that does not seem to be rolling in the money. He does not have a Haughey still mansion, he holidays in Kerry and his kids have more money then he probably has. And According to Sam Smyth. Those [...]

The time of the departure of Bertie Ahern has now been announced. What of his legacy, his place in Irish history? Here are some points that might be considered.

Reinstating the popular blog-roundup from the election for one night only to take a look at how today’s news was met in blog-land. Take a gander at Jazz Biscuit too in case I missed anything. Ciaran Cuffe and his Green Party have come in for immense amounts of stick since going into government (even today, [...]

; Interesting bit of news from the Guardian. Fianna Fáil sources told the Guardian his decision to quit was connected to the Irish referendum on the Lisbon EU treaty. Senior advisers had been worried that the poll would be turned by the opposition into a referendum on his leadership rather than the detail of the [...]

And now what are we we going to do? It was the net wat done it By the way that is an ugly ass interface in the new WordPress. Ugh.

The two areas of Irish life and politics, understood widely, that are likely to feel the fallout of Ahern’s announcement today are the Lisbon referendum – for a myriad of reasons, not least the implication an FF leadership race has for setting a date and the distraction from debate said provides – and the worsening [...]

*it wasn’t really. Nor the entire media for that matter. It has been de rigeur for defenders of an Taoiseach in recent times to present the media as the enemy here. If it were not for them this would not be an issue, Ahern and his Ministers would continue to govern in their efficient inimitable [...]

Forgot about this post until five minutes ago. Regular readers knew Ahern was standing down all the way back to St Patrick’s Day thanks to the psychic prowess of P O’Neill.

Who should replace Bertie? A quick survey to see where the lie of the land is; the question is ‘should’ not ‘will’, remember. Click Here to take survey

So Enda Kenny wants and election. He said whoever the new leader of Fianna Fáil is, he or she should seek a mandate from the people and let them decide what kind of government they want to lead them. Thing is you have to be careful what you wish for. With the country in the state it [...]

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Listening to Willie O’Dea on RTE seems that they are blaming the resignation on the fact that the Mahon Tribunal is distracting the government from operating successfully and thus for the benefit of the country he resigned. Interesting way of putting it playing the Martyr card. Certainly seems that this might not be over and [...]

The main points from Bertie Aherns speech delivered seconds ago outside government buildings. He will be stepping down on May 6th. (Forgive the jump from 1st to 3rd person and back, it was typed on the go).

So he was for turning after all. I didn’t take long for Ahern to turn ‘I will not be making a statement’ into ‘I will in fact, ah, be making a statement’. The Indo reports this morning that he will make use of Dail time on Wednesday to make a speech which will attempt to [...]

Noel Ahern doesn’t give much weight to John Gormley‘s worries aired yesterday and captured here by Green Ink. He reckons that Gormley was only following Harney and anyway he is Minister with responsibility for tribunals so should be keeping counsel. Well it is only “small money” we are talking about here so perhaps the partners [...]

Irish Election: The dog barks? Greens join calls for Ahern statement