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

The world is falling in.

Voters are not ignorant, according to Bryan Caplan, they are irrational. Caplan is the author of the provocative “The Myth of the Rational Voter”, a book in which he lays a large part of the blame for poor political outcomes on the shoulders of voters. The voter messes things up because he or she makes [...]

Twelve year old Rebecca has a hole in her heart. It is a congenital defect and it may cause her problems in the future. But it is not by a long way her biggest challenge in life. Rebecca’s parents are both heroine addicts and they have abandoned her to her granny who is now in [...]

The Taoiseach formerly known as Bertie wants a title. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions. Here are mine:

Iar infection

Iar wig

Iar relevent

Iar ittant

Iar-ksome

Iar of the sow (that you can’t make a silk purse from)

Wasn’t it funny when people pointed out that, in wanting to be referred to as Iar Taoiseach, he’d forgotten the aspiration!

As if we didn’t need another reason to vote No to the Lisbon Treaty, along comes news that a bunch of Commission nitwits in Brussels have written a secret report (ooooh) proving beyond all doubt that we Irish are being brainwashed into becoming Euro-sceptics by an increasingly independent and, therefore obviously, tabloid media. Details of [...]

Yesterday I went to the welfare office. There remains a tinge of stigma on anything to do with welfare. I will admit that I’m not immune from it. As I made my way to the ‘dole’ office, something gnawed at my pride. Of course, this effect is shaped entirely by the orthodoxy that insists we [...]

A senior manager called by my desk last Wednesday and asked if he could have a word. There was nothing unusual in that. He had occasionally asked me to his office to discuss a project or a customer. And anyway, my immediate boss was on holiday and we had just put in a bid for [...]

McCain’s choice of running mate is not as inspiring as it looked at first. Tomaltach’s first reaction was very close to that of his old friend, An Spailpín, who gives a glowing assessment of McCain’s choice. True, on the face of it, Palin’s selection is a stroke of genius, a relatively young woman with considerable [...]

In a move that seems to have surprised not just the commentariat but some advisers, McCain has picked Sarah Palin, governer of Alaska, as his running mate. Hugely surprising given she hasn’t been in the Washington inner circle and of course - because she’s a woman! She is not just the first republican female candidate [...]

Who can be surprised by the announcement - reported in today’s Irish times - that Village Magazine is to cease publication?
Village went intro terminal decline pretty quickly. From the start the mag made losses that were as impressive as its copy was unimpressive. True there were a handful of strong journos at times - Justine [...]

The Irish Examiner is running a series at the moment of putting questions to various Government ministers. The minister facing questions for the next edition is Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin.
Do you have a question you would like to put to Minister Hanafin? Send me an email (gavin AT gavinsblog DOT com) [...]

I was delighted that Formula One boss, Max Mosley, won his case against the News of the World who paid one of his prostitutes to secretly film one of their orgies. The paper ran the headline “F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers”. Mosley sued the paper for invasion of privacy. The paper [...]

Kevin Myres has written another article which has caused a bit of stir. This time on Africa. Myres laments that aid to Africa has only allowed its population of miserables to multiply and propped up several vile regimes in the process. The Indo letters page was bombarded. Then in today’s Irish Times Bryan Mukandi from [...]

At least it is according to Minister Brian Lenihan last week.

The Government’s announcement of €500m in cutbacks reminds me of that other €500m that was in the news lately – the overspend on the Ballymun Regeneration Project. What if that €500 million were somehow refound and used to tackle the Government’s current budgetary problems? Problem solved. You would be forgiven for thinking. 

Me and everyone else here would like to pass on their sympathies to the Brennan family on the death of Seamus Brennan.