Tag Archives: Politics

Shinners & Losers

The Irish general election came and went last weekend and it delivered its fair share of winners and losers. The biggest losers were the two parties who have been “running” this country for the last four years, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. The Greens lost all six of its representatives while Fianna Fáil’s representation fell by nearly three quarters. The party had been in power with other coalition partners since 1997 and its decline was unsurprising but completely welcome. The biggest winners were the party that’s been in Fianna Fáil’s shadow since Ireland became a republic. Fine Gael won just under half the number of seats on offer and will most likely form a coalition with the Labour party, who also had its best election. The same was true for Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party, People Before Profit and independent candidates, who all won more seats than Fianna Fáil’s solitary one in Dublin. The new government isn’t going to turn the country’s woes around overnight, but at least it’ll bring in a few fresh faces and, hopefully, some new ideas

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The Party’s Over

Voting booths have just opened in 43 constituencies all over Ireland in an attempt to choose 165 representatives from 566 hopefuls to make up the next Irish government. Since 1932, Ireland’s largest political party, Fianna Fáil, has been the main government party for nearly 60 years in total and has been in power for all but 30 months in the last 24 years. This period of time coincided with the affluence of the Celtic Tiger, but also with its recent collapse. As a result, the party’s dominance in the opinion polls has also collapsed by almost two-thirds since the 2007 election. Fine Gael, historically the country’s second party, have benefitted the most, while Labour, Sinn Féin and Independent candidates have also seen promising increases in their support. What all this means is that Fine Gael will be the main party after the voting has been completed and will most likely form a coalition with Labour. For the first time in the nation’s history, the “Soldiers of Destiny” look like being relegated to third place. The party’s slump in popularity forced many of its members to jump ship before the election was called and will see many more lose their seats this weekend. This frightening scenario has seen at least one former government minister resort to desperate measures in order to hold onto his seat

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Power Failure

It’s two weeks until Election Day 2011 and the political pamphlets continue to pop through my letter box. The latest one comes from the alliterative Peter Power, who is not only working for Limerick but also, apparently, for me. Now, I’m well aware that politicians have a tendency to manipulate the truth, but I must say that, to the best of my knowledge, Mr Power is not in my employ. Not only that, but I also have it on good authority that he’s not working for Limerick, either. You might be forgiven for thinking that Power is running as an independent candidate in Limerick city. Not so. Power is, in fact, one of two Fianna Fáil contenders for the four seats in this constituency. Power was unsuccessful when he first ran for the party at the 1997 general election, but he managed to get elected in 2002 and again in 2007. He only received half a quota on each of these occasions, but managed to get elected each time thanks to transfers from his party colleagues

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Let’s Get Out of This Country

It’s two weeks until Ireland goes to the polls and election candidates keep electioneering and canvassers keep canvassing. You may remember the missing apostrophe on the leaflet from Kieran O’Donnell that popped through my door last week. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so harsh on him as it’s only his second time running for the Dáil. This week it was Michael Noonan‘s turn to come around with a familiar-looking leaflet and an identical lack of attention to punctuation. O’Donnell’s fellow Fine Gaeler is the longest-serving T.D. in the Limerick City (formerly Limerick East) constituency. He was elected back in 1981 and was a minister in two departments in the eighties: Justice and Industry & Commerce. He was also Minister for Health in the nineties and even became Fine Gael leader from February 2001 to June 2002. He is currently his party’s Finance spokesperson and may be given that portfolio in the next government. He’s come a long way from his first appointment as spokesperson for Education in 1981 and even longer from his days as a schoolteacher in the seventies. If he’s the guy in charge of next year’s Budget, let’s hope he pays a lot more attention to his sums than he does to punctuation

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Musical Chairs

A chair painted yellow, yesterday

A chair painted yellow, yesterday

The Irish General Election is just over two weeks away and tonight TV3 will hold the first televised leaders debate. The independent TV station extended an invitation to the three leaders who have the most realistic chance of becoming Taoiseach (Prime Minister) next month. So, essentially they have invited the leaders of the country’s three largest political parties to come on the show. With the most recent government on its last legs, Fianna Fáil replaced Brian Cowen as leader, with Michéal Martin stepping into the big man’s not inconsiderable shoes. Even though this move was a bit like changing deck chairs on the Titanic, Martin will appear on the show tonight. So will the man a lot of people would like to see as our next Taoiseach, Eamon Gilmore of the Labour Party. However, the person who is favourite to lead the country for the next five years has decided to sit this one out

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Let’s Go Crazy

The current Irish government packed it in yesterday and the electorate will go to the polls to elect a new one at the end of the month. I returned home from work earlier to find the first of hundreds of pamphlets that’ll be popping through my door over the coming weeks. This one’s from Kieran O’Donnell of Fine Gael, one of five sitting TDs in my constituency of Limerick city. At least one of that number will miss out later this month as the constituency will now return just four representatives. Mr O’Donnell was sorry not to meet me, as you can see from his expression and the message beneath his name. Well, he may be sorry to find me at home should he decide to make a return visit. Apart from his name, the front of the leaflet contains a mere eleven words and a number. Nevertheless, the person responsible for this flyer has managed to make a glaring error by omitting the apostrophe from the first word of the party’s slogan. At least they remembered the one in their candidate’s name. Here’s Frank Sinatra with a song from his 1958 album Come Fly With Me that uses the correct abbreviation of “let us”. It also delivers a sentiment that many young Irish men and women are currently expressing by deserting these shores in their droves

Let’s Get Away From It All – Frank Sinatra

You Spin Me Right Round

It’s been a bad week for the Irish government and the results of today’s by-election in Donegal South West would seem to have added to their woes. Its main party, Fianna Fáil, has been Ireland’s leading political party for over seventy years and has now been in power for all but three of the previous twenty-three. More or less, they have received 40% of first preference votes at each the last four general elections, but their abysmal performance over the last few years has seen them plummet to third place in the opinion polls behind traditional bridesmaids Fine Gael and the resurgent Labour Party. Their voting share in these polls has more than halved to 17%. As if this wasn’t bad enough for them, a government party hasn’t won a by-election in Ireland since 1982 when Noel Treacy took Galway East. Each of the twenty by-elections since then has gone to an opposition candidate. These factors would suggest that the party had little chance of winning today’s by-election

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Let Them Eat Cheesecake

There’s been a lot of anger directed at the Irish government for a while now and some of that frustration erupted onto the streets this week. On Monday, the Minister for Health was sprayed with red paint by a member of a socialist party named Éirígí. Councillor Louise Minihan had been elected to Dublin City council as a member of Sinn Féin and chose red paint to symbolise the blood that she believes is on Mary Harney’s hands. The words pot, kettle and black spring to mind. Members of Sinn Féin and Éirígí were back again on Wednesday as they hijacked the peaceful protest that was organised by the Union of Students in Ireland. The USI have distanced themselves from a small number of participants who turned aggressive towards the end of the rally. The riot police were called in and they too seemed to use overly aggressive methods as they forcibly removed protesters who had staged a peaceful sit-in at the Department of Finance. On Thursday, the government announced that the forthcoming budget would include €6 billion in cuts and taxes. However, the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture the next morning really took the biscuit. In an effort to take attention away from the budget, Brendan Smith decided to announce that free cheese would be made available to the poor and needy around the country this month. Lots of politicians and voters have been whining about this news and I can understand why they might be a bit cheesed off. Still, as a cheeselover I hope to take advantage of this offer and I’ll be as happy as a Cheshire cat if I can get my hands of some free cheddar. I don’t know where you stand on cheese but, personally, I prefer to tread Caerphilly. Here are a trio of cheesy tunes from Nirvana, Jimmy Buffett and The Rutles

Big Cheese – Nirvana

Cheeseburger In Paradise – Jimmy Buffett

Cheese and Onions – The Rutles