February, 2011

Will February matter in May?

I’ve got in-laws who live south of the border, most of them in Dublin. Over the last forty years we’ve visited them regularly, had a meal, checked out the shops and the sights. They’ve come north of the border to Belfast too; but the visit ratio is around 30: 1. Over the last twenty years […]

Continue Reading

Will February matter in May?

I’ve got in-laws who live south of the border, most of them in Dublin. Over the last forty years we’ve visited them regularly, had a meal, checked out the shops and the sights. They’ve come north of the border to Belfast too; but the visit ratio is around 30: 1. Over the last twenty years […]

Continue Reading

Don’t ask ME to move on…

Tectonic plates – seismic shift – electoral tsunami…Have I used all the available metaphors/clichés for  the south’s general election results?  Oh right – I forgot the most important: ‘This marks the end of civil war politics’.  It’ll no longer be Fine Gael (Free Staters)  vs  Fianna Fail  (republicans). That’s because Fianna Fail has been cut, […]

Continue Reading

Don’t ask ME to move on…

Tectonic plates – seismic shift – electoral tsunami…Have I used all the available metaphors/clichés for  the south’s general election results?  Oh right – I forgot the most important: ‘This marks the end of civil war politics’.  It’ll no longer be Fine Gael (Free Staters)  vs  Fianna Fail  (republicans). That’s because Fianna Fail has been cut, […]

Continue Reading

All their yesterdays…

So  – who’s going to win? I don’t know.  I could say Fine Gael will do spectacularly well, Labour will do well, Fianna Fáil will do disastrously but better than Sinn Féin, yet Sinn Féin will still do well.  But if I did I’d be basing my prediction on the polls and the polls, as […]

Continue Reading

All their yesterdays…

So  – who’s going to win? I don’t know.  I could say Fine Gael will do spectacularly well, Labour will do well, Fianna Fáil will do disastrously but better than Sinn Féin, yet Sinn Féin will still do well.  But if I did I’d be basing my prediction on the polls and the polls, as […]

Continue Reading

Pass the manifesto, Reilly

I Iike Vincent Browne. I remember him when he was a lanky lad of twenty at UCD, where he was, among other things, a leading light of the college Fine Gael party. I met him at Feile An Phobail a few years ago and confronted him with his youthful past. He hung his head in […]

Continue Reading

Pass the manifesto, Reilly

I Iike Vincent Browne. I remember him when he was a lanky lad of twenty at UCD, where he was, among other things, a leading light of the college Fine Gael party. I met him at Feile An Phobail a few years ago and confronted him with his youthful past. He hung his head in […]

Continue Reading

The Three Amigos

I  was in Dublin yesterday morning and as I walked along Stephen’s Green, a cluster of United Left Alliance people were being interviewed by the media – notably Joe Higgins  and Richard Boyd-Barrett.  Last night I watched the Leaders’ Debate on RTÉ and there was no sign of either man. Or of the leader of […]

Continue Reading

The Three Amigos

I  was in Dublin yesterday morning and as I walked along Stephen’s Green, a cluster of United Left Alliance people were being interviewed by the media – notably Joe Higgins  and Richard Boyd-Barrett.  Last night I watched the Leaders’ Debate on RTÉ and there was no sign of either man. Or of the leader of […]

Continue Reading