Archive for the ‘Fianna Fáil’ Category
Catherine Connolly Irish Presidential Campaign and Climate Change which threatens humanity
In a Facebook discussion, the Swiss eco-socialist activist Chris Zeller points out that the British “Your Party” makes no statement about climate change which threatens humanity – I wonder has the Catherine Connolly presidential campaign in Ireland made a climate change declaration?
Chris’s statement, which I endorse ” I have the impression that “Your Party” is no exception. In several European countries, we see that the traditional left and the trade unions are more or less consciously putting the ecological challenge on the back burner. I would go so far as to argue that the fossil fuel backlash we are seeing in all key sectors of capital has eaten deep into the traditional left and the trade unions.
We are currently less far along than we were possibly in 2019. However, the Earth system is changing abruptly. The effects will pose a concrete threat to the physical survival of a significant portion of humanity in just a few decades. Yet the imperialist countries – including trade unions and the left – assume that the suffering will spread far away from our societies in Europe and North America.
This, of course, raises important strategic questions. My working hypothesis is that we urgently need to build a transnational revolutionary eco-socialist vanguard.
We need collectives and organisations that vigorously oppose the fossil fuel backlash and the power of fossil fuel capital in general.”
Possibly Catherine Connolly makes a good start here :
John Meehan October 13 2025
Dark Comedy Show : Will Maria Steen be a Far-Right Frankenstein Candidate on the Irish Presidential ballot? – It is odds-on, a racing certainty
Let’s have a little fun regarding the nomination campaign of the conservative far-right, anti-choice and racist candidate Maria Steen; Steen is a veteran or Ireland’s anti-choice movement; readers can stay up-to-date here :
“Independent Ireland is expected to make a decision tomorrow or Wednesday morning.
Their decision could influence whether other TDs or senators – rumoured to include a small number on the conservative wing of Fianna Fáil – would lend her their vote before the presidential nomination deadline of noon on Wednesday.” (RTÉ News Report).
The entire Fianna Fáil organisation is conservative – although occasionally it makes gestures towards the left. Between 2011 and 2018 the party leadership realised it had to dump a too close association with Catholic Church anti-feminism and the vile crime of institutional child abuse. It is continuing this tactic by nominating the high-profile Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) figure Jim Gavin to be President of Ireland. Gavin states he is pro-choice, pro same-sex marriage, and voted to lift the constitutional ban on abortion in 2018. These statements make him totally unacceptable to the Irish far-right, which includes Maria Steen and the Aontú party led by ex Sinn Féin TD Peader Tóibín, who is in charge of the Maria Steen bingo card. It is a racing certainty Steen will be on the presidential ballot – she has the nominations of 13 or 14 Oireachtas members plus 4 from the Irish Independent party.
Read the rest of this entry »Fine Gael Presidential Candidate Heather Humphreys – is her family’s Orange Order Background relevant?
Irish Presidential Elections – Dirty Personalised Attacks
Irish presidential elections have a history of dirty personalised attacks.
The 2025 campaign will feature similar personalised attacks. The Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys was a right-wing minister in recent governments. Her family background includes relatives who were members of a reactionary far-right organisation, the Orange Order. The problem here is that nobody can control their family origins. Every living Irish person can go back a few decades and discover nasty skeletons in the cupboard. Humphreys, who favours ending the partition of Ireland, is no exception.
Sometimes the personalised attacks work, on other occasions they backfired.
During the 1990 campaign Fianna Fáil discovered to their horror that their candidate Brian Lenihan was likely to lose the contest to Mary Robinson, a candidate nominated by the Labour party. Government minister Padraig Flynn stated that Robinson had “a new-found interest in her family”. It went down very badly. Robinson, a lawyer who had a civil rights and feminist background, became the Irish state’s first female president, and the first candidate who defeated a Fianna Fáil candidate in the race to live for 7 years in the luxurious Áras an Úachtaráin in the Phoenix Park.
In 1997 the canny Fianna Fáil party nominated a female lawyer and journalist, Mary MacAleese, who was born in the six-county bit of Ireland. The new FF candidate was anti-abortion and had a human rights record on other issues. This prompted an anonymous campaign claiming that MacAleese was a closet supporter of the IRA’s armed campaign during “The Troubles”. A separate campaign was launched against the Labour Party’s candidate Adi Roche claiming, amongst other things, that her brother was thrown out of the Irish state’s army in the early 1970’s for supporting armed defence of the nationalist minority in the six counties. The anti-Roche smear worked, but MacAleese stormed to victory. The Fine Gael party is the number one suspect for originating these personalised attacks, but this was never proved.
In 2011 an independent candidate Seán Gallagher seemed certain of victory until devastating evidence entered the public arena via a six-county businessperson, Mr Morgan from Armagh. Gallagher was a bagman for the Fianna Fáil party, and had relieved Mr Morgan of a substantial amount of money without returning a favour. Mr Morgan was wealthy, deeply involved in the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), and was a sponsor of his county team, Armagh. In Mr Gallagher’s trade you don’t mess with wealthy men, a lesson the candidate learned to his cost.
County Meath Group Delivers 107th Vehicle to Ukraine for humanitarian use : Trim (Ireland) to Lviv (Ukraine)
This report, written by Tim O’Brien, comes from the Irish Times, May 16 2025
Meath-based Ukraine support group passes milestone of 100 vehicles delivered
‘Lviv is a very strange place now with almost no men, just women and young women tending the graves’
Link :
Meath Based Ukraine Support Group Delivers 107th Vehicle to Ukraine for humanitarian use
A Co Meath-based group has just returned from Ukraine where they delivered their 107th vehicle to the war-torn country for humanitarian use.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine the group has delivered four-wheel drive vehicles, ambulances, buses and vans, most of them filled with medical supplies.
The vehicles are used by the army mainly in ferrying injured soldiers and civilians to hospital from either the front line or from Russian drone attacks.
The latest convoy of vehicles left Trim on May 3rd with 16 vehicles and 31 drivers taking turns to drive through France, the Netherlands, Poland and on to Lviv in western Ukraine.
Volunteer driver David Duignan of Dunderry, who has been on a number of such trips said the experience was emotional, having visited a cemetery in Lviv where more than 1,000 new graves of Ukrainian soldiers, added since the war broke out, are accompanied by images of the young men who died.
Read the rest of this entry »“It’s not personal, it’s just business.” – An Irish Beggar-Gombeen Michael Lowry TD who lost a defamation case against the journalist Sam Smyth
It seems a Fine Gael Minister in 2012 was a movie fan who liked the Godfather gangster series. Michael Lowry TD lost a defamation action against the journalist Sam Smyth, prompting this exchange between the writer and the politician :
A Fine Gael minister once explained to me how he categorised Michael Lowry losing a defamation action against me in the High Court back in 2012: “It’s not personal, it’s just business.”
Sam Smyth
The fictional inspiration :
I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen; I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!
Hyman Roth, like his old friend Vito Corleone, never lets things get personal. At least, he tries not to and puts up a facade that he does. Of course, that’s not true, he goes after Michael for both personal and financial reasons, but not before pretending it’s never personal.
Source :
Sam Smyth has published a very full explanation of Michael Lowry’s business and personal dealings.
Link :
Sam Smyth Versus Michael Lowry – Beggar-Gombeen Corruption in Ireland
I am not so philosophical: It was very personal to me.
Had I lost, the disgraced former minister would have ended my career as a journalist and put me out of house and home.
Lowry contended that I had defamed him on the Tonight with Vincent Browne show on TV3 on June 24, 2010.
Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, the High Court judge who considered Lowry’s allegations against me, repeated in his February 10, 2012 judgment what I said that so enraged Lowry that he sought to go after me personally in the courts.
This is the transcript of the show as taken from the Kearns judgment:
Sam Smyth: “But the first that we caught sort (sic) on video with hand in till was Michael Lowry and he resigned as you might remember as Minister for Communications which all this has led on from.”
Vincent Browne: “Now let’s be clear now, let’s be careful about the hand in till. There is no suggestion at all anyway that Michael Lowry used his position as Minister to extract public funds that weren’t, that he wasn’t entitled to.”
Sam Smyth: “No but was in receipt, in allowed? The biggest business in the country to pay for the refurbishment of his home. I mean…”
Vincent Browne: “There was a tax that was a tax fraud.”
Sam Smyth: “And that well, there was not only a tax fraud, I really don’t think most people think it’s a good idea for Ministers to have their bills picked up by businessmen.”
Lowry contended in his legal filings that these words meant he was “a thief, a corrupt politician, unfit to be a TD or Government Minister and was or is a dishonest or untrustworthy politician”.
Read the rest of this entry »Welcome Galway News : Oughterard Community Calls on Government Minister Norma Foley TD to Stop the Eviction of Ukrainian Families
Oughterard Welcomes All Link :
Oughterard, Galway Welcomes All – Stop Eviction of Ukrainian Families
PRESS RELEASE:
Oughterard Community Calls on Norma Foley – TD to Stop the Eviction of Ukrainian Families
A number of Ukrainian residents from Oughterard Manor, local TDs, and a group of residents known as Oughterard Welcomes All are urging Norma Foley to intervene and prevent the pending eviction of their neighbours.
A representative of the Oughterard Manor residents said:
“We have thirteen children under 18 years old. Six attend Scoil Chuimín agus Caitríona in Oughterard, three go to St. Paul’s Secondary School, one attends Muire Doireglinne, and three are in a community college in Galway.
We were sure we would stay in Oughterard as long as possible. The kids have friends, they love their schools and teachers. We already feel like part of the community. We’re attending GRETB classes, joining local interest groups, taking part in events, and working. Many local people support us and stay in touch — they are our friends. We feel safe and comfortable here. It has been our home for more than two years.”
Read the rest of this entry »French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen Sentenced to 5 Years jail (2 suspended) – banned from running for president for 4 years – a familiar story with many parallels
Currently a right wing Irish coalition government has a parliamentary majority because of a pact with a proven corrupt racist politician from Tipperary Michael Lowry (a former Fine Gael government minister). A number of high-profile Irish politicians have corruption black marks against their names besides Mr Lowry : Former Fianna Fáil heads of government (taoisigh) Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern; former deputy leader of the right-wing Progressive Democrats Michael Keating; and so on.
The USA White House is run by a convicted rapist, Donald Trump, who promotes the political ambitions of a convicted Irish rapist, the kick-boxer Conor McGregor.
Readers may have noticed that wealthy powerful criminals like Lowry, Trump, McGregor and Marine Le Pen from France do not give up trying to get convictions overturned :
Here is an extract from a routine Irish Times report, May 8 2023 :
This is the factual position :
“Mr Lowry, a former Fine Gael minister, was previously found by a tribunal to have behaved in a manner that was “profoundly corrupt”. (Irish Examiner, April 2).
Donald Trump is actively trying to get his rapist conviction overturned on very dodgy grounds :
Read the rest of this entry »Verona Murphy (Far-Right Racist) in political firing line after chaotic day in the Dublin Dáil – Corrupt Government in serious trouble
This report on the site of the Irish State Broadcaster RTÉ (Radio Telefís Éireann) is brutally clear : Verona Murphy’s mega-perk job chairing parliamentary meetings in the Dublin Dáil is on the line. The Wexford Beggar-Gombeen (BG) supported a 9 strong group of her like-minded colleagues who vote for the Fianna Fáil – Fine Gael (FFFG) Coalition Government to also enjoy speaking time rights belonging to opposition deputies. You could not make it up : the BG’s (some of them government ministers like Michael Healy-Rae) want to be government and opposition TD’s (Teachtaí Dála) [Dáil Deputies] simultaneously.
Source :
https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2025/0325/1504038-verona-muprhy-dail-row/
After a day of confusion, contradiction and just a hint of chaos, one moment made it crystal clear where the Dáil speaking rights row is likely to go next – and, just as importantly, who is now firmly in the political firing line.
As an until recently rare joint Opposition press conference began to wind down, Opposition leaders were asked for a show of hands on whether they still have confidence in Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy.
No hands went up. All stayed down.
A stoney silence speaking volumes.
The rarely unified opposition is mainly from the left. Although they do not have the numbers to defeat the FFFGBG coalition, they can make life impossible for Ceann Comhairle (speaker) Verona Murphy.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald was backed by Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik
Deputy McDonald’s view was quickly repeated by other Opposition leaders, including Labour’s Ivana Bacik.
“I was particularly dismayed and disappointed to see the Ceann Comhairle push through the order of business in the face of clear opposition from members of the Opposition,” she said.
“We’re still processing what happened today because it is unprecedented, it was extraordinary to see how the business was conducted by the Ceann Comhairle and the Government today.
“It certainly will not end here for us,” Deputy Bacik added.
Richard Boyd-Barrett (People Before Profit) chimed in :
“I said it to the Ceann Comhairle today, that [what happened in the Dáil] was orchestrated, what happened today looked in every single way orchestrated,” said.
Mr Boyd Barrett added: “It happened too quickly, it was too organised, how they put through a vote that clearly was not agreed, how they suspended questions of promised legislation, how even when the two tellers who were supposed to have signed off on the vote didn’t and then immediately Mattie McGrath and Carol Nolan run down pre-prepared to sign off on the vote.
“There was winks and nods going on, the whole thing looked orchestrated, it’s sad that the Government have dragged the Ceann Comhairle into this debacle and it raises very serious issues of confidence in the Ceann Comhairle that we’re going to have to consider very seriously.”
McGrath (ex FF) and Nolan (ex SF) are Trump-like Beggar-Gombeen far-right Beggar-Gombeen TD’s who want to pretend they are part of a Dáil opposition!
The dogs on the street know FFFG have walked themselves into a black hole 🕳 – what happens next 🤔?
Will Verona Murphy Jump Before She is Pushed?
The government has a Dáil majority, but that is like the tip of a very dangerous iceberg.
No confidence
Given the repeated use of phrases like “very serious”, “questions to answer” and “very significant damage” to the Ceann Comhairle’s reputation, among the Opposition at least, the obvious next step would be for a no confidence motion in Ms Murphy.
Such a move would be unprecedented in modern political times, with the last time it came close to happening being during the John O’Donoghue expenses saga in October 2009.
While the exact end-result of the Veronagate scandal is unclear, only a fool would predict this will end well for the dodgy FFFGBG coalition.
John Meehan March 25 2025
Tomás Ó Flatharta 