This article was published in the September 26 2025 edition of the Irish Times.
If Northerners had a vote, Catherine Connolly would be our next president
Northerners have a vested interest in an election portrayed as seminal for the abolition of partition. But they don’t have a vote
Catherine Connolly’s presidential election campaign would be a stroll to the park if Ireland honoured all its citizens’ rights. Instead, the Independent candidate is being accused of lip service by two parties that have ensured the exclusion of hundreds of thousands of potential voters from choosing their head of state.
Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland are allowed no say in an election that is being billed as crucial to their future constitutional status. Sinn Féin insists the next president must “champion a united Ireland”. Fine Gael says its candidate, Heather Humphreys, as a Presbyterian from a Border county, would symbolically unite the island. Fianna Fáil presents its candidate, Jim Gavin, as being Border-blind due to his involvement with the all-island GAA. Yet those living in the North’s six counties are silenced in the election. Their continuing exclusion reduces them to nominal citizens.
Addressing his party’s annual conference last weekend, DUP leader Gavin Robinson rebuked the Republic for what he called its “institutional intolerance of Protestant culture and heritage” but the southern State’s starker prejudice is against its own citizens in the North. Under the 1956 Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, affirmed by the 1998 Belfast Agreement, people in Northern Ireland are entitled to choose to be citizens of Ireland. As such, the Irish President is their president. Ever since Mary Robinson’s election to the Áras in 1990, the office’s holders have striven to represent them with their presence and their utterances. But across the Liffey in Government Buildings the realpolitik means that extending voting rights to Northern citizens would be electoral hara-kiri, virtually handing Sinn Féin the presidency on a plate.
Irish Rap performers Kneecap are booked to play at a huge music festival in Glastonbury, but British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer thinks that’s not “appropriate”. Starmer’s crazy comment is so off-the-wall that ex Irish taoiseach (prime minister) the ultra-conservative Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael), thought it was a gag.
Irish Times news report :
“Kneecap’s official Instagram page shared a screenshot of the article containing Mr Starmer’s comments, stating that “arming a fu*king genocide” was what’s “not appropriate”.
In a comment underneath the post, Mr Varadkar said he had thought the comment from Mr Starmer was a “gag”.
“[I] no longer hold office nor have any mandate so my views don’t count for so much anymore. I get that. But I really thought this was some sort of gag. It’s the role of artists to be avant garde, inappropriate, challenging, disruptive – from James Joyce to Sex Pistols and Playboy,” he said.”
Verona Murphy TD (Wexford) has won a Mega-Perk for herself, the Ceann Comhairle job.
RTÉ News reports :
As Ceann Comhairle, her seat is assured after the next election as the holder of the office is automatically returned to the Dáil.
She is also set to get a massive pay increase on top of her existing TD salary.
TDs earn €113,680 a year but her new position attracts an additional €141,513 annually, bringing her salary to €255,000 for as long as she stays in the job.
The pay packet exceeds that of the Taosieach by €12,000.
A racist beggar-gombeen is in charge of the Dublin parliament’s debates. A coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Regional Independent Group Beggar-Gombeens (FFFGBG) got Murphy the mega-perk with 89 votes – just over half the number of Dáil deputies (174). This is a prelude to the likely formation of a weak right-wing government in 2025.
Beggar-Gombeens of the 34th Dáil : Verona Murphy, Michael Lowry, Noel Grealish
In 2019 Verona Murphy was kicked off the Fine Gael ticket. Why the change in 2024?
Verona Murphy was kicked off the FG ticket because she was too racist which means now she is the perfect candidate for Ceann Comhairle according to FG. Which means FG only gave her the boot because of public outrage and not because she didn't reflect their values.
The result of the November 29 General Election in Ireland was a victory for the outgoing government. The two leading conservative parties – Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael (FFFG) won 86 out of 174 seats, only two seats short of an overall majority. Their previous administration needed a mudguard, provided by the Green party (GP), which lost 11 of its 12 seats.
This time the mudguard is likely to come from right-wing gombeens (The Irish mainstream media calls them “gene-pool independents” as most come from FFFG). In the previous Dáil “independent” deputies from this swamp regularly voted confidence in the government, without formally participating in the cabinet. Since the election result was announced, these gombeens have brazenly begged for perks and freebies in exchange for their Dáil votes.
Green or Moderate Left Mudguard Unavailable?
FFFG is in the market for a Green or moderate-left mudguard. Possible partners – (the Labour party [LP] and the Social Democrats [SDs]) – seem unwilling to perform political suicide.
In the words of one source :
I get the feeling the GP example is terrifying them!
FFFG shoppers in the mudguard supermarket may be seeking unavailable bargains :
Labour sources expect that the party will today rule out continuing discussions about entering government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, effectively shutting down that coalition option for the two larger parties.
The party’s TDs will meet at Leinster House at lunchtime where leader Ivana Bacik is expected to propose the move, which is likely to be backed overwhelmingly by those present.
Labour sources were careful not to get ahead of today’s decision, but there is little expectation in the party that its engagement on government will continue. This will draw a distinction with the Social Democrats, who yesterday said they would continue discussions.
But after meetings with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil this week, there is similarly little expectation in the outgoing government that the Social Democrats are serious about entering coalition.
Source : Jack Horgan-Jones, Election 2024: Labour set ‘to exit coalition talks’ with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Irish Times December 13 2024
On Friday December 13 expectation cruised a little bit closer to certainty, but the Titanic option has not been ruled out :
NEW: Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said that it is “unlikely” that her party will go into Government, as they prepare for one final round of meetings with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael
Once the post-election dust settles we may see a government composed of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and Beggar-Gombeens (BGs) (FFFGBG) on one side, and a parliamentary opposition operating within a left-wing and ecological spectrum.
A FFFGBG coalition would be composed of Team FFFG (86 TDs) plus enough BG deputies to guarantee a workable Dáil majority.
Some BGs will oppose the government from the right.
He will stay as Taoiseach until a new leader is chosen by the party, which it is hoped will be completed by the party’s ard fheis in early April. The Dáil will then, it is planned, elect the new Fine Gael leader as taosieach. However, the departure of Mr Varadkar will be hugely destabilisng event for the Coalition, and is likely to lead to calls for an early general election. Mr Varadkar will make an announcement in a press conference at 12pm outside Government Buildings, Mr Varadkar is understood to have informed senior Fine Gael colleagues on Tuesday and the leaders of the Coalition parties, Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan, on Tuesday evening. The Government will remain in place, and will remain constitutionally unaffected, until Mr Varadkar resigns as Taoiseach. At that point all ministers are deemed to have resigned, and a new Taoiseach and Government must be elected by the Dáil.
Irish Times online, March 20 2024
Some reactions :
Paul Murphy TD (People Before Profit) retweeted this comment :
Potential reasons for #Leos shock departure. 1. Yet unknown pending scandal 2. Paul Murphys challenge to the #SIPO case 3. Israel had dirt on him and threatened to release it for speaking out on Gaza in the #Whitehouse 4. He’s genuinely just feels he has no more (unlikely) #FG
The writing is on the wall for this government, even the Taoiseach can see that. They’re failing on so many fronts. In housing, health, climate – the list goes on and on and on. A new Fine Gael Taoiseach isn’t going to fix that. We need a new government. We need an election.
We need a real change in Ireland, the kind that can only be brought about by an General Election, we need to give people a say in who the next person to lead this country will be –@HollyCairnsTD#LQs#Dail#LeoOutpic.twitter.com/frfxlE4Ia9
Meanwhile, the Irish President Michael D Higgins makes a good declaration about Israeli genocide in Gaza which the Irish government should endorse :
Statement by President Higgins on access to aid to Gaza
Date: Tue 19th Mar, 2024 | 17:35
“With a significant proportion of the population of Gaza facing famine at its most extreme level according to the latest IPC classification, it is important that the circumstances of those suffering are not reduced to any rhetorical battle as to whether or not the aid that has been made available is being blocked or delayed from those whose very life in so many cases depends on it.
It would be beyond immoral if the world sought to satisfy itself by the simple taking of sides in what are assertions and counter-assertions. It is in the interests of the most basic humanity and in the interest of all in the international community that the full facts are established, responded to, and that all of the aid is made urgently available.
In order to achieve this basic fact-finding, it would surely be of immense value for an international group to be allowed access to all of the points at which aid is located and to report their findings to all sides, including all of those anxious to be involved in feeding the people of Gaza, including through the UN, and that appropriate actions follow.
Such action would have the obvious benefit of being in keeping with the findings of the International Court of Justice and its instruction that civilians must be protected.
The establishment of what are the facts as to the availability of the necessities of life itself should be not only welcomed by all, but insisted upon by all of the international community, its actors and agencies. Failure to do so should not be rewarded with the immunity of silence.”
Mr Varadkar, knowing that a Presidential election in Ireland is due in 2025 at the latest, may be interested in taking over at Áras an Úachtaráin in the Phoenix Park. A horrible prospect!
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) should provide answers.
Bernadette McAliskey :
Was this march organised by Belfast ISPC? On what date did the platform change from the three speakers below and become a platform of primarily spokespersons for political parties of the NI Assembly,? On what date were the political parties first invited to speak? Why was the list of political party speakers including Sinn Fein not announced prior to the March and rally itself, allowing those who didn’t want to hear from political parties whose leaders were in the White House, or those doing little or nothing for Palestine to have stayed away? Who made these decisions, the consequences of which must have obvious to them at the time, given the depth of feeling from anger to disappointment? What did they expect from an unsuspecting audience when a Sinn Fein speaker was sprung on them? Did they, through naivety, expect Sinn Fein to decline or was the reaction foreseen and thought to OK?
Without some transparency and explanation of the who, when and why, the organisers have very little credibility left with independent activists who are daily raising awareness; building support for boycott of Israeli goods on the ground; fund raising for medical aid, for children, for food aid in Gaza and helping as best they know how, Palestinians living here to cope with the pain and trauma of their fear for family and friends at home as well their exile. Either lack of foresight and transparency, intentional deceit, or plain old-fashioned elitism needs to be owned up to, unless the organisers have a better explanation. This is no way to build any principled unity on Palestine, or anything else for that matter.
Vincent Doherty :
This is a moment of decision nationally for the IPSC. Sinn Fein would prefer if we all forgot their treachery in fine wining and dining with Biden in the midst of the genocide. Just like a few years ago when they were meeting with Likud despite having signed up to the BDS campaign. It’s the elephant in the room, and one that needs to be addressed.
“The cries of the innocent will haunt us forever if we stay silent.” These are the words of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, speaking at an event in Boston this week about Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza. And who could disagree? What is taking place in Palestine now is one of the most profound and shocking moral catastrophes of our time.
Already for months on end, Israeli military forces have been pounding the besieged, starving and largely homeless population of Gaza with relentless aerial bombardment. Cut off from the outside world, Palestinian survivors have been forced to document the crisis in real time, sharing stories, images and footage of mass graves, destroyed buildings and abandoned bodies. And with no end in sight, the United States continues to pump money and weapons into Israel to prolong the onslaught.
An interesting political coalition is assembling in Ireland, the USA, and elsewhere calling on public representatives to boycott USA President Joe Biden’s annual White House Patrick’s Day celebration in 2024. As Bernadette McAliskey says :
Colum Eastwood’s decision to absent himself and SDLP from ‘rocking the sham’ in the White House is very welcome. The Irish government parties and Sinn Féin might want to reconsider their positions.
Bernadette McAliskey, Impartial Reporter, February 9 2024
A Pro-Palestine activist, Art Ó Laoghaire, has sent the following message to several Irish public representatives :
Do you believe that Israel is justified in its military campaign in Gaza, and that the US should continue to supply weapons to them? The last four months has seen more than 27,000 people killed in Gaza, including 10,000 children, and more than 60,000 wounded. South Africa believes Israel is guilty of genocide. Amnesty says today that Israel is committing war crimes. And António Guterres said that the people of there don’t have enough to eat, while Israel continues to block food supplies.
Yet today Joe Biden has asked Congress for billions of dollars to continue to supply arms.
How can you in all honesty go to Washington for St Patrick’s Day to enjoy Biden’s hospitality, while he continues to facilitate this carnage? Some may claim that face-to-face conversation gives them an opportunity to express Ireland’s views on the situation. But this is absurd. Biden knows our views. It would say much more to him if his celebrations were boycotted. It would also be a message to the Irish American voters he is trying to canvas.
If you have any moral principles you will stand by the Palestinians and refuse to join in Biden’s re-election party.
Art Ó Laoghaire
Bernadette McAliskey’s Article :
Sharing thoughts on Northern Ireland politics and American policy
Bernadette McAliskey, Impartial Reporter, February 9 2024
Thank You, Mr. Eastwood.
Colum Eastwood’s decision to absent himself and SDLP from ‘rocking the sham’ in the White House is very welcome.
A Patrick’s Day “Drowning of the Shamrock” celebration in Washington DC’s White House, including Irish politicians and the USA President, is a long-established tradition. President Joe Biden is an Irish-American who enjoyed a warm welcome “home” to Mayo and Louth in 2023. Biden’s Irish-American links are very strong and genuine – but many people who welcomed him to Ireland less than a year ago have broken with “Genocide Joe” because of USA political and military support of the Israeli murderous assault on the people of Gaza and Palestine.
An articulate response came from a Derry GAA All-Ireland winner, who is related by marriage to Mr Biden – Joe Brolly’s wife is Laurita Blewitt, a third cousin of Mr Biden.
Joe Biden, Laurita Blewitt and Joe Brolly
“President Biden has pledged 14 billion in state of the art weapons of war for Israel to continue to pummel this defenceless population. And 20 trucks of humanitarian aid for Gaza. “I cannot think of anything sicker or more obscene bombing churches, hospitals, indiscriminate slaughter. Israel is a rogue state, completely out of control, as described by many leading Jewish academics and thinkers, acting beyond all norms of morality and anything that we could conceive of as decency and humanity. “And when Joe Biden goes to Israel and hugs, quite rightly, the parents of those slaughtered children and human beings who lost their lives on 7th October, he doesn’t f***ing go to Palestine and do it and hug the children there and hug the mothers and fathers and tell them that he loves them. “That alone would bring about a ceasefire. I stand with humanity he should be saying.”
We owe the headline to an excellent Justine McCarthy column in the January 12 2024 edition of the Irish Times :
Recent migrants found locked in a ship at Rosslare were Kurds and Vietnamese, people on the sharp end of global warming. This trend will only increase
This article, very commendably, gives us all stark truth. Here is a key extract :
When anti-migrant protesters set up their camps outside buildings designated – or rumoured to be designated – for asylum seekers, they drive to and fro, light fires and eat takeaway food, adding to the pollution that is making other people’s homeplaces in faraway lands uninhabitable. If they want less immigration, they should go home, switch off their clothes dryers, fix their leaking fridges, cancel their foreign holiday flights, eat less meat and, generally, reduce their carbon footprint. But they won’t do that. Why would they, when they know the Government is willing to bow to their pressure? First, it caved in to protesters ensconced outside the former JJ Gannon’s Hotel in Ballinrobe, where 50 men seeking international protection had been due to reside in its 12 bedrooms. On Monday, it emerged that the Department of Integration has changed its plan and, now, the building is to accommodate families. Tánaiste Micheál Martin denied this represented a U-turn. Two days later, there was a second Government change of heart with the announcement that 50 male asylum seekers – the same 50 men? – due to move into an old friary in Carlow town were, once again, being replaced by families. The news followed a protest outside the building. These capitulations have sent a clear signal to protesters – and the unadulterated racists out there too – that the Government is for turning. With council elections approaching, politics is acutely local. Now is the time to turn the heat up on councillors and political parties looking for votes. Fifty men rendered roofless are reckoned to be a small price for a council seat or two. There are already more than 100 male asylum applicants with no place to stay in Ireland and no imminent prospect of finding a bed because political parties know there are no votes to be gained from that, either in the summer’s local and European elections or the looming general election. The Government has lit a dynamite taper by rolling over for the protesters. Other communities have every reason now to expect that, if they shout “No”, the gates to their towns will be locked against people whom they deem undesirable to live among them.
The latest anti immigrant protest is happening in the Tipperary town of Roscrea and was the subject of a 24 minute RTÉ radio discussion on the January 12 2024 Today with Clare Byrne Show.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 