Irishers-Official 33rd Dáil Éireann election thread

[paddyor]

One other thing that's always confused me when it's not mentioned is that SF controlled, as far as I know, Dublin City Council for years and did little to help. Is that just because the council is impotent?

It’s actually a bit worse than that. Back in 2012/13(could be later) DCC passed planning regs for new build apartments among which was a requirement to make all apartments duel aspect sunlit. So all apartments had to have sun in the front and back. I think it was canned pretty quickly and there wasn’t much going on at the time (obviously ) but that’s the type of idea you can expect.

[iarmhiman]

When Sinn Fein ran Dublin city council they spent plenty of sessions at City Hall discussing the Israel/Palestinian situation.

[paddyor]

Polling showing FF voters heavily favour FG coalition.

RED C POLL
Coalition Preference:

Among Labour Party Voters:
FF+FG: 38%
SF+LEFT: 23%
SF+FF: 16%
None: 9%
Another Election: 14%

All potential coalitions had the inclusion of smaller parties/independents.

[Duff Paddy]

That’s interesting bullet.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social- ... -1.4011728

Pointless article really other than a little good publicity for Paul Murphy. Dublin buses are late and no shows all the time. What’s her point? It particularly affects pensioners and children - would you ever fudge off it affects anyone trying to get the bus including those scumbag employed people who, you know, keep the f**king lights on in this country.

[CM11]

Polling showing FF voters heavily favour FG coalition.

Hopefully it'll come to pass.

Does that mean, by process of elimination, that not many FG voters want it? Given the 26% result in the Red C poll?

The grand coalition is a stupid idea. The Shinners will make hay and I am seeing fück all upside bar delaying the inevitable but this is completely outweighed by increasing their power. There is an article about the homeless lad who got pulled up in his tent on the canal. Desperate story but as we know their are beds for all the street homeless. The article ends like this

The incident occurred on the first day of the campaign and beneath a poster of Eoghan Murphy, the Housing Minister, on a lamppost beside the canal.

The Shinners must be quietly breaking their holes at this prospect

It's not a stupid idea. It's a last throw of the dice. Another election now would be awful. 5 years is a long time.

The Shinners in power during a recession. Fück me

As I said, last throw of the dice.

[alliswell]

Will O'Fearghail be let at the Ceann Comhairle again? FF surely need him for the numbers. Can't see FG letting one of their number go for it and Howlin has ruled himself out already.

If they get the Greens, they've plenty of votes.

If who get the Greens?
FF need O'Fearghail to be the largest party and I may be wrong on this but I think a CC needs to be elected at the first sitting in a week or two.

[Duff Paddy]

I say give the keys to the Germans and ask them to govern us until we’re mature enough to be trusted with a democracy.

[CM11]

Will O'Fearghail be let at the Ceann Comhairle again? FF surely need him for the numbers. Can't see FG letting one of their number go for it and Howlin has ruled himself out already.

If they get the Greens, they've plenty of votes.

If who get the Greens?
FF need O'Fearghail to be the largest party and I may be wrong on this but I think a CC needs to be elected at the first sitting in a week or two.

Why do they have to be the largest party?

[camroc1]

I say give the keys to the Germans and ask them to govern us until we’re mature enough to be trusted with a democracy.

The Germans who are having a political crisis because a regional CDU party used AfD votes to get into power ?

That Germany ?

[alliswell]

Will O'Fearghail be let at the Ceann Comhairle again? FF surely need him for the numbers. Can't see FG letting one of their number go for it and Howlin has ruled himself out already.

If they get the Greens, they've plenty of votes.

If who get the Greens?
FF need O'Fearghail to be the largest party and I may be wrong on this but I think a CC needs to be elected at the first sitting in a week or two.

Why do they have to be the largest party?

It's good for optics.

[nardol]

How much damage could SF do if they got into power for a year or so?

[Hellraiser]

How much damage could SF do if they got into power for a year or so?

[Floppykid]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/irel ... -0z9nllsg0

Good succinct article I read in the times today, only online on the UK one.

[Mullet 2]

Polling showing FF voters heavily favour FG coalition.

Why is Eamon o Cuiv against a FG coalition but okay with a Sinn fein one?

Because he's a cúnt

[CM11]

Will O'Fearghail be let at the Ceann Comhairle again? FF surely need him for the numbers. Can't see FG letting one of their number go for it and Howlin has ruled himself out already.

If they get the Greens, they've plenty of votes.

If who get the Greens?
FF need O'Fearghail to be the largest party and I may be wrong on this but I think a CC needs to be elected at the first sitting in a week or two.

Why do they have to be the largest party?

It's good for optics.

I don't think it'd make a huge difference. Why would FG not want one of theirs going for it?

[alliswell]

If who get the Greens?
FF need O'Fearghail to be the largest party and I may be wrong on this but I think a CC needs to be elected at the first sitting in a week or two.

Why do they have to be the largest party?

It's good for optics.

I don't think it'd make a huge difference. Why would FG not want one of theirs going for it?

They'll still be in Government formation talks and losing another TD would weaken their hand and even if a grand coalition is formed with the Greens then the majority isn't a comfortable one. But they might be happy to take it, Bernard Durkan was on the radio last week pushing for it.

[camroc1]

How much damage could SF do if they got into power for a year or so?

More Argentina than East Germany methinks.

Sinn Féin are much more corporatist than communist, and like Peron did to Argentina when it was the richest country per capita in the world, SF would beggar Ireland to fund their community dreams.

[CM11]

If who get the Greens?
FF need O'Fearghail to be the largest party and I may be wrong on this but I think a CC needs to be elected at the first sitting in a week or two.

Why do they have to be the largest party?

It's good for optics.

I don't think it'd make a huge difference. Why would FG not want one of theirs going for it?

They'll still be in Government formation talks and losing another TD would weaken their hand and even if a grand coalition is formed with the Greens then the majority isn't a comfortable one. But they might be happy to take it, Bernard Durkan was on the radio last week pushing for it.

84 is a comfortable if not overwhelming majority.

Sure, it'd be better to get the extra votes with a Labour or other Ceann Comhairle but not a massive difference.

[Blackrock Bullet]

That’s interesting bullet.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social- ... -1.4011728

Pointless article really other than a little good publicity for Paul Murphy. Dublin buses are late and no shows all the time. What’s her point? It particularly affects pensioners and children - would you ever fudge off it affects anyone trying to get the bus including those scumbag employed people who, you know, keep the f**king lights on in this country.

No mention of the fact that all transport companies are subject to fines and receive them, including BE and DB.

The "story" is straight from RBB, it's a disgrace that she can write whatever she likes.

[Blackrock Bullet]

When Sinn Fein ran Dublin city council they spent plenty of sessions at City Hall discussing the Israel/Palestinian situation.

Appealing to the Celtic vote.

[Miguel Indurain]

I say give the keys to the Germans and ask them to govern us until we’re mature enough to be trusted with a democracy.

The Germans who are having a political crisis because a regional CDU party used AfD votes to get into power ?

That Germany ?

It's not enough that the Irish state bailed out bankrupt Irish banks to prevent contagion to bankrupt German banks, thereby crippling our nation to huge debt. Now they want us to give Germany what remains of Irish sovereignty too.

[Miguel Indurain]

Neil Francis today is worth reading.

[lorcanoworms]

Would Verona Murphy tend to support FG despite being deselected?

[Floppykid]

When Sinn Fein ran Dublin city council they spent plenty of sessions at City Hall discussing the Israel/Palestinian situation.

Appealing to the Celtic vote.

I'd say the amount of checkered scarf freaks in those meetings was a sight.

[alliswell]

It's good for optics.

I don't think it'd make a huge difference. Why would FG not want one of theirs going for it?

They'll still be in Government formation talks and losing another TD would weaken their hand and even if a grand coalition is formed with the Greens then the majority isn't a comfortable one. But they might be happy to take it, Bernard Durkan was on the radio last week pushing for it.

84 is a comfortable if not overwhelming majority.

Sure, it'd be better to get the extra votes with a Labour or other Ceann Comhairle but not a massive difference.

We'll see this week I suppose. First meeting on Thursday.

[CM11]

It's a pity the Indo has gone premium. Too little, too late

Sinn Fein is the country's most popular party, with 120,000 votes to spare. Those who voted for the republicans in their droves are concerned with the pressing issues of the present, such as housing.
The TDs they propelled into Leinster House say they are focused on the future. Yet several key figures who spent the past four years setting Sinn Fein on its path to success are part of its troubled past. They are considered key backroom figures in republican politics in Northern Ireland but, Sinn Fein being an all-Ireland party, their influence has extended on this side of the Border, too.

Sean Hughes is a former IRA commander from South Armagh who was reputedly a close associate of Thomas 'Slab' Murphy and is known as The Surgeon. He has been a key organiser for Sinn Fein. When turbulence broke out over allegations of intimidation, bullying and excessive control in several regional branches of the party, Hughes was one of those drafted in to smooth things over.

Another Northern man who was drafted in to settle internal disputes was Brian Tumilty, a key SF election strategist originally from Newry. He presided with two others on an internal panel in a dispute in Wicklow that resulted in three councillors being expelled. He was convicted in the early 1980s for possession of one of the weapons suspected of having been used in the Kingsmill massacre in 1976.

Martin Lynch is an ex-IRA prisoner and a former driver for Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who served as SF's head of human resources. His responsibilities included ensuring that staff and TDs paid themselves the average industrial wage and "volunteered" the rest to the party - including those working in Leinster House. (A policy that has since changed in 2016).

ADVERTISEMENT

Bobby Storey, another former IRA figure from Belfast, is often referred to as a key part of Sinn Fein's kitchen cabinet in Belfast. The reach of his political influence in the Republic emerged during the controversy over Mairia Cahill's allegations that her IRA abuser was shielded by the republican movement. Storey emailed instruction to SF's elected representatives north and south of the Border on Mairia Cahill: "At a wider level, party activists should refrain from making any comment on social media sites or in any other way around the issue of the sexual abuse of Mairia Cahill. Such comments are both inappropriate and elements of the media will attempt to misuse or misinterpret any comment - as has already happened." Not one veered from his diktat. Sinn Fein's critics claimed the memo showed how the party's elected representatives take their orders from an unelected shadowy figure behind the scenes.

Padraic Wilson, from West Belfast, is another influential member of Sinn Fein's Northern kitchen cabinet. He was sentenced to 24 years for explosives offences in the early 1990s but released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. He was accused of presiding over an internal tribunal into Mairia Cahill's allegations against an IRA member. His involvement with the party is among the reasons Fianna Fail cited for refusing to enter into a coalition with Sinn Fein.

Ted Howell, who is in his early 70s and from Belfast, is a highly influential republican, a Sinn Fein negotiator over 20 years, and one of Gerry Adams's closest advisers. He kept out of the spotlight, even in Stormont. But his name has worked its way into political discourse not just in Stormont, but in Leinster House when he was cited as "evidence" that Sinn Fein takes its orders from unelected representatives. Emails disclosed to an inquiry into the "cash for ash" scandal in the North showed how the SF finance minister there, Martin O Muilleoir, emailed Howell to ask if he was "content" that he "sign off the business plan on Wednesday". "That is documentary evidence that Sinn Fein ministers seek approval and consent from 'senior republicans' when it comes to major decisions in government," Leo Varadkar said in the Dail.

During the election campaign, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he "could never be sure" who he was dealing with were he to go into government with Sinn Fein. "Is it unelected officials in Belfast who rule the roost, who control the levers of power within that party?"

SF insists this is nonsense while Mary Lou McDonald famously declared: "Nobody's pulling my strings." The party has, on several occasions, welcomed former IRA prisoners into the SF fold, precisely because they have embraced the peace process.

When the party's Waterford poll-topper, David Cullinane, apologised for declaring "up the Republic, up the 'Ra and Tiocfaidh ar La" at a late-night victory speech, he said his comments were about the past, not the future: "The IRA is gone as everybody knows."

It is a little over four years since a report by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and MI5 found that a slimmed-down army council still existed and suggested that it held sway over Sinn Fein. "PIRA members believe that the Provisional army council oversees both PIRA and Sinn Fein with an overarching strategy - we judge this strategy has a wholly political focus."

Four months ago, the PSNI said its assessment of the relationship between the IRA and Sinn Fein "had not changed".

[EverReady]

That’s interesting bullet.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social- ... -1.4011728

Pointless article really other than a little good publicity for Paul Murphy. Dublin buses are late and no shows all the time. What’s her point? It particularly affects pensioners and children - would you ever fudge off it affects anyone trying to get the bus including those scumbag employed people who, you know, keep the f**king lights on in this country.

No mention of the fact that all transport companies are subject to fines and receive them, including BE and DB.

The "story" is straight from RBB, it's a disgrace that she can write whatever she likes.

I didn't see that story but that is her all over. Her editors are scumbags that they allow a press officer pretend they are a journalist. Everybody knows Breda is Iona's mouthpiece why isn't it explicitly stated she is a Trotskyist

[Gavin Duffy]

Neil Francis today is worth reading.

What he say?

[Miguel Indurain]

Franics referenced a podcast done by Eamonn Dunply, in which Dunphy interviewed Sam McBride.
McBride has written a book about the cash for ash scandal in NI.

Apparently the podcast and the book make reference to Mairtin O'Muilleoir, SF Minister for Finance during the previous assembly.
Emails and documentation in the book indicate that O'Muilleoir had to get consent, approval, from people either close to the "army council" or people who are on the "army council" about the funding situation.

Francis asks the reasonable question : who is in charge? A minister or the "army council"

Here's a link to the podcast

https://www.thestandwitheamondunphy.com/

[Gavin Duffy]

I see tin tin has taken to writing bollocks for the guardian.

[Blackrock Bullet]

Dunphy is such a wanker, he was supporting Sinn Féin a couple of years ago because it was nice and edgy but has now reverted to calling them out.

[iarmhiman]

I see tin tin has taken to writing bollocks for the guardian.

Just read his article. So the success of Globalisation is why populism is rising

[rageagainstthemachine]

Dunphy is such a wanker, he was supporting Sinn Féin a couple of years ago because it was nice and edgy but has now reverted to calling them out.

Yeah , he made sure to keep saying how much he respected them on the tonight show the other night. He is such a prick. A 73? yr old man. Why are the media still entertaining him.
I know the answer to that. Dont bother.

[alliswell]

Franics referenced a podcast done by Eamonn Dunply, in which Dunphy interviewed Sam McBride.
McBride has written a book about the cash for ash scandal in NI.

Apparently the podcast and the book make reference to Mairtin O'Muilleoir, SF Minister for Finance during the previous assembly.
Emails and documentation in the book indicate that O'Muilleoir had to get consent, approval, from people either close to the "army council" or people who are on the "army council" about the funding situation.

Francis asks the reasonable question : who is in charge? A minister or the "army council"

Here's a link to the podcast

https://www.thestandwitheamondunphy.com/

Here are the same points made in an article written for the Irish Times on the Thursday before the election. To save anyone having to listen to Eamon Dunphy.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politic ... 0?mode=amp

[Floppykid]

I see tin tin has taken to writing bollocks for the guardian.

Just read his article. So the success of Globalisation is why populism is rising

Last thing I read from Tin Tin was that PR/puff piece he did for SF.
Say the title of his article lately (I think) calling Mary Lou a woman of mystery.

Has he always been a closet Shinner?

[EverReady]

See this https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/u ... -1.4175546

[JoeMangled]

Polling showing FF voters heavily favour FG coalition.

Why is Eamon o Cuiv against a FG coalition but okay with a Sinn fein one?

Because he's a cúnt

Ive been gone for a while drinking gin, but how has it come to this. Sinn Féin's policies must be the weakest pile of shit going.

Dear Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, sort it out you prícks.

For reference, I'm a low paid nordie in finglas with a soft nationalist viewpoint. Hoped for a FG Greens coalition.

[paddyor]

I say give the keys to the Germans and ask them to govern us until we’re mature enough to be trusted with a democracy.

The Germans who are having a political crisis because a regional CDU party used AfD votes to get into power ?

That Germany ?

It's not enough that the Irish state bailed out bankrupt Irish banks to prevent contagion to bankrupt German banks, thereby crippling our nation to huge debt. Now they want us to give Germany what remains of Irish sovereignty too.

Very little of our banks debt was with German banks FFS. We bailed out the banks to maintain our reputation as a place to do business, and given the alternative it was cheap at the price.

Lastly the bulk of the crippling debt was taken on by the state to fund public services.

[danthefan]

Dunphy is such a wanker, he was supporting Sinn Féin a couple of years ago because it was nice and edgy but has now reverted to calling them out.

Saw him speak at an event a few years ago, the whole thing was basically how much he disliked Ireland.

[nardol]

I say give the keys to the Germans and ask them to govern us until we’re mature enough to be trusted with a democracy.

The Germans who are having a political crisis because a regional CDU party used AfD votes to get into power ?

That Germany ?

It's not enough that the Irish state bailed out bankrupt Irish banks to prevent contagion to bankrupt German banks, thereby crippling our nation to huge debt. Now they want us to give Germany what remains of Irish sovereignty too.

Very little of our banks debt was with German banks FFS. We bailed out the banks to maintain our reputation as a place to do business, and given the alternative it was cheap at the price.

Lastly the bulk of the crippling debt was taken on by the state to fund public services.

Take out Anglo Irish and look at the aib and boi bailouts and Ireland will come out of it with a small profit.

The anglo bankers committed fraud.

The real debt wracked up by the state was running a deficit while funding the public sector.