EU elections - why would anyone bother?

Thu, Mar 27, 2014

Seeing the occasional poster of a local election candidate advertising public meetings on various issues of concern, Insider noted that, within a month’s time, towns, villages, and the countryside will be radically altered as the election poster blitz takes hold.

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Was it all worth it, Cllr Keane?

Thu, May 02, 2013

Last February, a motion was put before the Galway City Council that would see rowdy councillors punished for unruly behaviour by stopping their pay and withdrawing services.

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Fianna Fáil - the greatest comeback since Lazarus?

Thu, Apr 11, 2013

Over recent weeks, despite the happy distraction of the St Patrick’s Day festivities and the Easter break, Insider has detected a sense of worry in people’s demeanour created by a largely unexpected development that has truly shaken them out of any complacency.

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Colm Keaveney - the kingmaker the next Labour leader might need?

Thu, Mar 28, 2013

One of the most engrossing political sagas of the current Dáil has been the venomous relationship between the Labour leadership and the party’s maverick Galway East TD Colm Keaveney.

The defection of five TDs in the first two years of Government and a nosedive in successive opinion polls has left Labour leader Eamon Gilmore in an unenviable position and, under normal circumstances, he could really use the support of the party chair.

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City to aid the resurrection of Fianna Fáil?

Thu, Mar 07, 2013

In ‘The Russians Are Coming’, one of the greatest episodes of Only Fools And Horses, Del Boy constructs a nuclear fallout shelter atop Nelson Mandela Towers. Then, after ruminating on a scenario for what might happen post a nuclear war, he announces: “The end of the world is the break we’re looking for Rodney.”

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City to aid the resurrection of Fianna Fáil?

Thu, Mar 07, 2013

In ‘The Russians Are Coming’, one of the greatest episodes of Only Fools And Horses, Del Boy constructs a nuclear fallout shelter atop Nelson Mandela Towers. Then, after ruminating on a scenario for what might happen post a nuclear war, he announces: “The end of the world is the break we’re looking for Rodney.”

Insider was reminded of this when looking at the recent poll figures for Fianna Fáil. The further the recession drags on and the lower both public and consumer confidence drops, the more the party’s support level climbs. Remember it was Fianna Fáil (not Lehmann Brothers) that destroyed the State’s economy, creating the recession that cripples us now.

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How do you solve a problem like county representation?

Thu, Feb 28, 2013

In his foreword to the document Putting People First – An Action Programme for Effective Local Government, the Minister for the Environment, ‘Big’ Phil Hogan had this to say:

“Local Government structures in Ireland have not been updated since the 19th Century. Consequently [the minister] has decided to review these structures and introduce more democratic arrangements, which will increase efficiency, make our political funding system more transparent, increase the participation of women whilst also introducing legislation to address conflicts of interests, lobbing procedures, and to strengthen our planning system. This will involve radical measures such as a substantial reduction in the number of Councillors and the number of Local and Regional authorities.”

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Deal or no deal?

Thu, Feb 21, 2013

It was another dramatic night in the Oireachtas earlier this month as the former Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide were put to bed after the best part of five years torturing the Irish people.

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Galway East - just who will survive?

Thu, Feb 14, 2013

Of the four Galway East TDs elected in 2011, one will not return to 32nd Dáil after the 2016 General Election, not because of the wrath of the electorate, but because the constituency has undergone yet another of its regular metamorphoses.

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Austerity must be from the top down

Thu, Nov 29, 2012

The coming Budget on December 5 is proposed to be the most severe ever imposed on the Irish people and the effect it will have on Government services Insider can only imagine.

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Are the Irish economically illiterate?

Thu, Nov 08, 2012

As we approach the sixth in what seems to be a never-ending run of austerity budgets the public, despite some spin on the part of the Government and others, just does not sense we are anywhere near emerging from the economic abyss.

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Next time out it could be Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil coalition

Thu, Oct 11, 2012

One of our great national traits is the knowledge that we could all do the other fellow’s job so much better, be it politicians, teachers, referees, whatever, we all know better. Some of us keep this to ourselves but others have no difficulty letting the whole world know.

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Post-Olympic glow begins to diminish in the corridors of power as pressure mounts

Thu, Oct 04, 2012

After the political holiday season – where events such as the London Olympics provided a welcome diversion from all things political and economic – the onset of autumn and the return of the Dáil has brought us all crashing back to reality.

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The local elections of 2014 - they are sooner than you think

Thu, Jun 28, 2012

With around two years to go before the next local elections, political parties will already be focusing on their representative candidates and their prospects of success in what is likely to be a highly formative election.

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The race for city’s directly-elected mayor

Thu, Jun 14, 2012

Minister Phil Hogan’s eyes were still adjusting to natural light last week after spending the duration of the recent referendum campaign locked in the basement of Government Buildings.

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A Mayor to be proud of

Thu, May 31, 2012

Before this year Insider did not know Mayor Hildegarde Naughton very well, but after her year in office, he is delighted to be able to reflect on a job well done by a relative political novice.

There were a few minor stumbles along the way, but overall the Mayor has grown into the job and has proven herself more than capable of representing Galway on any stage.

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Government - not quite the bed of roses that Labour might have expected

Thu, Apr 12, 2012

Insider rarely tires of the vicissitudes of Galway politics. The city and county’s petty intrigues, feverish whisperings, internecine squabbles, and comical characters are usually enough to keep even the most amateur political observer entertained.

A new circus is coming to town, however, and Insider may just be caught peeping under the big-top canvas. The great and the good of the Labour Party will gather in Galway this weekend, as its National Conference sets up camp in NUI Galway.

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Nolan and Keaveney - this county ain’t big enough for the both of us

Thu, Mar 08, 2012

Galway is set to become the battleground for an internecine struggle over who will be elected chair of the Labour Party this month as both the party’s Galway TDs - Derek Nolan (Galway West) and Colm Keaveney (Galway East) are understood to be touting for support among their parliamentary colleagues.

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Labour needs to watch its left flank

Thu, Mar 01, 2012

The recent enlistment of Johnny Walsh, who served as an Independent councillor on Ballinasloe Town Council for the past 13 years, into The Labour Party, might seem like a ‘small fry’ incident in local parish politics, but it is in fact, far from that.

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We need a referendum on the austerity treaty

Thu, Feb 09, 2012

“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians,” the former French president Charles De Gaulle once said. Indeed he would have been within his rights to substitute the word ‘dangerous’ for ‘serious’.

What we are seeing now, amidst the European economic crisis is politics being left to politicians, without recourse to the voters who elected them and the citizens they claim to represent.

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E-paper

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