Search Results for 'General Election'

While domestic policy challenges continue to dominate Irish political discourse, the sense that negotiations are reaching a crunch phase is pushing Brexit higher up the agenda. Insider however senses that much of the population, and even some of the political class, are oblivious to the scale of the challenges facing the State on the global front, and the painful decisions and choices that may have to be taken.

Sinn Féin Councillor, Thérèse Ruane has announced that she will not be contesting the next local elections and is to step down as a Mayo County Councillor at the end of this year. Ruane was first elected to Castlebar Town Council in 2009 having be co-opted on to the council to replace Noel Campbell, she subsequently won that seat in the next Town Council elections and in 2014 was elected a member of Mayo County Council in the Castlebar Municipal District getting 1,375 first preference votes and taking the third seat in the district. She was also part of two person Sinn Fein ticket in the 2011 general election where she was given 2,142 first preference votes.

“Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” - Sir Walter Scott

In the aftermath of the 2016 General Election numerous politicians and political pundits continually warned, "There will be an election in six months". Some 20 months have passed in the meantime, with 2019 still being the likeliest date when voters will next go to the polls.

Our illustration today is of the minutes of the inaugural meeting of the Galway city branch of Sinn Féin which was held in Keane’s Hotel, Eyre Square, on February 15, 1907. T Breathnach was in the chair.

As we face in to the winter of 2017, Insider cannot help sense that as each week passes we are much closer to a general election than many politicians and political parties would really like.

As Insider spends endless hours each week sitting in the traffic, he finds it hard to believe the people of Galway, particularly those voting in the city, are so indulgent of populist candidates and those of the 'loony left’.

The radical Left in Ireland has made significant advances since free market capitalism - which even had Insider fooled for a while - collapsed its own banking system in 2008. In that year, we were shaken unceremoniously awake from the long political sleep, which had fallen on the Western world since the fall of the Berlin Wall, by the sound of Allied Irish, the Bank of Ireland, and the rest of them, wailing at our windows for what amounted to the biggest social welfare payment in Irish history.

Have you ever thought about getting involved in politics? This Saturday Aug 26 at 2pm at the PorterShed off Eyre Square, the Galway West Branch of the Social Democrats are holding a event called “Is Politics for you?”.

Close to 200 adults in Galway are now classed homeless according to the figures released recently by the Department of Housing, a situation that is only going to get worse according to the Social Democrats.