One of the evident failures of the FF and FG party candidates in the Presidential election was their inability to articulate what either party was for.

These are hollow vessels, whose policies are largely set by outside forces.

An organised external lobby can simply slot their preferred policy in

congrats on the successful viva Hugh! feel like I'm coming down with some sort of seasonal respiratory thing so probably won't make it tonight unfortunately

this article and many others like it are the work of Niall O'Connor, a former guard who is now the Journal's specialist in security-service-sourced pieces. The man who broke the story re Catherine Connolly's hiring of Ursula Ní Shionnáin.

I don’t think that RTE should uncritically report that 5000+ landlords are now selling their rentals properties or having a relative move in. They have sent notices to quit, but there’s no way to check the veracity of the claim behind it.

If you’re out here wringing your hands writing articles about why a bloke who thinks immigrants get free cars wrote “cunt” on his ballot paper, instead of writing articles about the well funded fascists who ran a campaign aimed at that guy, then you have no business pretending to be a journalist

I need every journalist to point out that even if steen got the finger out and got on the ballot (she didn't), and even if all the spoiled votes would have gone to her (they wouldn't), she would have still come last