Guest post by Johnny Fallon (loaded by David Farrell, February 8 2011) With the reform debate now all thrashed out by the parties I don’t think any of them has hit the spot for me. But rather than sit on the fence I will, as usual, pop my head up for some abuse. If I…
Posted by David Farrell on behalf of the 50:50 Group (January 31, 2011) Dear Deputy, The 50:50 Group is a single issue national advocacy group that has come together to campaign for equal political representation in Irish Politics. Our desire for change reflects the public mood to move to a more inclusive form of…
David Farrell (January 10 2011) Former Attorney General John Rogers has returned to the theme of electoral reform. In a presentation on The Week in Politics on RTE last night and also in today’s Irish Times he set out the latest version of his ideas for a new electoral system (for discussion on the previous…
Posted by David Farrell (January 4, 2011) The silly season’s came early this year: barely two days into the New Year and a senior government minister flies a kite on abolishing Seanad Éireann. Speculation was rife yesterday that the government might steal a pass on the main opposition parties by setting a referendum question to…
Posted by David Farrell (December 28, 2010) To succeed, political reform needs three things to happen: a reason for the reform, leadership to drive it, and engagement by citizens. We have the first; there are early signs of the second; the third is still a long way away.
David Farrell (December 20, 2010) Political systems are very sticky. It takes a lot to uproot and alter them. This is why very few of the world’s established democracies have experienced the sort of radical reform that websites like this are calling for Ireland. The fact is that political systems are hard to change: once…
Peter Mair (December 17, 2010: posted by David Farrell) One of the issues that is likely to dominate the forthcoming general election is the question of whether Ireland should default on the crippling debt repayments. Reading both on and between the lines in the analyses of a number of economic commentators in recent weeks, I…
Posted by David Farrell (December 8, 2010) Based on the proceedings of the 2010 MacGill Summer School, the MacGill Report 2010 – Reforming the Republic, edited by Joe Mulholland will be launched at the MacGill Forum to be held on Thursday, December 16th at the Royal College of Surgeons, St Stephen’s Green from 9.00 a.m.…
by David Farrell (November 17, 2010) Now that the EU/IMF are en route it can only be a matter of time before the pretence that we’re not being bailed out is dropped. In due course we will learn just how painful things are about to become for each one of us. Already the economists are…
Posted by David Farrell (November 12, 2010) UCD’s John Hume Institute will be hosting a one day conference on the 17th November looking at the opportunity for change created by the Agreement Generation, those raised with the peace process and the 1998 Agreement. The peace process, the passage of time and generations with different frames…
Irish Politics Forum 