Originally posted on Ruminative Rumblings:
It’s a glorious morning for democrats and equal rights campaigners everywhere:  the Irish have voted nearly 2 to 1 to allow equal marriage rights regardless of sex. However, this is a big day for deliberative democrats too, because in all the coverage about the referendum, what keeps getting forgotten is…

Prof Eduardo Silva will deliver the inaugural Maynooth University Visiting Scholar Lecture: “Learning from Latin America: Lessons from the periphery in a time of austerity” on Tuesday, 5th May 2015, with responses from Dr Mary Murphy, Maynooth University Department of Sociology and Dr David Begg, former General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The evening begins with a reception in Pugin Hall at 6.00pm, with…

At most a year out from the general election, we are beginning to see some shape to what could be the most formative election in recent memory. The 2011 election was called an ‘earthquake election’ by some political scientists because on many metrics we saw remarkable changes, it was one of the most volatile elections in…

post by Elaine Byrne 13 April 201 The report of the Seanad Working Group on Reform was published today. It can be accessed here. The proposals include votes for the 800,000 Irish passport holders abroad, residents in Northern Ireland and popular election. A draft Bill will be published shortly which seeks to implement the proposals…

Post by Vanessa Liston The controversy over the Central Access Scheme (CAS) in Kilkenny city has raised some important issues about local democracy in Ireland. One of these concerns the link between elected representatives and citizens. On the one hand those who, for different reasons oppose the scheme, claim that democracy is dead. Councilors do…

  Prof. Eduardo Silva, Tulane University, this year’s Maynooth University Distinguished Visiting Scholar. Posted on behalf of Dr. Barry Cannon and Dr. Mary P. Murphy, National University of Ireland Maynooth. This blog presents the arguments from a paper published in Irish Political Studies by the authors. Free access to the paper is available for the…

Posted on behalf of Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan, School of Applied Social Studies University College Cork, Dr Amy Healy, NUI Maynooth, and Prof Michael Breen, Faculty of Arts, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick. This blog presents the arguments from a paper published in Irish Political Studies by the authors. Free access to the paper is…

Support for Fine Gael and Labour has declined from a combined 38% early this year to 27.5% now. This represents the (joint) largest loss for the government parties in a calendar year since the coalition took office in 2011. In 2011 the coalition lost 10% of the vote, in 2012 7.5% and in 2013 1.5%.…

Dr. Mel Farrell, 3 December 2014 The Great Depression helped create the party system that dominated Irish politics for eighty years, the Great Recession may be about to force a new way in Irish politics. After the 2011 general election, what newly elected Taoiseach Enda Kenny described as a ‘Democratic Revolution’, shook the foundations of Ireland’s…