Four polls were published on the marriage equality referendum last weekend. These showed large differences in the expected yes-vote, ranging from 53% to 69%. Given that these polls were taken in roughly the same period, what do such large differences tell us about popular support for the proposal? How big is the decline for a…
Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference 2015 Gresham Metropole Hotel Cork, 16 – 18 October 2015 The annual conference of the PSAI will take place in Cork over the weekend 16 – 18 October 2015. Paper proposals are invited from all areas of the discipline. A detailed list of themes is included below and…
On Friday the Irish will vote on two issues. Both are being sold as reforms, one a social reform, the other a political reform. Both can be said to have come from the the ‘People’ via the Constitutional Convention. If polls are even broadly accurate one will pass comfortably, the other will be easily defeated.…
There are now so many red lines laid down during the UK general election that forming a coalition is going to resemble a scene from Mission Impossible. SNP won’t support the Tories, UKIP won’t support Labour, Sinn Féin won’t support (or oppose) anyone,… Most of this is just electioneering. Even the one party that’s keeping…
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…
The Spring Economic Statement delivered today (see here) represents a very belated dipping of the toe in the water towards greater budgetary transparency by the government. We were promised this in 2011. The fact that it’s finally starting to happen four years later and coincidentally on the eve of the next election – is noteworthy.…
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…
Posted by David Farrell, April 13, 2015 The Report of the Working Group on Seanad Reform was published earlier today (see here). It was given a limited range of options: no change, minor change, or major change (but not involving constitutional reform). In opting for the latter the working group has defied most expectations (certainly…
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…
Irish Politics Forum 