In recent days there have been reports of widespread nepotism continuing with Irish political parties. assistants and drivers who are family members. Some of those involved have justified this by citing the involvement of those given the work in electoral work over a number of years. The Oireachtas spokesman told Joe Duffy today that all…
By Jane Suiter The Irish Times today editorialises on the role of the Presidency. It raises the issues of an expansion of powers of the presidency pointing out that the “President has clear constitutional obligations and duties, few independent functions and can act only on the advice of the government. In 1973, Erskine Childers, in…
Adrian Kavanagh, 30 May 2011 The latest edition of the Red C-Sunday Business Post-Red C series of opinion polls produce good news for both the government parties, but especially for Fine Gael whose support levels are seen to stand at over 4% higher than the levels attained in February’s general election. Applying my constituency level…
By Jane Suiter The Irish Times reports today that parties will be financially penalised if they fail to nominate sufficient women.
By Jane Suiter Writing in The Irish Times Eoin Daly of DCU argues that citizens should have access to non-sectarian public schools. While the argument is interesting in and of itself what appears to be at the heart of it is a kind of radical reform where, instead of the usual incrementalism typical of Irish…
Liam Weeks* It is widely recognised that adoption of a (closed) list electoral system would give political parties the power to increase the number of women in the Dáil. Women could be placed at the top of each party’s list of candidates, thus guaranteeing their election. However, if we are to see electoral reform, it…
Posted by Gary Murphy – President, Political Studies Association of Ireland. Garret FitzGerald who passed away on Thursday 19th May was a valued friend of the Political Studies Association of Ireland. He regularly participated at our conferences and events and attended many book launches supported by the association. Much has been written and spoken since…
By Claire McGing (John and Pat Hume scholar and Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences scholar (IRCHSS), NUI Maynooth) Electoral politics inIrelandis a highly masculine realm. In total, only 91 women deputies have been elected since the foundation of the State (Buckley and McGing, forthcoming). The country currently has one of the worst…
posted by John O’Brennan Submissions are still being accepted for the 2011 Undergraduate Awards of Ireland. The awards are now in their third year and are open to undergraduates in their final or penultimate year of study in any third level institution on the island of Ireland. Students are encouraged to submit essays/projects completed as part of…
By Michael Breen (17 May, 2011) An interesting piece of information that was not previously in the public domain surfaced in Morgan Kelly’s now infamous Irish Times article. He stated that: ‘The deal was torpedoed from an unexpected direction. At a conference call with the G7 finance ministers, the haircut was vetoed by US treasury…
Irish Politics Forum 