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…
Adrian Kavanagh, 18 December 2010 Sunday Business Post-Red C opinion poll December 20: FF 17 (NC), FG 34 (+1), Lab 23 (-4), Greens 2 (-1), SF 14 (+3), Others 10 (+2) On the basis of these figures, my constituency-level analysis of the poll estimates seat levels as follows: Fianna Fail 27, Fine Gael 66, Labour 46, Green Party 0, Sinn Fein 15, Independents 12 (including 5 United…
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…
Adrian Kavanagh, 15 December 2010 Irish Times Ipsos-MRBI opinion poll December 16: FF 17 (-7), FG 30 (+6), Lab 25 (-8), Greens 2 (NC), SF 15 (+7), Others 11 (+2) On the basis of these figures, my constituency-level analysis of the poll estimates seat levels as follows: Fianna Fail 26, Fine Gael 58, Labour 46, Green Party 0, Sinn Fein 18, Others 18 (including 6 United…
Beijing’s response to the award of the Nobel Peace Price to a leading Chinese dissident tells us something important about the country’s transition By Joern-Carsten Gottwald, Neil Collins and Andrew Cottey For the first time in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize a citizen of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was awarded this…
(uploaded by Fiona Buckley on behalf of the PSAI Gender Politics SG) At a conference in UCC in September (Moving in from the Margins: Women’s Political Representation in Ireland) organised by the PSAI Gender Politics Specialist Group and UCC’s Women’s Studies Programme, former Minister Gemma Hussey called for the establishment of an organisation to promote…
By Bill Kissane. There are different ways of involving the public in higher law making. Constitutions can be drafted by constituent assemblies or constitutional conventions directly elected for that purpose. Constitutional change can result from extraordinary public debates outside the formal representative arena, when a majority of the people back radical change. Alternatively, the people…
By Claire McGing (on behalf of the PSAI Gender and Politics specialist group) The recent failure of the talented Labour Dublin City councillor Rebecca Moynihan to win a nomination to run in Dublin South-Central in the upcoming general election (the three candidates who were selected are all male councillors) has once again raised questions about…
This is a truncated version of the speech delivered by Dr Maurice Manning at the launch of The Houses of The Oireachtas on 25 November 2010 The Irish Parliament is one of the oldest continuously surviving parliaments in the world. Aside from its earliest years, its legitimacy has never been seriously questioned; it has provided…
By Michael Gallagher With the election now just a few months away, possibly even closer, we should have a clear idea of how the parties will line up in the 31st Dáil. Nonetheless, there is evidently still a good deal of fluidity in voting intentions. Fianna Fáil support is rather like the banks’ liabilities: every…
Irish Politics Forum 