Dr Alexander Dukalskis is an Associate Professor in UCD’s School of Politics and International Relations (SPIRe). The PSAI International Relations and Area Studies Specialist Group recently helped support a conference on Ireland-China relations. The event, held on May 23rd, was a collaboration between the UCD Centre for Asia-Pacific Research and the University of Notre Dame’s Clingen…
By Ken Carty, The University of British Columbia. Well over a decade ago now Theresa Reidy posted a blog comment asking “Referendums in Ireland, how many more can we take?” Rather than addressing the numerical question head on she went on to note how ineffective the process was as a mechanism for democratic policy-making. Few…
By Michael Gallagher 1. Previous post didn’t contain a prediction, but did observe that there were many considerations that could lead electors to a No vote while the benefits of a Yes outcome were uncertain and contested. Margin of defeat for the two proposals has taken everyone by surprise. 2. Many of the Yes advocates…
Yesterday, Northern Ireland’s voters went to the polls to elect a new assembly. Counting is now underway in early elections that were sparked by a row between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme. The scandal, however, revealed much wider differences between the partners in the North’s compulsory…
A free event to be held at UCD Newman House, November 13, 2015, 9.30am-1.00pm To register, see here Ireland’s Convention on the Constitution, which met from late 2012 to early 2014, was a world first both in allowing ordinary citizens a place in discussions about the future of our Constitution and also due to its role in the…
This is the text of an article published in the Sunday Business Post 22nd December 2013 On the night of 6th December 2008 there were widespread protests against the government in Athens. In one middle class district in the centre of Athens, Exarcheia, there were confrontations with the police. Police were ordered to leave the…
Common to all the discussions about political reform in Ireland is the need to reduce the excessive centralization of power in the executive. In recent posts I’ve examined this from the perspective of Dail reform. This post focuses on the administration of elections in Ireland. A good starting point is this document, which was the…
The last election was seen at the time as an electoral earthquake. In the midst of the worst economic crisis in our history it was to be expected that the voters would be gunning for the government of the day. The devastation of Fianna Fáil (losing three-quarters of their seats) and the disappearance of the…
Irish Politics Forum 