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Post by cato on Jan 21, 2020 11:56:25 GMT
In some ways the current Irish election campaign is a total farce were we are basically allowed to choose which "personalities" run our left leaning progressive globalist EU satellite formerly known as Ireland. Just like the old Soviet bloc we go through a farcical process of electing representatives who then go off and agree a consensus and ignore real concerns of their citizens.
Leo Varadkar engineered this election to save his close ally Simon Harris from a vote of no confidence that was due had the former Dail continued to sit.
The Varadkar government was probably the worst ever in the history of the state and few will lament its passing. A new look Fianna Fail led replica will not be an improvement from a conservative stance however.
This election is important though. There are small socially conservative parties that are getting small votes of under 5% in recent elections. This is the bare minimum necessary to get a toe hold in Irish politics. In this election we may see the embers begin to smoulder and produce a little smoke. There will be no big conservative breakthrough this time around but increasing that core vote and gaining recognition is an important step in creating a viable presence on the right in Ireland.
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Post by cato on Jan 22, 2020 13:34:45 GMT
One gripe I have about our current electoral process is that some candidates get little or no coverage in the media. Often when I vote I see names and faces on the ballot but have no idea of the background or policies of the candidates.
Surely it is possible to have a central on line site where candidates outline their views and make a pitch for the electorate of whatever area they are running in.
Of course most candidates probably don't have any core values other than getting elected. As we know to our cost many politicians will betray solemn promises and sacrifice if not their grannies then their children and grandchildren.
Also conservative leaning sites should produce short lists of candidates (and they do tend to be short unfortunately) who stand for National sovereignty and social and cultural conservatism . We do need to maximise the limited strength we have.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jan 22, 2020 14:39:58 GMT
One gripe I have about our current electoral process is that some candidates get little or no coverage in the media. Often when I vote I see names and faces on the ballot but have no idea of the background or policies of the candidates. Surely it is possible to have a central on line site where candidates outline their views and make a pitch for the electorate of whatever area they are running in. Of course most candidates probably don't have any core values other than getting elected. As we know to our cost many politicians will betray solemn promises and sacrifice if not their grannies then their children and grandchildren. Also conservative leaning sites should produce short lists of candidates (and they do tend to be short unfortunately) who stand for National sovereignty and social and cultural conservatism . We do need to maximise the limited strength we have. I've often thought this myself. In our age of supposed information overload there is a real dearth of information on most candidates. |
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Post by cato on Jan 22, 2020 15:09:10 GMT
John Waters has thrown his hat into the ring by standing in Dun Laoghaire which has often been caricatured as Ireland's most compassionate constituency as it consistently supports the usual liberal band wagon . He is standing for Anti Corruption Ireland. Gemma O Doherty is standing In Fingal . It has been claimed Fingal is the most ethnically "diverse" constituency in the state. At least no one can claim either candidate is afraid of taking the battle into the lion's lair!
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jan 22, 2020 15:15:42 GMT
John Waters has thrown his hat into the ring by standing in Dun Laoghaire which has often been caricatured as Ireland's most compassionate constituency as it consistently supports the usual liberal band wagon . He is standing for Anti Corruption Ireland. Gemma O Doherty is standing In Fingal . It has been claimed Fingal is the most ethnically "diverse" constituency in the state. At least no one can claim either candidate is afraid of taking the battle into the lion's lair! It will be interesting to see how he fares-- I was really surprised to see that he was standing. |
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Post by cato on Jan 28, 2020 11:06:34 GMT
It is a dilemma choosing who to vote for in Ireland in 2020. Fine Gael have been a disappointment in handling the economy and in dealing with law and order , traditionally their strong points. They promised tax cuts to benefit workers which they have failed to deliver on. Many of their prominent TDs betrayed their pro life credentials and helped deliver the culture of death to Irish hospitals. Virtually every FG TD voted for this. I will not give a FG candidate even a preference.
Fianna Fail propped up this regime which also presided over mass immigration , a new housing crisis, a hospital cisis and direct discrimination against Irish poor and homeless people. The Fianna Fail front bench voted for abortion in the Dail , a few back benchers opposed the bill , most abstained. In my constituency all the existing TDs betrayed the unborn.
It is tempting to stay at home or spoil a ballot but there are almost 30 Nationalist candidates ( Renua , National Party and the Irish Freedom Party) standing . None are competing against each other which is a positive development. Still I wonder why there are 3 competing parties on the Irish right , none of which have a seat to date.
Peadar Toibin also offers a Republican left of centre pro life option which is worthy of support if a candidate is standing locally.
I don't expect a conservative resurgence. You can gain a seat on as little as 7% of first preferences , if you get transfers as Katherine Zapone managed to achieve last time out.
If I can be forgiven a little schadenfreude I am hoping herself and minister for health will not be returned to the new Dail. Fingers crossed.
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Post by cato on Feb 3, 2020 22:33:15 GMT
GE 2020 must be the dullest ever in terms of the formal debates. Virtually all the parties other than Fine Gael want to cut taxes and spend spend spend. No one points out the huge crippling 200 billion plus national debt that will limit the freedom of any future government. Fine Gael tries to present Fianna Fail as reactionary on social issues , which is cynical in the extreme. All the debate to date is a centre left narrative. There is little or no deviation from this rigid artificial script.
The major issue of immigration is ignored unless it is to emphasise it is an unmitigated blessing and that to question this sacred dogma is to be an evil racist. We do not discuss the impact of this policy on Irish homeless populations or hospitals. 30% of Dublin social housing is now for non Irish residents. There has been zero discussion about this.
The discussion of pensions has begun but most of the left deny there is a problem contrary to the prediction of virtually every actuarian and serious economist. This has been a hobby horse of mine for years. I could never get the uproar over a modest water tax when no one objected to pensioners losing almost€ 25,000 if pension ages were raised. At least we are now talking about this.
The consistent policy of the state to undermine the family and to reduce birth rates has a direct relationship on the number of future workers . We are contracepting and aborting future citizens and the state subsidises this economic and social suicide. Even the church fails to point this out. This is directly linked to a future pension and health care crisis. The sexual revolution has a price tag due to levied in the next few decades.
The polls currently predict FF/FG combinedhave about 43% of the vote which is unprecedented . Sinn Fein is rising but no party has more than 25% of the vote. We are seeing the breakdown and atomisation of Irish politics. That is the only significant event of this ever so dull campaign.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Feb 11, 2020 15:34:46 GMT
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Post by Tomas on Feb 11, 2020 16:28:38 GMT
Here is another article found today (not related but all the same) on the prime freedom fighter of India, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who determined by an iron will set up the fighting force that eventually drove England out of the country instead of the non-violent Mahatma Gandhi in the 1940s. www.indiatoday.in/information/story/netaji-subhas-chandra-bose-jayanti-2020-quotes-which-would-move-your-soul-1639151-2020-01-22 A side-question here: could his fighting style and the early works of the Irish IRA somehow be put in comparison historically?? It would seem like a long shot, but having in mind also that the film Michael Collins sold for the European market in the 1990s rather oddly as dvd got subtitled in Arabic it seems that at least some people can willingly admit a likeness in interest to weapon powers of apparently very different brands. |
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Post by Antaine on Feb 11, 2020 18:58:54 GMT
While looking at the Irish Catholics forum today, I noticed Hibernicus remarked - in regards to the defeat of the National party - that (paraphrasing) "Our country has sunken low, but it hasn't sunk that low yet."
In a country that seems keen for legalised abortion, that is openly or even enthusiastically anti-Catholic, and that seems to be determined to pander to and imitate the degeneracy spilling out of the United States; I do wonder how Hibernicus has come to the conclusion that, despite all those things, it is Irish people voting for the National Party that would be taking things too far.
I know Right wing politics are frowned upon over there, but even still, that is a rather unusual set of priorities Hibernicus seems to have.
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Post by cato on Feb 11, 2020 21:40:20 GMT
The small group of 15 TDs who opposed the sinister sounding mantra "The will of the people" by voting No to the Abortion bill were all returned to the current Dail. Although a third of the population opposed Repeal only 10% of TDs had the courage to stand up for this minority. A minority bigger than any current political party in the Republic of Ireland.
In contrast many of the Repeal girls were booted out. I took great delight in the demise of the first elected bona fide witch to the Dail Katherine Zappone . In addition to her abortion Zeal former catholic theologian Zappone campaigned to paint the Tuam graves controversy in the most lurid anti Catholic light to push killing the modern unwanted. No sense of irony there!
Kate O Connell FG who gloated during the Dail debate about pro lifers pain in defeat is now a former TD. Lisa Chambers a prominent Fianna Failer who referred to fetal pain as "makey up" has also had her employment terminated. Hard left Ruth Coppinger got The boot along with former prolifer turned abortionista Regina Doherty FG. The decision of FG/FF to continue to revile the "Backwoodsmen" hopefully was paid back by fewer votes for these triumphalistic zealots.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Feb 12, 2020 11:15:56 GMT
While looking at the Irish Catholics forum today, I noticed Hibernicus remarked - in regards to the defeat of the National party - that (paraphrasing) "Our country has sunken low, but it hasn't sunk that low yet." In a country that seems keen for legalised abortion, that is openly or even enthusiastically anti-Catholic, and that seems to be determined to pander to and imitate the degeneracy spilling out of the United States; I do wonder how Hibernicus has come to the conclusion that, despite all those things, it is Irish people voting for the National Party that would be taking things too far. I know Right wing politics are frowned upon over there, but even still, that is a rather unusual set of priorities Hibernicus seems to have. Antaine, the funny thing is that I had actually written a response exactly along those lines, but I never posted it. I like and respect Hibernicus a lot and I don't want to clash with him. He has been very encouraging to me personally. He often mentions going through a rather right-wing phase in his youth, one in which believes he reacted too violently against the spirit of the age and wandered into some questionable positions. He seems to be now very wary of repeating those mistakes. But I wonder is he over-correcting? He's also a Traditionalist, and the more moderate Traditionalists can be acutely aware of the lunatic fringe amongst them. Again, however, I think that many of them over-correct; you can also see this on the Brandsma Review Facebook page. Undoubtedly I have my own blind spots and over-reactions. I can understand a Catholic objecting to many things in the progamme of the National Party (and I have myself come to the conclusion, with considerable reluctance, that "Ireland for the Irish" is not compatible with Catholicism), but is anything they propose really worse than the slaughter of the unborn-- something this country enthusiastically endorsed two years ago? I gave my number one preference to the National Party candidate in my own constituency-- he was the only pro-life candidate. I would have put Aontú or Renua ahead of him if they had run candidates. I cast that ballot knowing full well it was no more than a futile protest vote. |
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Post by rogerbuck on Feb 12, 2020 14:11:52 GMT
While looking at the Irish Catholics forum today, I noticed Hibernicus remarked - in regards to the defeat of the National party - that (paraphrasing) "Our country has sunken low, but it hasn't sunk that low yet." In a country that seems keen for legalised abortion, that is openly or even enthusiastically anti-Catholic, and that seems to be determined to pander to and imitate the degeneracy spilling out of the United States; I do wonder how Hibernicus has come to the conclusion that, despite all those things, it is Irish people voting for the National Party that would be taking things too far. I know Right wing politics are frowned upon over there, but even still, that is a rather unusual set of priorities Hibernicus seems to have. Antaine, the funny thing is that I had actually written a response exactly along those lines, but I never posted it. I like and respect Hibernicus a lot and I don't want to clash with him. He has been very encouraging to me personally. He often mentions going through a rather right-wing phase in his youth, one in which believes he reacted too violently against the spirit of the age and wandered into some questionable positions. He seems to be now very wary of repeating those mistakes. But I wonder is he over-correcting? He's also a Traditionalist, and the more moderate Traditionalists can be acutely aware of the lunatic fringe amongst them. Again, however, I think that many of them over-correct; you can also see this on the Brandsma Review Facebook page. Undoubtedly I have my own blind spots and over-reactions. I can understand a Catholic objecting to many things in the progamme of the National Party (and I have myself come to the conclusion, with considerable reluctance, that "Ireland for the Irish" is not compatible with Catholicism), but is anything they propose really worse than the slaughter of the unborn-- something this country enthusiastically endorsed two years ago? I gave my number one preference to the National Party candidate in my own constituency-- he was the only pro-life candidate. I would have put Aontú or Renua ahead of him if they had run candidates. I cast that ballot knowing full well it was no more than a futile protest vote. Well said, Mal and Antaine! I like and respect Hibernicus, too. And I learned very good things from him and others over at that forum (which I departed for reasons of internet fatigue more than anything else. Again: I gained a lot there and am grateful for it.) Now, I know too little of the National Party (internet fatigue being the reason, again) to speak with great confidence about these issues. I can easily imagine, though, that it may well have some problems that legitimately trouble Hibernicus. But, ignorant as I am, it does seem odd to suggest that a pro-life party with real concern for Irish culture that someone like you would vote for Mal (whatever problems it might have) is the lowest of the low, lower than ... Sinn Fein?! If that is truly what was said. I haven't seen his comments, so perhaps there are some "chinese whispers" going on, in the line from Hibernicus to Antaine to me ... I also know Hibernicus did enormous amounts for the pro-life cause over many, many years and cares very deeply for the unborn, along with so many other things that are deeply important. |
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Post by cato on Feb 14, 2020 12:28:35 GMT
The Nationalist Irish parties had a terrible election . They polled less than 1% . The National Party got under 5,000 votes in the state. They need to build locally however and get local representatives and get involved in the boring nitty gritty of parish pump issues. Few if any populist parties spring ex machina from no where.
I did note some constituencies were the right had competing candidates and others were there was none. The Irish right needs to maximise and not split its vote.
The Nationalist right didn't really have a programme to be frank. Like Maolsheachlann I voted for a right candidate more out of protest than positive conviction for a good policy platform..
Iontu got around 1.9% of the vote nationally. They are Republican, left of centre pro life , pro family and
socially left of centre. The Irish Catholic carried an article pointing out their strong support among Mass going Catholics. In many ways they are the most Catholic party on offer at present.
Sinn Fein narrowly pulled ahead of Fianna Fail /Fine Gael to become the largest party in the state. This is a big moment for them but 75% of voters did NOT give them a mandate too. It may be hard to form a government without SF as that would be seen as the old establishment ignoring the call for change.
Fianna Fail fear supporting a Sinn Fein government lest they end up cannibalised like the SDLP after the Good Friday agreement. Some suggest allowing the left to form a minority government but seeing they can't get even 70 out of 160 odd seats this seems unlikely. Leon O Broin of Sinn Fein has admitted they need the support of one if those big parties they have been abusing , to form a government.
I wonder have either Micheal Martin or Leo Varadkar rang Arlene Foster of the DUP who has more experience than anyone else in governing with Sinn Fein?
Interesting times ahead.
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angelo
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Post by angelo on Feb 20, 2020 17:46:40 GMT
An analysis of the General Election from the Iona Institute: ionainstitute.ie/pro-life-vote-made-its-presence-felt-in-general-election-2020/Pro-life vote made its presence felt in General Election 2020 In 2018 more than 720,000 people, representing 33.6% of the electorate on the day, voted to keep the the pro-life Amendment in our Constitution. As a party, it would be the biggest in the Dáil, much bigger than Sinn Féin, which received 24.5% of first preferences. But such a party does not exist because pro-life voters differ on many other issues, sometimes substantially, and they often support candidates located across the political spectrum. Still, an analysis of first preferences and of transfers proves that a substantial number of voters did have the pro-life issue uppermost in their minds as they voted in the General Election of February 8. A big lesson of the election is that an unambiguous pro-life commitment did not damage any candidate. This is a lesson for those who have betrayed their past commitments and “evolved” through the years in a more pro-choice direction. A second lesson is that being outspokenly pro-choice didn’t seem to help any candidate. While many prominent pro-abortion politicians lost their seats, all 15 TDs who voted against the abortion legislation in late 2018 have been re-elected and some of them have achieved remarkable results. Carol Nolan, who was suspended from Sinn Féin for her pro-life views, performed a political miracle by being re-elected against all the odds in Laois-Offaly. Instead, former minister and strong repeal supporter Marcella Corcoran Kennedy from Fine Gael lost her seat in the same constituency. Peter Fitzpatrick, who left Fine Gael because of his pro-life values, was re-elected in Louth. The cases of Nolan and Fitzpatrick are particularly significant because they lost the support of their former parties but not of their voters. Moreover, if we analyse the transfers of votes, it is clear that they benefitted significantly from other pro-life candidates who were eliminated during the counts. Carol Nolan received a strong number of transfers from former Renua leader John Leahy, eliminated at the second last count. Leahy, like his former party, is pro-life. Peter Fitzpatrick was the main recipient of transfers from pro-life independent David Bradley, and also from the Renua and the Irish Freedom Party candidates in Louth. (Admittedly these candidates received a small amount of votes). Let’s now have a look at those elected for the first time. Surprisingly, even Sinn Féin has a newly elected pro-life TD. Pa Daly, from Kerry, campaigned for the No side during the abortion referendum in 2018. “The vast majority of those aborted under the government’s plans will be healthy babies of healthy mothers. As a Republican I cannot agree with this”, he said. Richard O’Donoghue is a new independent TD elected in Limerick County who campaigned strongly to keep the 8th amendment. Among the new Fianna Fáil TDs, two have strong pro-life credentials: Cormac Devlin, from Dún Laoghaire, and Senator Jennifer O’Connor, from Carlow-Kilkenny. Devlin was only 7th at the first count but he profited considerably from the transfers of other pro-life candidates, particularly from Mairéad Tóibín (Aontú) and Mary Hanafin (Fianna Fáil). Aontú was the most popular of the parties that presented themselves as explicitly pro-life. The RTE exit poll showed that 91pc of its supporters go to Mass at least once a week. They elected Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín in Meath West but the party missed by only 2,000 votes the 2pc national vote necessary to receive public funds. Other pro-life parties such as Renua, the Irish Freedom Party, and the National Party, made almost 1pc combined, but that was a fraction of the total pro-life vote that went to the Independents and Aontú. Nonetheless, with their transfers, these small parties often contributed to the election of more prominent prolife candidates. Altogether, the various pro-life candidates received 266,276 first preferences, including people like Eamon O Cuiv and John McGuinness of Fianna Fáil, which is about 12% of total votes, the equivalent of the Green Party and the Labour Party combined. We cannot say for sure that all of those who voted for these candidates were pro-life. Certainly, many would not have been but we can say with confidence that lots of voters would have been attracted to them by their pro-life stances. Overall, this election proved that the pro-life vote is still present and well able make a difference in a General Election. ENDS |
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