General Irish politics discussion thread

So, Nov GE highly likely? No Govn't will have multiple byelections.

Think he is gone as of today.

Definitely a celebrity candidate. They must be trying to overtake FG as the celeb candidate party!

In Kildare North, FF selected the sitting TD and also "selected pending approval" another male candidate, who is clearly not going to be let run and they'll add a female second at some point - probably their Naas councillor.

Nothing wrong with celebrity candidates. They run the full range, from Vladimir Zeleemsky to Donald Trump. Picking the right ones is the point.

Derek Blighe is trying to get all the nationalist parties to agree to only run the most popular candidate in each constituency

Will it get a few of them over the line if they come to agreement.

I don't know that it's all that meaningful to use the term "celebrity candidate" for a candidate who has a profile in the community where they will be standing. Having some kind of a profile locally is pretty much a prerequisite for getting elected, especially under PRSTV where you are competing with other candidates from the same party, and therefore can't rely on voters' party loyalty or policy preferences to distinguish you. The major political parties have always looked for candidates with an existing profile, and indeed they will make a point of looking for candidates who have recognition in different parts of the constituency. This has long been a bread-and-butter aspect of Irish electoral politics.

I think the term "celebrity candidate" is only meaning ful when applied to someone who is an actual celebrity, as opposed to a name constituents would recognise, and where their fame is largely or wholly unrelated to politics, administration or public affairs. Dana, for example, was a celebrity candidate, as was Lord Henry Mouncharles. You probably could have called Dick Spring a celebrity candidate too, had his family connection to politics not exceeded his sporting fame.

Don't think many will miss him inside the party even.

Imagine where we'd be if any party was still like they were 50 years ago? 1975 ish? No thanks. Good to see SF resisting the calls to turn to the right from within even if he is only a councillor.

Just waited to be reelected first.

I simply don't get this comparing stuff that went on in the 1920's with the 2020's

A 100 years ago,what next,lauding the fact we don't burn witches anymore ?

Where are the posts about paranoia and scaremongering? All I see are observations

I actually get what happened in the North

What I don't get is comparing it to something a 100 years or more ago,a time with no mass media,no votes for women under 30 and several other standards different to today

It was also obviously a much more widely,almost universally supported campaign of independence/civil war meaning everyone had connections to or knew someone involved

It created a free country ,albeit with a bit missing

The NI war had none of that and didn't create a free country

Not to mention,vicims and immediate families including Gardaì (Guardians of the peace) are still alive having to watch commemorations by SF people

This is the chief reason now why FF and FG will avoid SF if elected numbers mean they can and isn't it time SF changed that by revisiting how they commemorate,it didn'matter before as they'd no hope of government,it does now and heavens they've pirrouetted on every other aspect of their being