Sinn Fein and how do they form a government dilemma

Kate O'Connell left many years ago. She was no "rising star".

and a councilor who was told he would not be selected as there were several better options ahead of him?

The thread title needs to change. It sure ain't happening....

She was definitely a rising star. For a variety of reasons she was pushed heavily- bizarrely she was one of the main faces of the Coveney campaign at the outside (despite just being there for over a year) and that was before the choir boys thing.

It’s standard practice in a party though, if you lose you lose. Yes she shared a constituency with his Varadkar’s key backer and that made re-election a challenge but she just did not play the game well. Whether that was a natural ego or came from the early push I’m not sure.

She had a chance here with Harris who was wanted his stamp on things but it appears she has made a mess of it again. She must think she can get in herself or do enough damage to FG that they’ll come back again but I suspect “I told you so” is being said in an elegant manner to Simon Harris right now.

It seems to be setting them on a course with the Soc Dems etc which isn’t the smartest.

As I write it appears to me that the media have decided to let the hare sit for a bit now.

BUT, they are more than likely sharpening their pencils for an all out coverage of (perhaps) further SF shenanigans that they are holding in reserve for the GE campaign which I think will be short, sharp and focused. On SF maybe….

Mary Lou is gone after the election.

Just saw SF have nominated Mairead Farrell to take over PAC chair, considering how key and important a role it is i don't think SF should be allowed replace Stanley until they have cleared the air around this whole fiasco. They obviously don't have much respect for the position he held or its importance in holding government to account to have dealt with this whole matter in such a farcical and messy way.

Im not trying to say who is right or wrong between SF and Stanley. The observation that I am making is considering Stanleys position as PAC chair how did they not take this seriously enough to have their ducks in a row so as to not have the fiasco of the past few days happen is beyond me and i think shows that they don't actually respect the position of PAC chair.

The second an investigation was started they should have had a thought to replacing him in case it was needed but it took them 3 days to nominate someone. Really i'm more shocked at the behavior of them as outside of the smaller council party messes they have had I always considered the parliamentary wing of SF to be a pretty tightly run ship. Obviously I was wrong.

I edited after you replied, apologies, but the minute an investigation was started there should have been somewhat of a high level private group who had at the very least a 2-3 name shortlist ready to go.