It sums up the inaction of the main Irish political parties, that they are continuing to have a presence on #x given its use to coordinate riots with the incitement of its owner.

When they can’t make easy decisions like this, how can you expect them to make the difficult decisions running the country.

Labour isn’t on X (at least no reference on the labour.ie page). Well done.

#FiannaFáil #finegael #sinnfein #peoplebeforeprofit #aontu

Cowardice from government and FAI flies in the face of Irish public and football community’s demands to Stop The Game – Joanna Byrne TD
https://sinnfein.ie/news/cowardice-from-government-and-fai-flies-in-the-face-of-irish-public-and-football-communitys-demands-to-stop-the-game-joanna-byrne-td/

#FAI #StopTheGame #SinnFein

Sport and Politics

I have found this a very disappointing weekend in many respects for sports. Two Irish rugby teams (Ulster and Leinster) both lost their cup finals against French opposition (Montpellier and Bordeaux in the Challenge Cup and Champions Cup, respectively). Glamorgan’s cricketers lost their first two Twenty20 games of the season (both narrowly). And today’s last round of matches in the English Premier League saw Newcastle lose, an outcome made worse by the fact that Sunderland won.

At least however there was an opportunity to enjoy Ireland’s greatest spectator sport (after hurling, of course): the counting of votes in an election. Friday saw two by-elections, one because of the resignation of Paschal Donohoe (FG) from his seat in Dublin Central in order to take a lucrative job at the World Bank, and the other vacated by Catherine Connolly whose seat in Galway West became vacant when she took on the role of President. Neither of these are constituencies in which I could vote, but it was fun watching the results come on.

These elections, like all elections in Ireland, were held under a system of Proportional Representation (Single Transferable Vote). The constituences return multiple members in a General Election, but in the case of a by-election only one candidate is elected. This simplifies matters a bit because the part of the process that involves transferring surplus votes from candidates who exceed quota is not needed. Voters rank the candidates in order of preference with votes progressively reallocated as the lowest-ranked candidates are eliminated. You can rank all the candidates or just some. In the system employed here one ranks the candidates in order of preference with votes progressively reallocated in various rounds until one ends up with one winner.

There was also the presence of gang leader Gerard Hutch among the candidates in Dublin Central, but in the end he didn’t put up a serious challenge.

Opinion polls gave Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan a narrow lead on first preferences, but since SF are notoriously transfer-unfriendly, I was very confident that lead would be overturned by Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats. As it turned out, however, Ennis actually led on first preferences which confirmed me in my opinion that he would win. This is how the transfers panned out.

Ennis won comfortably, and John Stephens of Fianna Fáil gaining the distinction of getting the lowest share of first preference votes that his party has ever recorded in an election. There are some bizarre transfers, e.g. from the left-wing PBP (People Before Profit) to Fine Gael. Other than that the outcome was as predicted.

Not long ago Sinn Féin were riding high in the polls and might have expected to win a seat here, especially since Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin leader, holds a seat in Dublin Central, but their popularity has slumped. I think that’s primarily because they have recently lurched to the right – rather like UK Labour has – and many who want a genuinely progressive alternative to the crumbling neoliberal consensus have decided that they can’t support SF which puts on the mask of a progressive party when it suits them but are quite to remove it when chasing the right-wing vote. is quoted as saying that there is ‘no confusion’ for voters about whether the party was left-wing or right-wing. I think she is correct there, but perhaps not in the way she intended…

A genuinely left-wing party of the size of Sinn Féin should be building coalitions and knocking at the door to power, but instead it has squandered its position by pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment, jumping on the bandwagon of the recent “fuel protests” and signing up to transphobic policies in Northern Ireland. I don’t understand why they have chosen this path, but it looks very foolish to me. I’m not the only one to think this. Is Morgan McSweeney now working for Sinn Féin?

As I write, the count in Galway West is still going on but it has come down to a contest between two unpalatable right-wing candidates so I’m not following it as closely. Oh, the Fine Gael candidate has won.

#GerryAdams welcomes historian #GerardShannon for a remarkable interview about Shannon's new book on #IRA leader #RoryOConnor, who was executed during the #IrishCivilWar

https://www.buzzsprout.com/991288/episodes/19182769-special-episode-in-conversation-with-author-gerard-shannon
#Ireland #IrishHistory #EasterRising #IrishRepublicanArmy #SinnFéin #IrishWarOfIndependence #BattleOfDublin #books #biographies @bookstodon

IRA victims to protest outside Holyrood after John Swinney says people must 'move on' over Sinn Fein

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/ira-victims-protest-outside-holyrood-37170571

Letters: RTÉ should do us a favour and stay away from all future Eurovision Song Contests

With three extra countries participating, I doubt if the aforementioned were missed. Regarding Ireland’s non-participation, it…
#Eurovision #AbortionReferendum #BBC #BenjaminNetanyahu #BorisJohnson #EurovisionSongContest2026 #Gaza #HollyCairns #HSE #Israel #KeirStarmer #Lebanon #nigel-farage #PeopleBeforeProfit #RoseofTralee #rte #RyderCup #SinnFéin #SocialDemocrats
https://www.europesays.com/europe/43172/

RT by @christia_allard: This afternoon -while #DowningStreet is in tatters- leaders of nationalist parties @sinnfeinireland @Plaid_Cymru @theSNP are meeting to take the question of #referendum #independence forward…
“Now is the time for action” say @MaryLouMcDonald @moneillsf and #SinnFein #FPA

This afternoon -while #DowningStreet is in tatters- leaders of nationalist parties @sinnfeinireland @Plaid_Cymru @theSNP are meeting to take the question of #referendum #independence forward…
“Now is the time for action” say @MaryLouMcDonald @moneillsf and #SinnFein #FPA

Video
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https://nitter.net/FPALondon/status/2054945385173393665#m

Self determination is about to get real in the UK:

‘#SinnFéin, the #SNP and #PlaidCymru have held a meeting at Westminster to discuss what they describe as “a new era of cooperation between Scotland, Wales and the north of Ireland”.

For the first time since devolution, the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all led by nationalist politicians. This has been seen as a step towards making the break-up of the UK more possible’

Guardian Politics Live