James Charity to contest next General Election

Thu, Nov 20, 2014

James Charity, the Independent politician first elected to the Galway County Council at last May’s local elections, has declared he will stand for the Dáil at the 2016 General Election.

Will Walsh or Kyne survive the 2016 General Election?

Thu, Nov 13, 2014

It was not the bank collapse of 2008, the implosion of the economy, the unforgivable bank guarantee, nor four years of harsh austerity measures which forced the Irish people on to the streets in protest.

Will Kitt or Keaveney win the Fianna Fáil seat in Galway East?

Thu, Nov 06, 2014

The catastrophic collapse of Fianna Fáil’s support at the last general election saw the party lose half of its seats in Galway as it nose-dived to the worst electoral result in its illustrious history.

Why Conneely needs to persuade the women

Thu, Oct 30, 2014

The one thing which has been clear from the outset of the life of the new Galway City Council has been that it will be different from the last couple of chambers.

End of the misery

Thu, Oct 23, 2014

Sighs of relief could be heard emanating from living rooms, offices and pubs across the country last Wednesday evening as finally after six years of unrelenting misery on Budget days there was some form of relief for hard-pressed citizens. Having endured such negativity in recent years most people would have settled for ‘not being any worse off’ after this Budget but in the end most people probably ended up modestly better off.

This was a notable turnaround as for most of the year, and until very recently indeed, the expectation was that this would be yet another Budget of retrenchment and the most people dared to hope for was that it would be the last such Budget in this cycle of austerity. Even as the public finances improved over the course of the year people only dared hope for something that might be described as having a neutral impact on their finances. This does then represent something of a turnaround in the country’s economic fortunes but whether it marks a turnaround in the fortunes of the government is not so clear.

Food for thought from the recent by-elections

Thu, Oct 16, 2014

It was all about by-elections last weekend - two Dáil by-elections being watched closely with a view to gauging the mood music of the electorate; a Seanad by-election generating an inordinate amount of interest as the Government inflicted an unnecessary wound on itself; and two parliamentary by-elections in England which may yet prove to be of some interest this side of the Irish Sea.

GRASSROOTS: Would lowering property tax only benefit the well off?

Thu, Oct 09, 2014

Wednesday September 17 saw an historic and crucial meeting of the Galway City Council take place with regard to the Local Property Tax. Irish democracy had a great outing and Insider was there to see and report on it.

GRASSROOTS: Water charges - the heaviest austerity measure yet

Thu, Oct 02, 2014

Question - What country had a Robin Hood 90 per cent tax rate on its wealthiest citizens? The Soviet Union? Cuba? No; the United States. And lots of European countries as well.

The roots of the tension between the parties in City Hall

Thu, Sep 25, 2014

The first meetings of the new Galway City Council have been marked by tension and sniping between Fianna Fáil members and their counterparts in the ruling group of Fine Gael, Labour, and centre-right Independents.

Scotland’s independence vote will affect us

Thu, Sep 11, 2014

With the schools back, the evenings longer, and summer giving way to autumn, focus is switching to the resumption of the Dáil and to what the political environment will be like over the coming months. Are we facing a winter of discontent or are the dark skies starting to give way to brighter days?

Galway to ban the election poster?

Tue, Sep 02, 2014

Airbrushed and grinning politicians beaming benevolently from election posters, stuck to every available lamp-post in the city, may about to be banned, but only if the politicians themselves vote for it.

As FG/Labour support falls, is re-election plausible?

Thu, Jul 10, 2014

Last Friday saw much fanfare in the USA, and among Irish-based Americans, for the Independence Day celebrations, but in Ireland a dominant theme of political discourse - even close to two months after the local the European elections - is more of Independents’ Day.

TALKING POLITICS: Cometh the hour, cometh the man?

Thu, Jul 03, 2014

Galway political anoraks will not have failed to notice how Fianna Fáil councillor Ollie Crowe has taken over from his brother, Cllr Michael J, as the ‘Face of the party in the city’, these last three years.

Why Joan Burton is the best choice for Labour leader

Thu, Jun 26, 2014

Insider is, this week, looking at the contest for the Labour leadership, from a Labour perspective, in the aftermath of what was a disastrous election for the party in which it lost three seats on the Galway City Council.

Sinn Féin & The Noel Grealish Party

Mon, Jun 16, 2014

A senator and a Galway County Council seat in Connemara; three council seats in the city; and a councillor for Oranmore Athenry, and all for Sinn Féin, while Labour is on the ropes, bruised, battered, and both eyes blackened.

Sinn Féin demands City Hall slash property tax rate

Mon, Jun 16, 2014

A motion to slash the controversial property tax by 15 per cent will be put forward by Sinn Féin councillors at this afternoon’s Galway City Council meeting.

‘I will serve my full five years’ - Cameron

Thu, Jun 05, 2014

“Absolute crap, absolute rubbish” is how Labour councillor Billy Cameron has described Fianna Fáil accusations that he has no intention of serving his full five-year term on Galway City Council.

‘And you can quote me on that’

Thu, May 29, 2014

“I have a degree and a masters and yet I’m unemployed. My generation is the lost generation. In me, voters saw someone who has stayed and can give the perspective of that generation in City Hall, and the perspective of my generation is needed.”

The 24-year-old Sinn Féin councillor Máiréad Farrell speaking after her election on Saturday.

Election analysis - All change and no change in city’s 2014 vote

Mon, May 26, 2014

Galway will never have seen a city council like the one that gathers in June for the first meeting in City Hall after the Local Elections, and yet, from a certian point of view, it will be a council that is strangely familiar.

City Hall needs a younger generation’s perspective

Sun, May 25, 2014

The first Sinn Féin candidate to be elected in Galway city in 10 years is also, at 24, the youngest candidate to be elected to the Galway City Council. “My generation is the lost generation,” she says.

E-paper

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