Comments on: Irish election coverage

By: It isn't Over Yet. But..... at Irish Election

It isn't Over Yet. But..... at Irish Election — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:15:38 +0000

[...] helping of special thanks for people like Zack Exley, Henry and the Crooked Timber folks, Josh at Techpresident.com for raising the profile of our project. [...]

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:14:37 +0000

Yeah, the PDs are libertarians all right, of the ‘deport the immigrants, introduce sweeping new police powers, and refuse to touch abortion’ variety.

By: will u.

will u. — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:05:58 +0000

For those of us confused by the ideological orientations (or lack thereof) of the various Irish political parties, the leftish politicalcompass.org claims to pinpoint them:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/ireland

By: MSS

MSS — Sun, 27 May 2007 23:15:44 +0000

I know nothing about Irish politics, but I do know something about Green parties and coalitions. I would think that Green support of a minority government would be much more likely than formal sharing of cabinet responsibility.

By: astrongmaybe

astrongmaybe — Sun, 27 May 2007 08:53:19 +0000

Aside from the PDs… Does anyone think the Greens will actually go into coalition with FF? I can’t make up my mind whether its in their interests or not. I’m not that in touch with Ir. politics, but I doubt they have the weight (in numbers or in personalities) to be anything other than FF’s yesmen. I suspect they would/will end up gradually tossing out more and more of their principles as the term goes on. On the other hand… they might get a few useful things into a program of govt, and maybe, one day, even into policy. I doubt if any party will ever come out stronger from a period of coalition with FF, though. It destroyed the PDs.

By: ejh

ejh — Sun, 27 May 2007 08:36:28 +0000

Hey Henry and Maria, can you tell ejh what Ireland was actually LIKE before the PDs and their “arrogant” politics?

Ah yes, Ireland was transformed into a modern society by the PDs, wasn’t it?

By: DC

DC — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:50:08 +0000

I don’t think McDowell was AG until 1999 but in any case the “problem” (that anyone born on the island of Ireland was entitled, following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, to citizenship of the Republic of Ireland, and that heavily pregnant migrants would exploit this) was made non-existent by the Supreme Court ruling to the effect that the citizenship of the child was no bar to deporting its parents (and thus naturally the child too).

Nevertheless McDowell introduced a referendum abolishing the birth-right rule to be held similtaneously with the mid-term elections (which were expected to go badly for the government). It’s hard to see any reason why except cynical exploitation of anti-immigration sentiment.

By: EWI

EWI — Sat, 26 May 2007 18:37:48 +0000

DC the point of the referendum was to tie up a hole in the constitution made by the Supmere court in 2002. When it ruled irish born kids could be deported if their parents were not irish.

As you may care to note, this self-same problem originated while McDowell himself was AG (1998, I think). I certainly recall the Irish Times flagging it up at the time.

By: EWI

EWI — Sat, 26 May 2007 18:33:44 +0000

Even his opponents on the web are giving him his dues.

Both barrels, one hopes :)

Goes to show what you get for calling FF on corruption, even to the extent he did.

Yes, because God knows that Fine Gael have never accepted money from anyone (the allegations against Lowry – John Bruton’s BFF - and the Cosgrave grandson both spring to mind).

Much more to the point, though, is the reminder by ‘dc’ that the PD’s supposedly superior anti-corruption morals led them into coalition with both Haughey and Ahern – nice sticking by your principles, if you can get it.

By: Daragh McDowell

Daragh McDowell — Sat, 26 May 2007 16:44:02 +0000

Hey Henry and Maria, can you tell ejh what Ireland was actually LIKE before the PDs and their ‘arrogant’ politics?

By: ejh

ejh — Sat, 26 May 2007 16:21:39 +0000

It does seem that the PDs in general have had a rough day today.

Marvellous news. Rarely has there been a more obnoxious and arrogant bunch of individuals in modern Irish politics. The pursuit of economics that meant more and more good things for people like them: and if you don’t like it you’re a dinosaur or a thug. The party of the people who are superior to everybody.

The party of screw-you economics in the name of modernity: and it looks like they’ve been found out. Quel dommage. I’d like to say “we will not see their like again” but unfortunately we probably will.

By: DC

DC — Sat, 26 May 2007 14:29:47 +0000

Simon (and Daragh),

That ruling is precisely why the referendum was pointless. Because it (quite bizarrely) did indeed effectively rule that “irish born kids could be deported if their parents were not irish”.

So exactly what was the “loophole open for exploitation”? What was its significance?

By: Daragh McDowell

Daragh McDowell — Sat, 26 May 2007 13:04:25 +0000

What are you talking about? It made a significant and crucial change, in that birth on the island of Ireland (a clause in the constitution written to provide for an eventual 32 county Republic, but left a loophole open for exploitation) no longer entitled one to citizenship. How is that not significant? On what planet are you living?

By: simon

simon — Sat, 26 May 2007 13:03:50 +0000

DC the point of the referendum was to tie up a hole in the constitution made by the Supmere court in 2002. When it ruled irish born kids could be deported if their parents were not irish.

By: DC

DC — Sat, 26 May 2007 12:46:04 +0000

But seriously folks, I described the referendum, which coincidentally coincided with the midterm elections, as “pointless” in so far as it made no substantial change to immigration/citizenship law whatsoever.

It was on the other hand, as you noticed, quite popular for some reason or another.