Séighin Ó Ceallaigh

Friday 29th November 2019 will see four by-elections take place in Ireland to fill the seats vacated by TDs who were elected to the European Parliament in May's EU elections. The elections will take place in Wexford, Dublin Fingal, Dublin Mid-West, and Cork North-Central. Given that the Dáil is currently operating under a minority Fine Gael/Independent government, facilitated by Fianna Fáil, the results of these four contests could have a major impact on Dáil arithmetic. Based on the 2016 election results, current trends, and candidates I will analyse each seat individually, in individual articles. Today's article is focused on the constituency of Dublin Mid-West. The seat was vacated by former TD and controversial Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald of Fine Gael, who was elected to the European Parliament in May's EU election. Fine Gael will have a tough battle on their hands to keep Sinn Féin from winning this seat, and securing a second TD for the constituency. Cll...

Friday 29th November 2019 will see four by-elections take place in Ireland to fill the seats vacated by TDs who were elected to the European Parliament in May's EU elections. The elections will take place in Wexford, Dublin Fingal, Dublin Mid-West, and Cork North-Central. Given that the Dáil is currently operating under a minority Fine Gael/Independent government, facilitated by Fianna Fáil, the results of these four contests could have a major impact on Dáil arithmetic. Based on the 2016 election results, current trends, and candidates I will analyse each seat individually, in individual articles. Today's article is focused on the constituency of Dublin Fingal. This seat was vacated by former Independents4Change TD Claire Daly, when she was elected as a member of the European Parliament in May 2019. The grouping/political party will be standing Dean Mulligan in the hopes of keeping the seat, but this is quite unlikely. While Daly did manage to achieve 9,480 votes in the 2016...

Friday 29th November 2019 will see four by-elections take place in Ireland to fill the seats vacated by TDs who were elected to the European Parliament in May's EU elections. The elections will take place in Wexford, Dublin Fingal, Dublin Mid-West, and Cork North-Central. Given that the Dáil is currently operating under a minority Fine Gael/Independent government, facilitated by Fianna Fáil, the results of these four contests could have a major impact on Dáil arithmetic. Based on the 2016 election results, current trends, and candidates I will analyse each seat individually, in individual articles. Today's article is focused on the constituency of Cork North-Central. This will be a closely contested seat by a range of candidates to fill the seat of Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher who was elected to the European Parliament in May 2019. While Kelleher topped the poll in 2016 in the constituency, he was the only Fianna Fáil candidate on the ticket, it will be interesting to see if...

Friday 29th November 2019 will see four by-elections take place in Ireland to fill the seats vacated by TDs who were elected to the European Parliament in May's EU elections. The elections will take place in Wexford, Dublin Fingal, Dublin Mid-West, and Cork North-Central. Given that the Dáil is currently operating under a minority Fine Gael/Independent government, facilitated by Fianna Fáil, the results of these four contests could have a major impact on Dáil arithmetic. Based on the 2016 election results, current trends, and candidates I will analyse each seat individually, in individual articles. Today's article is focused on the constituency of Wexford. This seat was vacated by Mick Wallace MEP, a left wing Independent who polled 11% in the 2016 election. While Sinn Féin candidate Johnny Mythen came within a hair's width of taking a seat in 2016, he failed to retain his seat on Wexford County Council in May's local elections. With an Aontú candidate in the mix, whi...

While the recent Spanish election can be discussed in length regarding a number of issues and results, one stand out result is the near absence of the right wing Spanish party Vox from any of the nations currently occupied by Spain. Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country have resoundingly rejected the party, while Southern Spain and the areas surrounding Madrid have embraced fascism at the ballot box. This should be no surprise to those acquainted with Spanish history and politics. The results have a similar geography to the battle lines of the Spanish Civil War, fought between fascists and republicans. The leftists and republicans in the three occupied nations have certainly held their ground in this election, and in doing so have kept their struggles for independence alive and strong. If anything the continuous presence of Fascism in Spain since the 1930s to this present day has only motivated nationalists to continue to pursue their countries' separation from Spain, ...

If you thought of a South American country that has suffered from political division, the rise of the far-right, violent street encounters, and international interference, the first country that would pop into your head would be Venezuela. But while news stories from South America have been dominated by the attempted coup in Venezuela, and the Amazon fires, turmoil has pursued under the radar in Bolivia. To be honest I was a little caught off guard by the resignation of President Evo Morales, Bolivia has thrived under his leadership, and I was unaware of the extent of foreign interference and political turmoil in the country. But honestly I'm not in the slightest bit surprised. Bolivia is the country in which iconic communist Ché Guevara was executed, following collusion between the CIA, Bolivian forces and militias, and has a long history of colonialism and fascism. In fact in WW2 the USA had drafted plans to invade South America, as they feared that many countries on the cont...

With a General Election taking place in the North and Britain on 12th December, campaigns across the six counties are well and truly underway. With various candidates and political parties agreeing to step aside in this First Past The Post election, it is very much turning into a Brexit based election as I have previously covered in an article prior to the election being called. However this article covers the four MP seats in North, South, East, and West Belfast, which may not have a DUP MP after the election. Strategic moves from Sinn Féin and the SDLP in particular could see the DUP lose all 3 Belfast seats which they currently hold, one each to Sinn Féin, SDLP, and Alliance. West Belfast is a guaranteed Sinn Féin seat and little analysis is needed, the only interesting aspect is how People Before Profit will fare given their Pro-Brexit stance in this Remain Constituency.  In South Belfast,  Sinn Féin and the Greens have stepped aside to assist the SDLP's Claire Han...