Melmoth Plays Politics

I've been interested in politics since the foundation of the Progressive Democrats many many moons ago, and the events of the time have informed much of my political thought.
The first election I was really interested in was the 1990 Presidential Election. With the whole phonecalls scandal, and the sacking of Brian Lenihan Sr. (RIP). 'Irish' politics is a very interesting area; we have our own domestic politics in the 26 county Republic of Ireland, our dealings with the 6-county Northern Ireland, and our ever extending dealings with what is now the European Union.
One further point, I've heard people compare Irish politics as alphabet soup, so to aid the unfamiliar here's a reasonably comprehensive Glossary of Terms and Acronyms. Hopefully, these will be a help with understanding Irish Politics, but the glossary is not just a political reference.

Politics in the Republic of Ireland

System of Government.

Domestic politics revolve around our parliamentary system. The lower house, the Dáil is elected by a system of proportional representation, using the idea of a single transferable vote.
The Senate is a weak body with very little power, and is elected by various means including a county council & university electorates etc.
The Irish Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann is the fundamental law of the land, and can only be changed by a direct vote of the people. Every other institution of the state is inferior to our constitution.
There are various government agencies on the Web,
- Irish Government This is the official site for the institution of the Government, as opposed to the parties currently in office. It's fairly comprehensive, but you may wish to go straight to some specific sites like,
- The Office Of Public Works
- Údarás na Gaeltachta

Political Parties

For most of it's life the Republic has operated under what was know as the two and a half party system - two large parties, each opposed to the other, and one relatively small party standing between the two.
However, recently there has been a move away from traditional trends, as civil war habits finally disappear. Parties currently represented in the Dáil, in order of decreasing size are,
1. Fianna Fáil - The Republican Party
2. Fine Gael
3. The Labour Party
  
  I've long been a friend of the Labour party, and I've collected some speeches and soundbytes by prominent Labour politicans.
  Michael D. Higgins - On being appointed Arts Minister (438kb).
  Dr. Musafe Bamjee - On dealing with Mary Harney (23kb).
  Backbenchers - On dealing with Fergus Finlay (86kb).
4. The Progressive Democrats There's also the Young PD's at Dublin University
5. Democratic Left
6. The Green Party
7. Sinn Féin There's a soc on campus, DCU-SF who are a very active society, holding regular events, but their webpage isn't up to scratch.
8. Socalist Party
There are also parties currently w/o Dáil representation. I'd give The Workers Party a mention in this category, and also the Socalist Workers Party.
There are also a couple of Senators with Websites -
- Senator Michael Mulcahy
- Senator Joe O'Toole - SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!

Northern Ireland Politics.

The Good Friday Agreemnet

A new agreement has been signed by the NI parties and the two governments, the full text of which is available.
Here's the text of the (P)IRA's Reaction to the deal.

NI Politics in General

Northern Ireland, or the Six-County Statelet, as some would rather call it, is one of the most intractable problems in Irish Politics.
Basically NI is united with Great Britian, but contains a significant minority of Irish Nationalists who wish it were not so.
The official site of the NI Government.
The main political parties in NI, in rough order of decreasing size, are -
1. The Ulster Unionist Party UUP.
  
  Jeffery Donaldson's measured evaluation of SF.
2. Social Democratic Labour Party - SDLP.
3. Democratic Unionist Party - DUP
  
  Dr. Ian Paisley - On discussions with Nationalists.
4. Sinn Féin - web details above. Who says I can't be diplomatic ? :)
5. United Kingdom Unionists - UK Unionists, or UKU.
6. Alliance Party
7. Progressive Unionist Party
8. Women's Coalition
9. Republican Sinn Féin - the other ones aren't real Republicans I guess :)
10. The Orange Order strictly speaking this is a religious as opposed to political party, but no a/c of NI politics would seem complete w/o them.
Results of the 1997 Westminister Elections for NI - SF don't take the seats they've won, btw.
I've also just found a nice site claiming to be the NIdex - the Northern Ireland Index. Reasonably comprehensive.
Róisin : Here's a statement by Jack Straw. I consider this to be a human rights issue, rather than a NI one, but I don't have such a section :/

European Politics.

This is one section I really need to work on in a big way, however, if you're looking for EU related information, you can't go too far wrong with theEuropa Server

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Page last updated 2nd of August, '98.