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This is just a little update on the state of play among the various nationalist groups, because it can be sometimes difficult to follow all the twists and turns here.
The National Party. Founded and very much identified with the long term Irish political figure, Justin Barrett, in recent years they have hit a lot of turmoil. There was reported to be not much by way of internal democracy built into the party and so internal dissension manifested itself, some time ago, rather in what was described, rightly or wrongly, as a coup. The Deputy leader, James Reynolds, allied to key figures like Patrick Quinlan and in practice the bulk of the membership, took over the party and, famously, its finances in gold.
The update is that James Reynolds is now gone and in practice we have two wings, with Barrett still asserting his ownership of the official party and now Councillor Patrick Quinlan, in some shape or form, taking charge of the rest.
The Irish People. Founded by Anthony J Cahill, a successful businessman/engineer, including in technologies like SMS messaging and Eircom's original internet company, with another very well known figure involved here being David O'Reilly. This party was originally designed as a kind of overall umbrella for candidates who in practice would be independent. So helping these candidates but shunning the whip system that many partly blame for our current ills.
Ireland First. Its often said to have been founded by two ladies living in Westmeath, Margaret Alacoque Maguire and Sarah Herraty, with the former becoming Vice-president and the latter secretary. The most visible figure here though is Derek Blighe, a builder in North Cork and one of the most recognisable figures in this area of modern Irish politics. Blighe is its President and his brother the chairman. Philip Dwyer is also a well known figure in this party, although his recent run in Wicklow was apparently not under their banner or consent.
Irish Freedom Party. Founded and led by Hermann Kelly, the press officer for Nigel Farage for many years and still employed in the EU Parliament in Brussels. Its chairman was until recently Michael Leahy, who had a successful run out as a Sinatra crooner during the Euro elections, but he was replaced by Shane Lynam in the summer. There was a lot of turmoil with them over that summer, with for example Kelly falling out with the two O'Connors, Diarmuid in Dublin and Luke in Kilkenny. They also attempted to install an Eritrean immigrant as their migration spokesman but that proved massively unpopular and they backtracked very quickly on the matter.
Although vote splitting, in this writers opinion at any rate, is not an issue in Irish politics because of the electoral system, nonetheless there is a demand out there for these small groups to work together more, to hopefully make better use of the very small financial, time and media resources that are available to the emergent Irish Nationalist movement.
As part of this it was decided to form an overall committee, consisting of Quinlan, Cahill and Blighe, that was going to vet and run candidates under an overall National Alliance party banner, a sort of alliance/merging of the first three parties above. However the Electoral Commission refused to recognise them, saying they weren't a proper party and so couldn't appear under that title on ballot papers. It could have been done if one or other of the constituent parties ceased to exist and instead rolled into the National Alliance, but none wanted to do so (ultimately), and the National Party is so tied up in legal matters it probably couldn't anyway. This though is reported to have caused a lot of turmoil in the two parties that might have folded up into the National Alliance.
The Irish Freedom Party on the otherhand, who stayed aloof from the alliance, has now been plunged into more turmoil. Apparently there was a proposal to install Anthony Casey as leader, their candidate in Kildare, but that was blocked leading to resignations by Casey and Martin Murphy, the vice-chair.
Never a dull moment!
The National Party. Founded and very much identified with the long term Irish political figure, Justin Barrett, in recent years they have hit a lot of turmoil. There was reported to be not much by way of internal democracy built into the party and so internal dissension manifested itself, some time ago, rather in what was described, rightly or wrongly, as a coup. The Deputy leader, James Reynolds, allied to key figures like Patrick Quinlan and in practice the bulk of the membership, took over the party and, famously, its finances in gold.
The update is that James Reynolds is now gone and in practice we have two wings, with Barrett still asserting his ownership of the official party and now Councillor Patrick Quinlan, in some shape or form, taking charge of the rest.
The Irish People. Founded by Anthony J Cahill, a successful businessman/engineer, including in technologies like SMS messaging and Eircom's original internet company, with another very well known figure involved here being David O'Reilly. This party was originally designed as a kind of overall umbrella for candidates who in practice would be independent. So helping these candidates but shunning the whip system that many partly blame for our current ills.
Ireland First. Its often said to have been founded by two ladies living in Westmeath, Margaret Alacoque Maguire and Sarah Herraty, with the former becoming Vice-president and the latter secretary. The most visible figure here though is Derek Blighe, a builder in North Cork and one of the most recognisable figures in this area of modern Irish politics. Blighe is its President and his brother the chairman. Philip Dwyer is also a well known figure in this party, although his recent run in Wicklow was apparently not under their banner or consent.
Irish Freedom Party. Founded and led by Hermann Kelly, the press officer for Nigel Farage for many years and still employed in the EU Parliament in Brussels. Its chairman was until recently Michael Leahy, who had a successful run out as a Sinatra crooner during the Euro elections, but he was replaced by Shane Lynam in the summer. There was a lot of turmoil with them over that summer, with for example Kelly falling out with the two O'Connors, Diarmuid in Dublin and Luke in Kilkenny. They also attempted to install an Eritrean immigrant as their migration spokesman but that proved massively unpopular and they backtracked very quickly on the matter.
Although vote splitting, in this writers opinion at any rate, is not an issue in Irish politics because of the electoral system, nonetheless there is a demand out there for these small groups to work together more, to hopefully make better use of the very small financial, time and media resources that are available to the emergent Irish Nationalist movement.
As part of this it was decided to form an overall committee, consisting of Quinlan, Cahill and Blighe, that was going to vet and run candidates under an overall National Alliance party banner, a sort of alliance/merging of the first three parties above. However the Electoral Commission refused to recognise them, saying they weren't a proper party and so couldn't appear under that title on ballot papers. It could have been done if one or other of the constituent parties ceased to exist and instead rolled into the National Alliance, but none wanted to do so (ultimately), and the National Party is so tied up in legal matters it probably couldn't anyway. This though is reported to have caused a lot of turmoil in the two parties that might have folded up into the National Alliance.
The Irish Freedom Party on the otherhand, who stayed aloof from the alliance, has now been plunged into more turmoil. Apparently there was a proposal to install Anthony Casey as leader, their candidate in Kildare, but that was blocked leading to resignations by Casey and Martin Murphy, the vice-chair.
Never a dull moment!
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