• Comment
• Print
• E-mail

Conor McMorrow's irreverent countdown to 5 June elections

Green TD Paul Gogarty is not doing much to quash rumours of tension between his party and coalition partners Fianna Fáil. He is offering €500 to the reader of his newsletter who can come up with the best caption, of 10 words or less, for the cartoon that features Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour figures receiving money from a developer and a banker.

Dermot Murray

John Bracken

Anna Michalska

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

Here's a fire Dermot Murray can't put out

A Fianna Fáil candidate has come under 'fire' from his employer after he posed for his election posters in his work clothes – his Dublin Fire Brigade uniform. Dermot Murray, who has been station officer with Balbriggan Fire Brigade for 15 years, was not available for comment but a spokeswoman for Dublin Fire Brigade said, "Dublin Fire Brigade staff wear the uniform with the express permission of the chief fire officer. In this case no permission was given and Dublin Fire Brigade is a public body and as such has no political affiliations."

Murray lost his Fingal County Council seat in the Balbriggan ward in 2004.

FF's Foley will do anything for a seat

RTé's Nine O'Clock News on Saturday 28 February will live long in the memory of political anoraks.

It will live longer in the memory of John Foley as he was the unlucky one of the 13 Fianna Fáil supporters who surrounded or 'doughnuted' correspondent David Davin-Power during his live report from the party ardfheis.

Foley dropped out of the picture when he fell off his chair during the bizarre broadcast and the clip has now been watched by 41,250 on YouTube. The Edenderry town councillor is standing for that council and Offaly County Council and sources claim that the fall has boosted his campaign.

The 41,250 hits shouldn't do Foley any harm.

Clarification Anna Michalska

Last week the Sunday Tribune ran a story about good-looking election candidates under the heading 'Gallery of oil paintings fit to put on canvass'.

We would like to apologise to stunning 26-year-old Anna Michalska, a community worker originally from Poland, who will contest the Kilkenny Borough Council elections for Fianna Fáil. It was remiss of the paper to exclude her as she has to be considered among the best-looking female election candidates on 5 June.

Hair-raising: John Bracken's back

One of the characters of the 2007 general election campaign battle with Taoiseach Brian Cowen for a Laois-Offaly Dáil seat is battling with Cowen's younger brother Barry and the Taoiseach's personal assistant Sinead Dooley in the Offaly County Council elections. John Bracken, whose election posters grabbed national media attention two years ago for his zany photograph and also his campaign slogan 'Bracken for Taoiseach', is one of the 11 candidates contesting the seven seats in the Tullamore electoral area. But the Clara man (right), an auctioneer and country music star, has been the victim of his own notoriety – some of his posters, which are something of a collector's item, have been stolen.

FF and FG gang up on outspolen councilor

Last week, Castlebar's Fine Gael mayor Kevin Guthrie and Fianna Fáil's Aidan Crowley urged people not to vote for former Fine Gael councillor Frank Durcan, who served as a councilor from 1967 to 2004. According to the Mayo News, Guthrie said, "Previous councils didn't progress because of one person… Council meetings were nearly always disrupted by Frank and were more often than not adjourned. For the last five years we have had none of that. Do the people of Castlebar really want to go back to the bad old days, the Ballymagash days of Frank?"