For once, parish pump politics you can applaud

As thousands of people found themselves without water in Dublin during the Big Freeze, it could be said that independent TD Finian McGrath took parish pump politics to a whole new level. McGrath, along with independ­ent councillor Damian O'Farrell, bought a small car trailer to transport water supplies to elderly people and families with young children in the Killester area. The parish pump may have been broken, but McGrath and O'Farrell were more than willing to fill the void... even on Christmas Day.

Between the devil and the deep blue shirts

Fine Gael's two running mates in Dublin North-West – the lord mayor of Dublin, Gerry Breen, and Dr Bill Tormey – have engaged in a slanging match since Breen's surprise move into the constituency.

The Northside People hilariously reported how Breen said, "Dublin North-West is one of the weakest constituencies for the party in the country. I don't think there are two seats for Fine Gael but I'm pretty confident that I am the stronger candidate between us... I'm in competition for a Dáil seat with the dog and the devil."

But Tormey replied: "I wouldn't say he's got an awful lot of a higher profile than I do. I do two hours of live radio per week. I do interviews for the TV and for the papers and my website gets between 900 and 1,000 hits per week."

After proclaiming that he was an "intelligent candidate", Tormey claimed that Breen was "very much to the right of me in his approach and views".

Hey Fidelma, don't shoot the messenger

Full marks to Suzy Byrne of the mamanpoulet.com blog, for highlighting a tweet from Galway-based Fine Gael senator Fidelma Healy-Eames on New Year's Day. The election hopeful blames RTé's weather forecasts for a collapse in the Connemara hotel trade during the recent freeze. She tweeted: "RTé, lot to answer for – hotels in Conamara (sic) had 50% cancellations Xmas period due to weather forecasts – slowly gets u there safely." Healy-Eames seems to have overlooked the fact that during the worst weather on record, the gardaí, AA Roadwatch and the Governmental Interagency Emergency Committee were warning people not to travel unless it was essential.