There is an old saying in rural Ireland that the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. These are wise words that were never lost on the Healy-Rae political dynasty from Kilgarvan in Co Kerry.

Irish elections will soon loom large for investors as political uncertainty yesterday helped send the borrowing costs of Portugal and Spain significantly higher.

Labour could be reduced to a rump of five seats after the next election, some TDs fear as the party continues to slump in the polls.

Britain yesterday took a £1.1bn (€1.56bn) loss on its first sale of shares in Royal Bank of Scotland — parent of Ulster Bank — sparking accusations of poor timing from opposition politicians.

Rebel senator Averil Power’s bombshell departure from Fianna Fáil descended into a he said/she said row as the party leadership moved to try and discredit her.

Labour will contest the looming general election as an independent party, not on a joint platform with Fine Gael, Tánaiste Joan Burton has signalled.

Just as Gerry Adams seems to have, finally, met his nemesis in Maíria Cahill, the Government has met theirs in Irish Water. 

IS it just me, or has the political world gone mad? I’ve never seen so much invective heaped on a political leader, from outside and inside his own party. 

A close look at Sean Sherlock, Alan Kelly and Michael McCarthy

Socialist Party candidate Ruth Coppinger is now firmly on target to win the by-election in Dublin West after the distribution of the vote of Fine Gael’s Eamonn Coughlan on the fourth count has further cemented her lead.

I’M hypothetically writing an imaginary political drama at the moment.

JANUARY, from Janus, the Roman double-faced god facing in opposite directions, is here.

How delightful and rare to read of a public representative behaving like a petulant pup in name-calling another individual. Now he has got me name-calling as well.

At a moment when the capacity of politics to deliver, lead or even describe the kind of social change and economic rejuvenation we urgently need is in question, the future of an institution as detached and as apparently irrelevant as the Seanad may seem unimportant but, as anyone who does not live in an active, participatory democracy will confirm, it is not.

The Government has decided to hold three referendums before Christmas.

Former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue has dismissed reports that Kerry footballers are being targeted as candidates to run for Fianna Fáil in the new five-seater Kerry constituency.

In the context of the topical question of political reform, consider the following scenario: As an employer, you have given a man a five-year contract.

The Electoral Amendment Bill, which will cut the number of TDs, is to be published today.

The Cabinet has approved legislation that will cut the number of TDs.

IN a little more than six months we will elect the ninth President of Ireland.

THE Green Party chairman Dan Boyle has said there must be an opportunity for a new generation to steer the movement following John Gormley’s decision to step aside.

Counting continues in nine constituencies to decide the make-up of the 31st Dáil.

Counting continues in nine constituencies to decide the make-up of the 31st Dáil, with 30 seats left to fill.

Gerry Adams has denied claims on WikiLeaks that he was an IRA leader and had advance knowledge of the infamous Northern Bank raid.

“I CARRY the spirit of Michael Collins here with me,” loser Fine Gael candidate Barry O’Neill declared, and he was right — but only in the sense that he’d just been assassinated by an audacious Sinn Féin ambush.

He was branded Fine Gael’s lost leader, but now Michael Noonan is teaching his successor a lesson in how to connect with the real world.

INADVERTENTLY, Senator Ivor Callely may have done the state a massive favour. By his selfish actions, in what some would describe as giving a false address to maximise the amount of expenses he could claim from the state, he has emphasised the expensive uselessness of Seanad Éireann.

Fianna Fáil Cork North East councillor Tim Brosnan has issued leaflets without any reference at all to the fact that he is a Fianna Fáil candidate, it has emerged.

LOCAL elections are treated “with derision” by most political parties because of the lack of power at city, county and town council level, a new study has found.

VOLATILE political opinion polls mirror an electorate greatly traumatised and threatened by unprecedented economic instability and horrified by the subversive leadership of the banks that aggravated the severity of this downturn in Ireland.

AS Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams gladhanded his way through Cork yesterday afternoon you couldn’t help but feel he expected a bigger turnout.

WHETHER he is banning minors from pubs, changing the drinking laws, deporting Nigerian students, or smearing a Fine Gael spokesman as Dr Goebbels, Justice Michael McDowell is never far from controversy.

SUGAR beet farmers in the south have been disappointed in their efforts to secure an alternative use for the Mallow sugar plant due to close on Friday.

One of the survivors of the Stardust tragedy has announced her intention to contest the next Dáil election.

WELL, well, maybe Eddie Hobbs didn’t have all the impact that some thought he had.

THIS week it might be timely to remember the dangers of drawing far-fetched conclusions from mid-term election results.

THE use of electronic voting in the US presidential election should be a salutary warning to the new Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, if he intends to bring it in without a verifiable paper trail.

THE Northern Ireland peace process is now like Groundhog Day upon Groundhog Day. The scene at Leeds Castle was akin to a repeat of the movie by that name starring Bill Murray.

ENDA KENNY and Pat Rabbitte travelled to Westmeath last Monday to launch an agreement reached between their respective party members on the local county council.

WHEN election fever is in the air, all politicians lose the run of themselves at some stage. This campaign has been no different.

The extraordinary outpouring by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, in which he accused Sinn Féin of being “morally unclean”, is perplexing in both its timing and content.

NOBODY can really claim to be surprised that Sinn Féin emerged as the largest nationalist political party in the Northern Ireland Assembly election last week. It has been on the cards since the 2001 Westminster and local election when the party out-polled the SDLP.