Senator Averil Power has accused Fianna Fáil of using her when she was in the party to cover up for the fact that it had no strategy to attract or elect female politicians.

THE Government knows that selling its share in Aer Lingus will be politically tricky, and will require careful handling. In holding the issue over to yesterday’s cabinet meeting, and in moving on in the afterglow of last weekend’s same-sex marriage referendum win, it is managing its exit from the airline business with as little political hassle as can be hoped for.

RTÉ drama, Charlie, about the political career of Charles Haughey, has rewritten history with dramatic licence by showing the former taoiseach resigning not so much because of revelations over the phone-tapping scandal of a decade earlier but because of a threat that the full truth of his involvement in the 1970 arms crisis would be made public, suggests Caroline O'Doherty.

Joe Walsh, the former agriculture minister who was acclaimed as being equally at home in the parish hall or in the gilded buildings of Brussels, was laid to rest yesterday.

Joe Walsh, the former Agriculture Minister who was acclaimed as being equally at home in the parish hall or in the gilded buildings of Brussells, was laid to rest today.

Ian Paisley has been praised as the politician who finally cemented Northern Ireland’s peace process.

Albert Reynolds will be remembered not just for his conventional political failures in Ireland but equally for his success as a peacemaker and statesman, writes Gerard Howlin.

While the words on the banner hung in front of Liberty Hall (‘We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland’) still resonate a century on, representing the values of a patriotic anti-imperialist neutrality, they mask an historical reality that was a good deal more complex than is generally allowed (Letters, July 4).

By Conor Kane

A former Fianna Fáil minister has urged Mary Hanafin to withdraw from council elections following a "farcical" campaign blunder.

Gerry Adams walked free from police custody claiming he had been a victim of the "dark side of the British system".

ONE thing really jarred with me about the State visit of President Michael D Higgins to Britain. Actually, there were a couple of things, but one of them didn’t occur until the interviews, as part of the massive coverage of the visit. Let me explain.

The floods will return, but Cork will probably still be without an effective defence, says Investigative Reporter Conor Ryan.

Price: €695,000

Whatever the merits of the Government’s prospectus for procedural reform of the Dáil, assuming it were fully implemented as promised, any of the individual measures could be dropped or changed in future, and many of them are clearly experimental.

Ireland should be willing to accept a “two-speed” Europe that reduces ties with Britain while aligning itself more closely to other countries, according to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.

A virtual newspaper bringing the most momentous period of Irish history to life has gone live.

There were very real fears within government in 1982 that loyalists could launch a bombing campaign south of the border on the back of “inflammatory” comments by Ian Paisley.

President Hollande’s election has been widely welcomed in this country on the basis that he is for growth and not just austerity.

Des O’Driscoll rounds up the highlights of this coming week on TV

HOW can we be expected to believe Micheál Martin can root out corruption in the Fianna Fáil party when he can’t even identify the ministers who, according to the Mahon Report, launched a “sustained and virulent attack” on the tribunal and questioned “the legality of its inquiries as well as the integrity of its members” when it was investigating Bertie Ahern in 2007 and 2008?

WHAT a year.

ATTEMPTS by former Fianna Fáil ministers to distance themselves from the decisions of Brian Cowen’s government could backfire with criticism growing of their attempts to “hang him out to dry.”

THE office of President of Ireland is invested with great moral authority. Unusually, our President is directly elected by the people, except where political parties agree a candidate.

A NEW website recalls the days when our top landowners counted their acres in thousands rather than hundreds.

ALMOST 2,000 of Munster’s landed estates have been detailed in a new electronic database to be launched tomorrow.

I HAVE it on good authority.

FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin last night defended his decision to field more than one candidate in constituencies across the country.

‘Quiet rebellion of 2011 is only the first step in restoring fairness to the process’

OUTGOING minister of state Martin Mansergh said he was considering an attempt at the Seanad after he lost his Dáil seat in Tipperary South on Saturday.

There are 70 seats filled so far.

Fianna Fáil's Martin Mansergh has been eliminated on Count four in Tipperary South.

A FORMER convent and chapel in Clonmel is to be converted into a multi-purpose community facility in an ambitious €500,000 project.

GARDA management are reviewing the deployment of state cars to ministers and former taoisigh, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan confirmed yesterday.

DESPITE convening four times and conducting two site visits in nine months, a taskforce to decide the future of a toxic waste dump still has not made its recommendations.

MICHEÁL MARTIN remains the front-runner to be the next Fianna Fáil leader, with the number of TDs publicly declaring they will support him in tomorrow’s vote now in excess of 20.

The Taoiseach Brian Cowen is set to undertake a major Cabinet reshuffle after four ministers who are retiring at the next election resigned from Cabinet.

A NUMBER of senior figures within Fianna Fáil last night came out in support of Taoiseach Brian Cowen, insisting he will win the confidence vote comprehensively.

Minister of State Martin Mansergh has voiced his support for Brian Cowen as leader of Fianna Fáil.

THE Office of Public Works (OPW) is confident it can deliver on all of its flood defence projects next year despite cuts in the budget.

THE ink is barely dry on our Faustian pact with Europe but one of the cornerstones in the Government’s four-year programme has been dramatically revised.

THE minister with responsibility for flood protection has vowed to protect the taxpayer from any attempts to blame or sue publicbodies for flood damage.

THE highly contentious bank guarantee scheme was extended until the end of next year amid angry Dáil scenes.