FORMER Ceann Comhairle and sitting Fianna Fáil TD for Kerry South John O’Donoghue last night held off a strong challenge from a party councillor to win a nomination to fight the next general election.

Voting is underway to elect a new TD for the Donegal South West Constituency today.

ON Arainn Mhór Island off the Donegal coast, a strange sound greeted Taoiseach Brian Cowen on Saturday – applause.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen tonight insisted he was not the bogeyman personally to blame for the meltdown in the State’s economy.

IT is hard to believe that anyone with any intelligence was surprised by the High Court ruling this week that the Donegal South-West by-election should be held without further delay. The existing delay, since the election of Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher to the European Parliament in June 2009, has been the longest in the history of the state.

The Government is tonight facing two more potentially damaging court battles over delayed by-elections.

The President of the High Court will deliver his judgment next month on Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty's challenge over the refusal by the Government to move the writ for the Donegal South-West by-election.

DUBLIN is not likely to vote on a new mayor until next spring the Green Party has admitted, effectively giving up on its commitment to have the election this autumn.

“DON’T worry about it,” the Taoiseach declared after RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke dared raise the question of when the three long outstanding Dáil by-elections would be held.

VOTERS could elect a replacement for George Lee as soon as June.

THERE three republican eco-tourists went searching for the lesser spectacled bear and other exotic species in the FARC-controlled Colombian jungle a few years ago.

There has been a double election boost for Bertie Ahern, with polls in two separate constituencies showing Fianna Fail gaining seats.