When the language of politics fails, it speaks for the meanest impulse

In an unexpected twist to the confidence and supply arrangement, Fianna Fáil’s by-election candidate in Dublin-Fingal, Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee, provided cover for Fine Gael’s Wexford candidate Verona Murphy. It’s the reverse of the domino effect.

If Micheál Martin had pulled the plug on Clifford-Lee, Murphy would be gone. They are different examples of the same phenomenon.