Mick Rooney | Journalist & Broadcaster

PHOTO: PA Wire To be fair, perhaps Jody Corcoran in his latest article in the Irish Independent had not seen the results of the overnight Red C poll which had FF and SF neck and neck on 24% and FG trailing behind on 21%. Either way, he has his calculations seriously askew and from that makes some further bizarre predictions and suggestions. So if you are using his political analysis as an election barometer, thread carefully, because it is laden with outright inaccuracies, deliberate or not, and the usual 'Indo' editorial biases. Clearly Mr. Corcoran has made up his mind what type of government he wants and the rest of us are getting it whether we like it or not! In order of likelihood, the choices are: Fianna Fail, the Greens, Labour (possibly Social Democrats) and a handful of Independents either within or without the Government: In other words, a centre to centre-left Government. And then he goes on to suggest.... Let us make that more s...

I'm always staggered by these political memes (main image). Contrived to make a point, but ignorant of history. Ask yourself these questions? Why does it start at 1937? Where do you think the politicians who formed FF and FG came from? Why are all the successive parties who entered coalition and yet none mentioned - Labour, Progessive Democrats, Democratic Left and the Green Party - as if they never existed in government and we have had single party government for 80 straight years? What party won 73 seats out of 105 in 1918 and declared itself the party of a new Dáil Éireann? But probably the most damning question - why do people in Ireland insist on voting for almost a hundred years on party lines and adoration and family affiliations when the new Irish Free State (1921-2) was created on the principle of PR (Proportional representation)? Irish voters... have you learned nothing in 100 years how this actually works? I'll give you a clue. Playing p...

Irish President Michael D. Higgins dissolves the 32nd Dail I always get a sense of 'here we go again' when an Irish general election is announced. Social media can often skew public feeling. I always ask myself - more of the same when the results come in or some kind of change? Like most social media input and public comments on news media websites, you'd swear every election in Ireland is on the brink of a political and voting revolution. Prepare for the increased social media wave of angst and protest and 'our time has come' and 'we'll teach FG-FF a lesson' in the chatrooms, barrooms, church car parks, radio and TV shows over the coming three weeks. But come election day, the same people protesting and giving out for the past few years about governance decisions and policy will slip quietly into their polling stations and plant a firm 1, 2, 3 etc right where they always do, next to the guys and gals who have an FG or FF after their na...