This evening.
Claire writes:
“Our lovely, shy Romeo got loose in Tymon Park in Walkinstown/Tallaght shortly after midday today. He was wearing his coat (top pic) at the time. He was spotted about an hour later on the Greenhills Road and seen again at 4.30pm near Fashion City in Ballymount. We’re hoping he’s sheltering somewhere. If anyone sees him, please call 086 8668650.”
Anyone?
UPDATE: Romeo found! (see comments)
This afternoon.
Glasnevin Cemetery, Glasnevin, Dublin.
OK, who sent the balloon?
UPDATE: l’hélium est un gaz noble! (see comments)
General election result predictions by Harry McGee of The Irish Times; Mr McGee
Further to spectacularly incorrect General Election predictions from the Irish Independent and RTÉ….
…on February 5, Political Correspondent for The Irish Times Harry McGee laid out his predictions for last week’s general election.
As of February 3, the election polls had shown that, following six national election polls, the combined Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael vote was less than 44%, while Sinn Féin was polling more than twice its local election vote in 2019.
Mr McGee predicted that Fianna Fáil would win 53 seats; Fine Gael, 38; Sinn Féin, 28; Labour, 8; Greens, 14; Social Democrats, 3; Solidarity-PBP, 2; Others, 14.
However, his predictions were less unequivocal than that of his peers.
Fianna Fáil would go on to lose 7 seats, Fine Gael would lose 12 and Sinn Féin would gain 15.
The final tally saw Fianna Fáil with 38 seats (one of which was automatic as Seán Ó Fearghaíl is the Ceann Comhairle); Sinn Féin, 37; Fine Gael, 35; Greens, 12; Social Democrats, 6; Labour, 6; Solidarity-People Before Profit, 5; Independents, 19; Aontú, 1; Other, 1.
Mr McGee’s approach to his predictions differed to that of RTÉ and the Irish Independent‘s Fionnan Sheahan, in that he predicted where Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin would potentially lose and win seats.
Sinn Féin
Mr McGee predicted that Sinn Féin would possibly gain seats in Donegal, Dublin West, Wexford, Cavan-Monaghan, Mayo, Longford-Westmeath.
He also predicted the party would possibly lose seats in Dublin Mid-West, Louth, Cork East.
However, confusingly, although perhaps because of the polls, while making his prediction of Sinn Féin’s losses, he also predicted Sinn Féin’s seats were safe in these constituencies which might explain his side note:
“I had another eight constituencies marked as potential losses for Sinn Féin. But that was a fortnight ago. And the world has changed since then.”
The results:
Sinn Féin gained 15 seats on top of the 22 it had at the start of the election, bringing their total to 37.
Donegal: Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty and Pádraig MacLochlainn won the top two seats.
Dublin West: Sinn Féin’s Paul Donnelly topped the poll and took the first seat after the first count.
Wexford: Sinn Féin’s Johnny Mythen topped the poll and took the first seat after the first count.
Cavan-Monaghan: Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and Pauline Tully took the first and third seats.
Mayo: Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh took the second seat after securing 22.7% of the first-preference votes.
Longford-Westmeath: Sinn Féin’s Sorca Clarke took the first seat after the first count, after securing 21% of the first-preference votes.
Dublin Mid-West: Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin and Mark Ward took the top two seats after the first count.
Louth: Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster and Ruairí Murchú took the top two seats after the first count.
Cork East: Sinn Féin’s Pat Buckley topped the poll with 23.1% of the first-preference votes.
Fine Gael
Mr McGee predicted that Fine Gael would possibly gain seats in Dublin Mid-West, Cork North-Central, Tipperary, Cavan-Monaghan, Cork North-West, Cork East, Dublin-Rathdown, Kerry, Longford-Westmeath, Galway East, Louth, Limerick City.
He also predicted that the party would possibly lose seats in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin North-West, Galway West, Dublin Bay South, Wexford, Clare, Dublin South-Central and Meath East.
Katherine Zappone
This afternoon.
Outgoing Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone, who lost her seat as an Independent Alliance TD last week, has received the Sixth Interim Report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
However…
…via Department of Children Youth Affairs:
Although it is a short report it nonetheless raises complex issues related to the completion of the Commission’s programme of work.
Most significantly, because the Commission is required to transfer its records to the Minister and deal with third party legal costs prior to submitting its final report, the Commission has requested an extension of time to enable it to effectively manage these issues.
The Commission has highlighted how these requirements create significant problems in the absence of a further extension of time.
Minister Zappone and her Department engaged with the Commission to identify the absolute earliest date by which the Commission could finalise all matters required to submit a final report.
The Commission agreed to the 26 June 2020 and the Government has approved this limited extension. The Commission will now submit a final report and manage the orderly wind-up of its substantial statutory investigation by the 26 June 2020.
While very disappointed that additional time is needed, the Minister accepts that the Commission is using its best endeavours to conclude matters as expeditiously as possible in accordance with the legislative framework.’
Previously: ‘Delay, Obfuscation And The Blurring Of Boundaries’
Earlier.
Met Éireann issued a Status Yellow rain and wind warning for Ireland. The wind warning will be valid from 3am tomorrow until 8pm tomorrow while the rain warning will run from 6am tomorrow until 9pm tomorrow.
It comes ahead of Storm Dennis.
Via Met Éireann
This morning.
Solidarity-People Before Profit’s Ruth Coppinger, who lost her Dáil seat last weekend, announces that she will run for a seat in the Seanad in the for the National University of Ireland constituency.
In fairness.
Meanwhile…
Ruth Coppinger is to run for the Seanad on the NUI panel… and @hugo_macneill (husband of new FG TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill) is to run as a independent in the Dublin University panel
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) February 14, 2020
Previously: The Ruth Gets In The Way Of A Good Story
Slogans used by Social Democrats and Green Party resonated. Not so Fine Gael.
This afternoon
Dublin-based media monitors Truehawk Media tracked some of the key slogans (and variants) used by parties and their supporters during the General Election (part of a deep dive into the election at link below).
They write:
‘…We found 99% of results (from a cumulative 42.5k related media items) appeared on Twitter.
The Green Party’s ‘Want Green, Vote Green’ slogan won out, followed by the Social Democrat’s ‘Vote for better/Hope for better’ slogans (combined).
Use of hashtags/slogans also peaked for the Greens and the Social Democrats on voting day with 1,248 and 1,222 tweets respectively.
Away from Twitter, Sinn Féin’s messaging had stronger positioning in press and online, as their stance on a united Ireland and theme of ‘Change’ outranked all.
This was followed by Fianna Fáil’s ‘An Ireland for all’ and then by Fine Gael’s ‘A future to look forward to’.
While some attention had been paid to negative campaigning tactics, notably by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, these did not resonate strongly…
…One critique of Sinn Féin’s campaigning could be attributed to the lack of clarity of party slogans which didn’t play out clearly on Twitter. However, their engagement levels were stronger than Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
Meanwhile, the Green Party and Social Democrats are to be commended for the focused messaging they and their supporters communicated which saw them achieving gains at the polls
GE2020: A Tale of Two Mediums (Truehawk)
Earlier: 50 Ways To Form A Government
Thanks Derek Finnegan
This afternoon.
Merrion Street, Dublin 2.
A march from the Custom House to the Department of Finance by Community Employment (CE) Supervisors and their supporters over pensions.
A total of 1,200 CE scheme supervisors have been overseeing 900 state funded services for almost 30 years but do not count as public sector workers.
Danger here… as you’d expect, some in FF including Éamon Ó Cuív completely up in arms over coalescence with FG pic.twitter.com/84YDouKuJc
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) February 14, 2020
This afternoon.
FIGHT!
Brendan O’Connor is joining the RTÉ Radio 1 Weekend family. Starting in mid March from 11am-1pm Saturdays & Sundays.🎙 pic.twitter.com/1H8u4DBcOz
— RTÉ Radio 1 (@RTERadio1) February 14, 2020
This afternoon.
“After 15 years working in the Sunday Independent, I’m delighted to be joining the weekends on RTÉ Radio 1.
The weekend is a time to pause, take a breath and review the week, and it’s also a time when people like a different, more reflective kind of radio, maybe even a bit of fun.”
Marian’s legacy will inspire us to continue to explore, challenge and debate the issues that truly matter to Irish people.”
Brendan O’Connor.
Um.
*cough*
*cough*
*cough*
*cough*
Brendan O’Connor gets weekend mid-morning slot on RTÉ Radio 1 (RTÉ)
