Irish voters go to national election polls
And the winner is....
"Ireland’s opposition party poised to take reins; Anger over economy hurts Fianna Fail" by Robert Barr, Associated Press / February 27, 2011
DUBLIN — Ireland’s ruling Fianna Fail party faced its worst defeat in nearly 80 years as a tidal wave of voter anger about the country being nearly pushed to bankruptcy swept an opposition party to the brink of power yesterday.
And because all the loot when to the international banking cartels while Irish see rising prices and cut services.
Fine Gael polled 36.1 percent support with the first round of counting completed in all 43 constituencies, a figure that would put it in power but without a majority of seats in the Dail, the lower house of Parliament. Party leader Enda Kenny, destined to become prime minister, pledged to move quickly to form a government.
Labour, Fine Gael’s possible coalition partner, was running second at 19 percent while Fianna Fail polled a historic low of 17 percent. The actual vote share matched the figure in an exit poll released an hour before the count started.
Funny how the only time those didn't work was in the 2004 AmeriKan presidential election.
You know, the second time we didn't elect Bush.
Irish voters punished the governing Fianna Fail party for 13 percent unemployment, tax hikes, wage cuts, and a humiliating bailout that Ireland had to accept from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.....
The Green Party, which had six seats in the Dail and was Fianna Fail’s junior partner in government, was in danger of losing them all....
Yeah, they have to be the most discredited group of gas-spewers on the planet right now.
Fine Gael (“tribe of the Irish’’) and Fianna Fail (“soldiers of destiny’’), were born from opposing sides in Ireland’s civil war of the 1920s, and many see little difference between them on the issues.
Oh, no! So much for change!
Fianna Fail, however, was leading the government when the property boom collapsed in 2007, and it committed taxpayers to bail out Ireland’s failing banks.
That's why he's getting the boot!
Brian Cowen, the outgoing prime minister, had fallen to record low popularity and resigned as Fianna Fail party leader even before the campaign. He had wanted to hold the election in March, but agreed to hold it early in a deal to win confirmation of the hated EU-IMF bailout....
See: Cowen Calls Irish Elections
The new government, like the last, will be constrained by the terms negotiated for the $92 billion credit line from the European Central Bank and the IMF....
Which is why the PEOPLE did NOT WANT IT!
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"Irish victor faces economic challenge" by Associated Press / February 28, 2011
DUBLIN — Opposition leader Enda Kenny has already shattered Ireland’s 80-year-old political monopoly. Now he faces an even more challenging assignment: rebuilding Ireland’s economy, nearly brought to its knees by reckless property speculation and bank lending....
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"Accord forms new Irish government" by Associated Press / March 7, 2011
DUBLIN — The two opposition parties that triumphed in Ireland’s election, conservative Fine Gael and left-wing Labor, agreed yesterday to form the country’s next coalition government after compromising on plans to repair the debt-battered economy....
Look, AmeriKa, "left" and "right" can work together!
Kenny and Labor leader Eamon Gilmore stressed their government’s immediate goal would be to improve relations with European Union partners so that they could renegotiate terms of the humiliating international bailout accepted by the outgoing government of Prime Minister Brian Cowen....
Meet the new boss, same as the old bo.... oh, sorry, wrong island.
Fine Gael won 76 seats and Labor 37 in the 166-member Parliament in the Feb. 25 election. Both were record highs that reflected voter fury at the dominant Fianna Fail party, which was blamed for leading Ireland to the brink of bankruptcy....
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"Irish Parliament elects new prime minister" by Associated Press / March 10, 2011
DUBLIN — Ireland’s new Parliament elected soft-spoken Enda Kenny prime minister yesterday to lead a coalition government that faces immediate pressure to revive the nation’s debt-crippled economy.
Kenny, 59, vowed to solve a bank-bailout crisis that has overwhelmed Ireland’s finances and required an emergency rescue by the European Union and International Monetary Fund. He said terms of the EU-IMF loans must be renegotiated to make them more affordable for Ireland and enable the country’s recovery from record deficits and double-digit unemployment....
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"New Irish leaders plan lean St. Patrick’s Day tour; Goodwill missions seek investment" by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press / March 11, 2011
DUBLIN — Ireland’s new government will jet across the globe for Saint Patrick’s Day in the hope of winning goodwill and new investment for the debt-struck nation, Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced yesterday.
Kenny, who was elected prime minister by Parliament on Wednesday, said he would meet President Obama in the White House on Thursday for a now-annual ceremony of Irish-American solidarity. He said he also planned to meet Capitol Hill leaders and potential business investors during his two-day Washington trip.
But Kenny — whose once-booming country is dependent on emergency funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund — stressed this will be the leanest, quickest Saint Patrick’s government tour staged in more than a decade....
Kenny noted that Brian Cowen, whom he ousted as prime minister, sent 22 government ministers to 24 countries for Saint Patrick’s Day last year, some for more than a week, in an expensive junket out of tune with Ireland’s unraveling finances....
Boston did not make the list.
Ireland’s government began to mount major public-relations offensives every Saint Patrick’s Day in the mid-1990s as its Celtic Tiger economy purred to life.
The push gained impetus from President Clinton, who pursued unprecedented American intervention in Ireland, both in brokering peace in Northern Ireland and in encouraging US companies to establish bases on the island. Today, about 600 US multinationals in Ireland underpin 5 percent of jobs and 20 percent of Ireland’s gross domestic product....
The corporatist Clinton created the Celtic Tiger?
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Related: "One of Ireland’s great unsolved murders. "
Also see: 6 die in commuter plane crash in Ireland
Northern Ireland leaders laud Paisley as term ends
N. Ireland papers on disarmament archived at BC
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to make first visit to Ireland
Just as I'm leaving.
