Most likely big fallers: TDs on Saturday, MLAs in May?

The late Alex Higgins played a famous frame that highlighted his particular genius. In it, he played shots that nudged other balls into positions whose advantages only became clear much later in the frame (one on the green stood out). In 1963, Seán Lemass’s Fianna Fáil government repealed aspects of the 1923 Electoral Abuses Act with the effect that removing sitting TDs from office has largely only been possible in a general election (this also enabled the fabrications of the Charles Haughey-directed anti-Labour campaign in 1969). Although the Fianna …

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Rubberbandits & Shane for Xmas

I’m only posting this here because I’m surprised no-one has got in before me to do so. First off: Limerick’s  Rubberbandits with Horse Outside; Then Willie O’Dea going in to bat for them heroically on Joe Duffy’s show: “Someone needs to give that man a dictionary to look up ‘irony’” And, lastly, a near-perfect Christmas artifact; Shane MacGowan & the Priests with The Little Drummer Boy: The thing that is sometimes overlooked about Shane is the terrific timbre of his …

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