I came across The Front Line while surfing Netflix for heist movies recently, and decided to watch it on the basis that it was Irish, relatively well-rated, and also that I’d never heard of it. I ended up being fairly impressed, with some reservations.
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I was surprised by the news that Bertie Ahern, the Teflon Taoiseach, is resigning. Fittingly, I received this news via a text from a friend.
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Since I generally side with the “snakes” in that particular conflict, I’m not a huge fan of St. Patrick’s Day… but the following rendition of “Danny Boy” is just too good not to post (even though it was on BoingBoing earlier).
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The Irish Green party have gone into coalition with Fianna Fáil—and with the remnantds of the Progressive Democrats, and a few Independents. I have to say that this appears to be a triumph for FF, who have managed to secure a substantial majority in a situation where they’re not reliant on any one of the three smaller groups.
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When I moved to Ireland as a kid, I really didn’t like learning the Irish language. It was difficult and awkward, and on top of that was bound up with a number of other problems.
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The Irish Green Party ended up with six seats in this year’s election. The largest party in the Republic, Fianna Fáil, got 78. With 166 seats total in the Dáil (the Irish Parliament), Fianna Fáil need some partner(s) in order to rule effectively.
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Over the last few days, especially on Friday, I watched the count of the Irish election results. The difference from the American system is quite significant, and although there are many reasons for that, a key one is the voting system itself, Single Transferable Vote, which gives individual voters more influence than the winner-takes-all system used in the United States.
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