Independent.ie - John Drennan RSS Feed

John Drennan: Invisible Cowen lacks bottle for battle

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

THE new year may be less than three months old, but already our feverish TDs are in countdown to election 2010 mode.

John Drennan: Brutal case and the shame of our politicians

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

IT may be Lent but the weekly mortification of Biffo is becoming a tad excessive.

John Drennan: Battle of the natural political blondes

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

As part of our 'backing Biffo beyond insanity' policy, the Sketch has decided to help Brian Cowen define the Government's economic policy in one snappy sentence. After all, if Bertie could say "the boom is getting boomer", should Mr Cowen proudly claim "the bust is getting bustier", he would at least cheer up half of the public.

John Drennan: Interests of FF tribe are Cowen's priority

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Enda Kenny may have talked of "secretive concoctions", but, in fairness, when it came to the strange troika of banking inquiries that our Government unveiled last week, Brian Lenihan was actually entirely honest about the job they are intended to do.

John Drennan: Poll gives Cowen a boost as debate turns into bad Western

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

BIFFO's back and not just in the Dail either, for whilst the stenographers were smirking over the Sketch's 'backing Biffo beyond the edge of reason' campaign, after last week's dead cat opinion-poll bounce we're on the front foot now.

John Drennan: You can bank on an inquiry into how so much was lent by so few

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

THE wonder of it is that they thought they might actually get away with it. Of course, forcing politicians to institute inquiries into their own behaviour is like pulling a wisdom tooth with string and a doorknob, but the near collapse of our self-generated banking crisis threatened the very existence of the State.

John Drennan: Time for invisible man of the Dail to reveal himself

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

NOTHING epitomised the nature of Brian Cowen's reign more than his response to Eamon Gilmore's suggestion that we might mark the first anniversary of the departure of the Taoiseach's old pal Seanie FitzPatrick from the world of banking by establishing a 9/11-style inquiry into the banks.

John Drennan: Brian's straight face the real achievement

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

IT says everything about how Ireland has not been governed that we are astonished when a politician actually does what he has said he will do.

John Drennan: Real danger for FF is outside Dail

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

COULD it actually be the case that the forthcoming Budget might be the catalyst for a revolution in Irish politics, and no, don't worry, we're not talking about the arrival of a new system of innovative brave far-sighted decision making.

Those Green shoots may be an angry FF partner

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

IN spite of everything that has occurred, sometimes it is possible for even this Government to be hopeful.

John Drennan: Those bankers will sink Cowen and wretched crew

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000

A leader who must hide the truth from his people is a piteous figure.

John Drennan: Reshuffle will fail to save flawed tragic hero Cowen

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

The infamous rump parliaments may have sat for 13 years before Mr Cromwell assailed the assembly that had 'sat too long for any good you might be doing lately'.

John Drennan: FG's 'Man Who Wasn't There' is running out of time

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Like the death of JFK, everyone involved in politics will remember where they were the day they heard George was gone.

John Drennan: If Cowen were any more distant, he’d be a tax exile

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:03:41 +0000

SOMETHING quite strange recently happened in America.

John Drennan: Only a reshuffle will give Cabinet back to Cowen

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

OUTSIDE of Brian Lenihan, the most relieved soul in the world of politics over the ongoing fitness for office of the Minister for Finance will have been Brian Cowen.

John Drennan: Tattered Taoiseach is but a paltry thing

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000

WHEN they finally served the separation papers on the lethal embrace of social partnership, you might have expected the Government to at least look relieved.

John Drennan: Public sector has become as ungovernable as banks

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

THE 18th Century economist Adam Smith once famously observed that when "people of the same trade" meet together, the conversation generally ends "in a conspiracy against the public or some contrivance to raise prices".

Brian, please find the nearest exit

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:00:00 +0100

WE DO not mean to be hurtful but even as they agonised, held hands, rubbed worry beads and emoted, the Green debate was utterly irrelevant to the realities we face.

Killing this coalition is only lifeline for Greens

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:00:00 +0100

WE never thought that Mr Cowen would resemble the heroine in a Thirties' movie who ends up screaming for help after being tied to a railway track by some grinning villain. Of course, in the movies the heroine always escapes at the last-minute courtesy of the switching of the points by the leading man.

Soul of happy backbencher is now dark place

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0100

There may only be 46 of them but the fate of the nation now lies in their hands and for once we are not talking about builders and bankers.