Noel Whelan: Sinn Féin and the Gerry Adams nervesReplacing him is a challenging prospect – but his recent gaffes have been a liabilityFri May 06 2016 - 06:53
Noel Whelan: A colourful Seanad but hopefully the last of its ilkThe most dramatic shift in the line up of the 43 senators on the vocational panels was the Sinn Féin breakthroughFri Apr 29 2016 - 12:25
Noel Whelan: The Seanad will be Enda Kenny’s next problemThe new government will not have working majority in the Seanad if Taoiseach true to the new politicsFri Apr 22 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: Losing your Dáil seat is not the end of the worldA realisation that all is not lost may help the newly elected to focus on the general political goodFri Apr 15 2016 - 00:20
Noel Whelan: Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil coalition only viable optionSuggestion that some Independents could be part of FG-FF dominated government is creativeFri Apr 08 2016 - 07:01
Noel Whelan: We should be proud of 1916 commemorationsEvents were dignified, inclusive and reflected the complexity of the Easter RisingFri Apr 01 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: Makeshift minority government is no solutionUnstable minority administration would serve only FG and FF and not the countryFri Mar 25 2016 - 01:00
Disgrace that Seanad still being elected in archaic wayPrecedents do not augur well for real reformFri Mar 18 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: FG may have to bite bullet on Micheál MartinIf negotiations are to succeed then Fine Gael can not rule out Mícheál Martin becoming Taoiseach firstFri Mar 11 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: Eight points at which it went wrong for the coalitionIt is now clear that Fine Gael’s campaign was fixed on a disastrous courseFri Mar 04 2016 - 07:42
Influence of transfers in Election 2016 must not be overstatedAnlaysis: Although first count results can be overturned, it is still a rare developmentWed Mar 02 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: Coalition with Fine Gael looks like best option for Fianna FáilThe party as likely to perform as well in the next election coming out of government as they are from oppositionFri Feb 26 2016 - 01:42
Noel Whelan: Fine Gael has nothing left to offer voters except fearFG have applied British Tory script without adapting appropriately to the Irish contextFri Feb 19 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: It’s a FG-FF coalition – or another electionAt this stage, regardless of how you look at it, outgoing government will fall about a dozen seats short of overall majorityFri Feb 12 2016 - 08:26
Noel Whelan: Volatile vacuum at heart of Fine Gael’s fiscal spaceMcHale is telling the Government that if and when additional money comes along most of it will already be committed to new overheadsFri Feb 05 2016 - 03:43
Noel Whelan: In defence of Independent TDsIndependents’ purposes and objectives are more complex than the crude caricaturesFri Jan 29 2016 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: Spotlight on when evil came to door in guise of churchFilm tells story of investigation by ‘Boston Globe’ into cover up of clerical sexual abuseFri Jan 22 2016 - 04:42
Noel Whelan: Fine Gael’s new mantra is built on a false premiseThis election is not about choosing who can keep the recovery going because those choices are not made here in IrelandFri Jan 15 2016 - 03:23
Noel Whelan: Government had no option but to embrace Dáil reformsFor almost five years Coalition failed to carry out pre-2011 promise of a “democratic revolution”Fri Jan 08 2016 - 01:54
Marriage vote that shook the worldSame-sex marriage: referendum didn’t just amend Constitution - it changed livesMon Dec 28 2015 - 12:14
Noel Whelan: Migrants revitalise and renew usTheir life stories and their heritage will be part of the narrative of our country’s futureFri Dec 18 2015 - 07:48
Noel Whelan: In defence of the Irish county councillorI grew up in a councillor’s home. Our house was the first port of call for many who needed help. Among the typical visitors I recall was a bereaved widow seeking guidance, even before she went to talk to a solicitorFri Dec 11 2015 - 03:35
Noel Whelan: Beware politicians bearing news of opinion pollsThe task of seeking to divine national political implications or constituency-by-constituency impact of any particular poll is a dangerous exerciseFri Dec 04 2015 - 01:38
Noel Whelan: Don't pay attention to pre-election pledges about coalitionNothing concentrates the minds of politicians like the fear of a further election. Next year will be no different.Fri Nov 27 2015 - 02:33
Noel Whelan: FG’s ambitious health plan simply flushed awayThe fudged, vague agreement with Labour was this week pushed off into the never neverFri Nov 20 2015 - 01:23
Noel Whelan: This time around Labour’s goal is political survivalParty will once again warn electorate about dangers of Fine Gael majority governmentFri Nov 13 2015 - 01:07
How the Yes was won: the inside story of the marriage referendumWeekend Read: Can you campaign without posters? Should well-known gay people be kept out of sight? What will persuade middle-aged men to vote for same-sex marriage? Three Yes Equality insiders explain how they did it, in this extract from their new bookFri Nov 06 2015 - 11:50
2015, but some remain preoccupied with women politicians’ dressThere will be a more pronounced female tone to the election debate next year than ever beforeFri Nov 06 2015 - 01:05
Noel Whelan: Kenny gaffe over army and ATMs part of pattern of deceptionComment part of strategy to remind voters of how serious crisis was and Fine Gael’s part in turning it aroundFri Oct 30 2015 - 01:00
Noel Whelan: Fears about West Belfast influence over Sinn Féin gain credenceConcerns about party being in government in Republic reinforced by report on paramilitary activityFri Oct 23 2015 - 01:01
Noel Whelan: Budget underlines the insanity of a November electionThe measures will reassure voters the recession is overFri Oct 16 2015 - 03:35
Noel Whelan: A November poll in Fine Gael’s interest and voters will know itGoing early is an admission they failed to address homelessness or hospital overcrowding.Fri Oct 09 2015 - 04:08
Noel Whelan: Auction politics are back with a vengeanceGovernment ratcheting up the sense that lots of goodies are on their wayFri Sept 25 2015 - 07:04
Noel Whelan: British media’s hostile treatment of Corbyn is undemocratic‘It is as if the Oxbridge university elites, who dominate much of Britain’s political media have determined that Labour is not entitled to elect a leader of his views’Fri Sept 18 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: Government by invisible ink – Fennelly criticisms go unheeded‘Ministerial comments suggest that the record-keeping in government is all very hit-and-miss – and deliberately so’Fri Sept 11 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: One key word in Fennelly report spells trouble for Enda KennyThe Fennelly report found other witnesses more credible than the Taoiseach on key pointsFri Sept 04 2015 - 12:40
Noel Whelan: Bye-bye silly season, hello serious season of political debate‘We haven’t even begun to have a real election debate about the policy choices. Instead we just seem to be lapsing back into old-style pre-election auction politics’Fri Aug 28 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: Why I can’t accept Hillary Clinton’s dinner invitation‘You, Hillary, Dinner (Hot Damn!)’ – an email invitation in Texan from the Hillary Clinton presidential nomination campaignFri Aug 07 2015 - 01:35
Noel Whelan: Debacle, disaster – we’re running out of words for Irish Water‘This is going to be one of the biggest issues in the general election campaign. Government party candidates on the frontline are going to get it in the neck at thousands and thousands of doorsteps’Fri Jul 31 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: Something all the political parties could agree onDáil reform should start with secret ballot on election of Ceann ComhairleFri Jul 24 2015 - 05:00
Another week, another new political grouping?Polls show new political party fatigue is already beginning to set inFri Jul 17 2015 - 01:00
History needs to be written through the prism of the timeBoom time tax cuts reflected broad consensusFri Jul 10 2015 - 01:02
Voters appear to be sticking to their gunsPolls suggest Kenny would be better off waiting until spring for electionFri Jul 03 2015 - 01:05
Noel Whelan: Too close for comfort – is it time to ditch political lobby system?‘By parking most of their political staff in the Leinster House complex newspapers and broadcasters end up being Dublin-2 -centric in their political coverage’Fri Jun 26 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: We can be proud of Irish Consul’s efforts in dark days in Berkeley‘The Twitter feed is but one small element of the public effort in which the Consul General Philip Grant and his colleagues engaged’Fri Jun 19 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: Time to stop politicians’ ‘tell them nothing’ policy‘This country needs a dramatic culture shift towards real transparency’Fri Jun 12 2015 - 05:00
Hard to see how ‘verbal assaults’ on Murphy were in O’Brien’s interestsNoel Whelan: ‘The first principles of public relations, it seems is that when your spokesperson becomes the story you’re losing’Fri Jun 05 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: We had been blind to prejudice facing gay community‘Even on the Yes side many of us had, however, failed to appreciate the true extent to which passing this referendum would matter to gay man and lesbian women’Fri May 29 2015 - 05:00
Noel Whelan: Exhausting, draining and life changing: the Yes campaignHow the most extensive and effective civic campaign ever seen in Irish politics was builtMon May 25 2015 - 09:46
Noel Whelan: Amid forgiveness in Mullaghmore we should not forget the past‘While some may breathlessly trumpet Gerry Adams’s magnanimity in shaking the prince’s hand, the real bravery for peace was on the British side of that encounter’Fri May 22 2015 - 10:24
