I’m finally back in Cork after last weekend’s Fine Gael Ard Fheis in the Convention Centre in Dublin. It was an interesting Ard Fheis with plenty to talk about and to plan for. The highlight of course was of course Enda Kenny’s speech on Saturday night. His speech for me summed up the change that we have seen in Enda Kenny since the attempted heave in 2010. It was measured and it contained positives and negatives. I for one...
As part if the 76th Fine Gael Ard Fheis, Young Fine Gael will be hosting a session on Saturday afternoon on the topic of Human Rights. The session will discuss Human Rights at home and abroad. The Session will include discussion on how human rights should become central to our society and political system, the media treatment of human rights, children’s rights and the Children’s Referendum, and advocacy for people with disability. Speaking about the Session, Young Fine Gael...
After the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, Fine Gael is now the only political party in Ireland that is opposed to the introduction of Gay Marriage in Ireland. It was interesting to read that Fianna Fail passed motions in favour of both Gay Marriage and Gay Adoption following pressure from Ógra Fianna Fail and others who have been pushing for it for a number of years. With the Fine Gael Ard Fheis approaching, William Quill blogs that it is the...
So I am home from the Fine Gael Ard Fheis and what an Ard Fheis it was. Enda’s speech was as Yellow Roman Candles describes it “as good as it gets” for Enda, but it was the reaction to the speech which is what made it. Mairead McGuiness MEP did a great job as compere of the evening and making sure that everything went in order and making sure that everyone was entertained. Micheal Ring TD did a fantastic...
If you take a walk outside the main hotel there is a big crowd outside enjoying the sunshine. There is a relaxed mood among delegates as the various sessions continue this evening. I attended the YFG session for part of it, but had to leav early. I was there for contributions from Lucinda Creighton (Europe) and Brian Hayes (Education). They gave good speeches, with Lucinda focusing on the Lisbon Treaty and the Lisbon Strategy (not to be confused). Brian...
We started this morning we two motion based sessions on Health and the Economy. There was no new substantive addition to the heakth policy as announced by Enda Kenny last night. The only addition was the idea of a National Body Test (NBT), which would be “an age appropriate annual check up to pick up illnesses early.” which is an interesting idea. Dr. James Reilly TD’s speech was very good and had some hard hitting words aimed at the...
There was amotion this morning giving Young Fine Gael an extra seat on the Fine Gael National Executive. This was a amendment I assumed would be passed. But two member from the National Executive actually stood up and spoke against the amendment. It looked tight. Thankfully Denis Kirby, a stallwart of the party in Cork South Central stood up and spoke for the amendment. It is great to have people like that behind the youth of the party. The...
At one point last night before the opening ceremony I came down stairs to find myself in the middle of an argument about Amendment 23. This amendment would each branch entitled to 20 delegates at convention and one extra for every five members over the 20 (i.e 25 members in a branch equals 21 votes). This was proposed by the Parliamentry Party. A decision on this and a number of other motions have been defered to a special delegate...
Well the opening speeches of the Fine Gael Ard Fheis are over and the first session is under way. Senator Francis Fitzgerald gave the local welcome to the Ard Fheis and placed the blame of the current crisis’ firmly at the feet of the Government. Following her, after some formalities, was the main speech by Enda Kenny. He started off about our candidates in the local elections. We ahem, I mean Fine Gael, have 733 candidates in the locals...
Thanks to the wonderful Suzy for these links. I’m off to Dublin today for the Ard Fheis and you too can keep up with the action. You have two ways, you can watch all the tweeting on scribblelive showing all the action from twitter or you can watch the live streaming on the Fine Gael website. The live stream will be between 19:00 – 21:00 today and 11:00 – 21:00 on Saturday with some of the day’s sessions and...
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