{"id":469175,"date":"2026-05-27T07:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469175\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T07:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:47:10","slug":"indignation-ireland-leader-was-still-fuming-as-new-tds-took-their-seats-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/469175\/","title":{"rendered":"Indignation Ireland leader was still fuming as new TDs took their seats \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent Ireland had such high hopes for their candidate in the Galway West<\/a> byelection.<\/p>\n

Noel Thomas narrowly missed winning a seat in the General Election. And at the weekend, he just missed out again. <\/p>\n

But his party leader is bearing up well under the disappointment. <\/p>\n

When the D\u00e1il returned on Tuesday, a very wound-up Michael Collins managed not to burst out crying on the plinth while blaming the four parties for ganging up on his candidate, doing him and Indignation Ireland out of vital transfers and a seat. <\/p>\n

Michael wasn\u2019t just unhappy. <\/p>\n

This has been a crutching blow. <\/p>\n

And he was clearly crutched. <\/p>\n

In the course of a deeply poignant one-man comic performance, the TD for Cork South West blamed his candidate\u2019s suspicious demise on three pairs of crutches and Fine Gael<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He gravely intoned: \u201cThere was pacts done\u201d. <\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s distress was the highlight of a day when one brand new TD and one slightly dog-eared repeat TD arrived at Leinster House in triumph to take their seats after the weekend\u2019s byelection double header. <\/p>\n

Daniel Ennis<\/a>, who topped the poll in Dublin Central, had the Social Democrats in rhapsodies. Fine Gael\u2019s Se\u00e1n Kyne<\/a>, who didn\u2019t top the poll in Galway but had the temerity to topple Indignation Ireland\u2019s frontrunner on transfers, had a similar effect on his Fine Gael colleagues. <\/p>\n

Se\u00e1n, a former TD, was Leader of the Seanad before he booked his latest billet on the Blueshirt benches. He didn\u2019t seem particularly elated by his elevation to the Lower House. Been there, done that.<\/p>\n

But his parliamentary party celebrated outside like they had just clinched an overall majority, as opposed to scraping through on transfers from two parties whose supporters viewed him as the lesser of two political evils.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not toxic,\u201d sniffed Michael Collins, when asked if left-leaning voters were incapable of supporting a member of his party. <\/p>\n

Daniel, a former League of Ireland footballer among other things, was walked through the gates by his parliamentary party colleagues after a quick interview on the pavement outside. He was joined by his family for the occasion. <\/p>\n

Did he know he was part of a party which provided a \u201ccrutch\u201d for Se\u00e1n Kyne to disgracefully relieve Noel Thomas of the byelection lead, in cahoots with Labour?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a crutch,\u201d Michael Collins stoically declared during his routine on the plinth.<\/p>\n

He bravely tried to take his mind off the stitch-up in Galway by kicking off with happy news and thoughts of what might have been. <\/p>\n

Deputy Collins arrived with a sheet of figures to highlight how \u201castonishingly well\u201d Independent Ireland did in the contest, doubling its number of first preferences from the general election and pulling in more votes on one constituency than the other parties managed to get in two. <\/p>\n

Bar Fine Gael, which was operating pacts and forcing the others to act as crutches for Simon Harris.<\/p>\n

Michael needed to comment on Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a>\u2019s abysmal performance in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cFianna F\u00e1il are now a crutch for Fine Gael. That\u2019s what they are, a crutch for Fine Gael \u2013 and in disarray in Dublin \u2026 gave 2\u00bd thousand transfers to Fine Gael and they have now become a major crutch for Fine Gael, going forward\u201d.<\/p>\n

Going forward, which is what crutches are meant to be for. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, we have to question the Social Democrats and Labour,\u201d he added, pointing out that a huge amount of Labour transfers went to Fine Gael. <\/p>\n

But in the D\u00e1il they say the country needs a change and to vote Left. <\/p>\n

\u201cSocial Democrats \u2013 the same, they didn\u2019t transfer to anybody else other than Fine Gael.\u201d Their talk in the D\u00e1il about \u201ckeep it Left is only pure and utter bunkum and nonsense\u201d. <\/p>\n

Was the leader of Independent Ireland indignant because these parties, for some strange reason, didn\u2019t accord them honorary left-wing status on polling day?<\/p>\n

Was the byelection result not just democracy in action?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s democracy, we live in democracy, I accept that. But\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n

Oh, Michael was taking defeat very well.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t think much of \u201cthis carry on of: we all vote left, and we all stay left\u201d.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t see that happen at the counts he stood over. No left transfers to Noel Thomas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know, I watched every paper that came out, \u2018twas absolutely thrown into the bin by Labour and the Social Democrats.\u201d <\/p>\n

Indignation Ireland number-one friendly and also transfer friendly, he stressed. <\/p>\n

But lookit. <\/p>\n

\u201cRome wasn\u2019t built in the day. We\u2019re only there two years. Some of these parties are there hundreds of years.\u201d <\/p>\n

But there have been nefarious goings on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view there was pacts done and the Labour Party and the Soc Dems need to come out and\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He never did say. <\/p>\n

Indignation Ireland got loads of transfers but the crutches and the deals did them down in the end. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody else might do better at those deals. We didn\u2019t, we couldn\u2019t do a deal with Fianna F\u00e1il. We\u2019re not in government with Fianna F\u00e1il. We\u2019re not a crutch for Fianna F\u00e1il. Fianna F\u00e1il are a crutch for Fine Gael now, that is proven, and they collapsed completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a touching story. FF collapsed completely yet still selflessly gave FG their crutch.<\/p>\n

It was never going to work out for Indignation Ireland because of \u201cthe bottom line\u201d pact between the two main parties – \u201cthere\u2019s nothing we could do about that\u201d. <\/p>\n

And questions need to be asked of Labour and the Soc Dems and why they instructed their supporters to give FG their number twos. <\/p>\n

Deputy Collins was beginning to sound like Fr Ted giving his Golden Cleric award speech. It was only a matter of time before he would snarl \u201cand another thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Might it be, ventured a journalist, because they didn\u2019t want to vote for his candidate?<\/p>\n

Might it be, pointed out another, that his candidate initially came to prominence when he made anti-immigration comments and that Labour supporters might not feel inclined to vote for him as their candidate, Helen Ogbu, is a migrant?<\/p>\n

Another explained that the election was won on final transfers in a two-horse race and not on second-preference votes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s transfers, transfers, yes,\u201d huffed Michael, but they got loads of them during the rest of the count. <\/p>\n

As to the Labour Party, the leader of Indignation Ireland said he didn\u2019t think immigration had anything to do with the vote. \u201cWe have to ask Labour as to why they transferred that 3\u00bd thousand to that Fine Gael candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does he really believe that Labour told their supporters to vote for Fine Gael?<\/p>\n

Michael didn\u2019t know what to think.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t, well I just can\u2019t understand how it happened – out of the blue, I mean \u2026 It\u2019s obvious, it\u2019s obvious \u2026\u201d he forlornly spluttered. <\/p>\n

\u201cTwo and a half … It\u2019s obvious that Fianna F\u00e1il carried Fine Gael with two and a half thousand … they transferred over …\u201d<\/p>\n

Who knows?<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look. I can only stand over what we see and what I saw was a massive transfer from Labour to Fine Gael\u201d and after all they said they \u201cdo everything in their power\u201d to make sure FG get in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey became a crutch for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deputy Collins was not the only one unhappy with Labour transfers electing Se\u00e1n Kyne. Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn also referred to it when taking to the media. <\/p>\n

Later, Labour\u2019s George Lawlor said Peadar\u2019s intervention was obviously a \u201cdeflection\u201d from his own party\u2019s \u201cdisastrous\u201d showing. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur voting system is the best voting system that you can buy … for want of a better description,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou might rephrase that,\u201d said party leader Ivana Bacik. <\/p>\n

So he said the Irish voting system is the best in the world. We must be proud of it and we must educate people about it.<\/p>\n

He sighed. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if we have to do it to party leaders . . .\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent Ireland had such high hopes for their candidate in the Galway West byelection. Noel Thomas narrowly missed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15049,61,60,31650,43,12636],"class_list":["post-469175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dail-eireann","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-miriam-lord","tag-news","tag-oireachtas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}