Red_Dave

The republic of ireland is holding elections in the summer of 2007 so i wonderd if anyone had an opinion on which partys are most likely to do well/badly, which partys would be most effective in forming a government and what effect this would have. Im also curious as to whether this is going to have much of a bearing on Northern Irish politics given the role Bertie Ahern has played in the peace process.

GarzaUK

I'm not a big follower of Irish politics, but the two big parties are Fianna Fail (Ahern) and Fine Gael. Fianna Fail like Labour are under corruption charges. I would probably expect Fianna Fail to still win though, but I could be wrong, I don't follow Irish politics.

Whoever wins (unless Sinn Fein, which is very unlikely, since they are very much disliked south of the border), I can't see a policy difference to Northern Ireland. I expect Northern Ireland to have its own devolved government in March anyway.

__________________
They tried like hell. They called him an élitist, a radical, a socialist, a Marxist, a Muslim, an Arab, an appeaser, a danger to the republic, a threat to small children, a friend of terrorists, an enemy of Israel, a vote thief, a non-citizen, an anti-American, and a celebrity. ~ George Packer