SeriesThe week that was

Much of the action was stateside, on both the winning and losing side.

EVERY WEEKEND, OUR political team casts an eye over the events inside and outside Leinster House that have people talking.

This week, much of the focus was across the Atlantic as several Irish ministers were in New York for various events around the United Nations General Assembly. 

There’s also the small matter of the budget in 10 days, so how are we looking this week:

Micheál Martin

Irish Government Irish Government

Being Taoiseach comes with perks and pitfalls. The pitfalls being that you have to take a measure of responsibility for anything that goes wrong within government. It’s just part of the job of being a leader.  

The perks being that you also get the opportunity to undertake some nice gigs every now and then. Not that they’re easy to pull off, but you at least get the opportunity to look competent and statesmanlike. 

This was one such week for Micheál Martin, when he got to address the UN on Thursday evening, after spending the previous evening pulling bingo balls and riding the subway with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

Martin, perhaps more used to Queenstown bingo halls than his new pal from Queens, looked a lot more comfortable in pulling the balls than Mamdani did. 

Bingo!! pic.twitter.com/Nnbu9AMZvj

— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) September 23, 2026

Then on Thursday his speech to the United Nations was generally considered to be strong, and he got a round of applause in the room for his remarks on Palestine. 

Throw in there some mutual warm words between himself and the Irish football manager, and it’s been a good week for Martin.  

Unionism

DUP leader Gavin Robinson MP and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Fair is fair. Only two weeks ago, we put unionists as losers of the political week following Donald Trump’s comments in pushing for a united Ireland. 

This week, unionism as a whole had a win when the Parades Commission granted permission for Orange Order members to march down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in 29 years.  

The reason this counts as a win for wider unionism is that the three unionist parties, the DUP, the UUP and the TUV, were all seeking this result.

Whether or not they were actively working together, they were at least focused on achieving a specific goal. 

After the decision, DUP leader Gavin Robinson called it “a significant and long-overdue breakthrough”, while UUP leader Jon Burrows also called it “significant” and praised the Parades Commission for “examining the application on its own merits”.  

The unanimity comes at a time when there is growing pressure within unionism to work together to maximise their electoral chances since Sinn Féin has taken the mantle as the largest party in Stormont. 

The UUP held its party conference on Thursday, with Burrows saying in advance that the leaders of the three parties needed to sit down and agree a strategy to “promote transfers and promote turnout”.  

Whether that happens or not, they’ll take a win while they get it. 

Helen McEntee

Helen McEntee in New York this week. The Journal The Journal

It feels a little harsh to include the current Minister for Foreign Affairs this week when last week we included all recent justice minsters, a group she is very much part of. 

But it is, however, hard to avoid when questions about her handling of a protected disclosure made during her time as justice minister continue to roll on and indeed followed her to New York. 

The controversy relates to a protected disclosure made by Detective Superintendent Brian O’Reilly, and it has been alleged that McEntee effectively “revealed” his identity in her and her department’s handling of the disclosure. 

In New York this week on UN business, Helen McEntee was pushed to answer further questions on the matter and whether she had overstepped the mark. 

“I have always adhered to the legislation. I have always adhered to the advice that’s provided to me,” McEntee said. 

In a week in which she spoke alongside Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the minister would have preferred the focus was on her current job, not her former one. 

Charlie McConalogue

Minister of State Charlie McConalogue Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Spare a thought for Junior Sports Minister Charlie McConalogue, whose phone must have been hopping with calls and texts from Fianna Fáil backbenchers in recent days. 

There’s nothing backbench government TDs like more than announcing sports grants for their locality and the news that the Sports Capital Funding portal was opening for applications on Monday would usually be treated with almost as much fanfare. 

That is, however, if they’ve been given the green light to announce such news.

Whatever happened in terms of communications, Fine Gael politicians (and independents) went online on Wednesday to announce registration details and offer up support in applying. 

Fianna Fáil TDs appear to have been left frustrated that a jump was stolen on them, prompting an emergency meeting in Leinster House among members who sought to find out what happened. 

McConalogue was reported to have told colleagues that nothing had been decided yet and that therefore there was nothing to announce yet. One wonders if that calmed their ire.  

Nigel Farage

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks to the media this week. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

We haven’t included the leader of Reform UK on this list in the past few weeks, but he is on a particularly bad run of late. 

It comes only months after Reform UK had blitzed local elections across England and Wales and had people predicting that Nigel Farage was a PM-in-waiting. 

But after quitting his Westminster seat and seeking re-election in a stunt that backfired in a blaze of Count Binface, things have got even trickier for Farage. 

Since then, the Reform UK conference was overshadowed by undercover filming which showed some of his closest allies soliciting foreign donations. Then his party’s funding came under even more attention when two more crypto billionaires donated a combined £72 million.  

This week, a number of opinion polls appeared to show the party is sustaining damage as a result of all this attention. 

The biggest such poll this week was one by YouGov, which also drilled down into what the support levels would look like translated into House of Commons seats. 

Yougov Yougov

Only a year ago, Reform were predicted to be heading for some 311 seats, a little shy of the 326 needed for a majority but not far off. 

Fast forward 12 months and the arrival of Andy Burnham and the implosion of Farage’s personal brand now has Reform UK instead down in third place.  

This would of course still represent a huge increase in seats for Reform UK but even that looks a long way off and the party is likely to face some choppy waters beforehand.