THERE are two Dáil by-elections coming up in the south in May.

One in Galway West, to replace Catherine Connolly after her elevation to the Áras, and one in Dublin Central, to replace Paschal Donohoe who goes to the World Bank in Washington.

They provide two contrasting test beds for the opposition parties in the next general election, which admittedly is at least three years away.

Nevertheless, the parties need to get their act together if they want to get rid of ‘FFG’, as people now call the long-term coalition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

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Recent polls in the south have shown the opposition stuck, despite the government not being popular.

The evidence is that the electorate don’t see an alternative government on the horizon.

This time last year it looked more promising.

Micheál Martin, in his full hubristic mode, managed to unite the opposition against his disgraceful stroke of having Independent government ministers, yet allowing them Dáil time to question the government he’d made them part of. Go figure.

Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Labour, People Before Profit, all piled in together and more or less stopped Dáil business for months.

Following on from that, in the summer, the parties of the left managed to........

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