They do go at it awful hard
9. “Fu*k you deputy Stagg”
In what is probably the most infamous moment in Dáil Éireann history, Green Party TD Paul Gogarty exploded during a debate on education cuts. He apologised for his ‘unparliamentary language’ straight away, but the damage was done.
8. Michael Lowry’s “two-fingered gesture”
Independent TD Michael Lowry was filmed making a two-finger gesture in the Dáil chamber during another heated session over speaking rights. The moment was captured by Socialist TD Paul Murphy.
7. “Holy show of yourselves!”
Amid the tumult over Lowry’s status and speaking privileges, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy chastised disruptive TDs with the phrase, “You are making a holy show of yourselves!”, a line that reverberated through headlines all across the internet and country.
6. “Good Luck, Babe”
Independent TD Paul Gogarty left everyone doing a double-take when he popped a pop lyric into proceedings. Amid a tense debate over Taoiseach nominations in January 2025, Gogarty unexpectedly quoted Chappell Roan’s hit “Good Luck, Babe”.
5. Mick Wallace rocks up in a football jersey
When Wexford TD Mick Wallace took his seat in Leinster House after being elected, he did so wearing… an Italian football jersey. And people lost their actual minds about it.
4. Eamon Ryan falls asleep mid-debate
Green Party leader and current Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan became a meme when cameras caught him nodding off during a Dáil session. During a debate about Covid-19 legislation, no less.
3. “You’re a waffler”
Bertie Ahern’s finest moment came when he was a Finance Minister in 1994 and went full ‘unparliamentary language’ responding to Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell.
2. The Regina Monologues
During a fiery debate on abolishing the Seanad, Independent Senator David Norris let loose with the sexism. He quipped that he and other long-serving senators should not be subjected to “The Regina Monologues”, a pointed jab at Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty. He added that Doherty was “not a wet week in this house talking through her fanny”.
1. “Put manners on you”
“I did not come in here to do what your mother should have done and put manners on you!” said Louise O’Reilly (Sinn Féin) after being repeatedly heckled, most notably by Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor and Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins, who accused her of shedding “crocodile tears” on behalf of workers.
