Department of Politics and Public Administration UL

05/01/2026

18/12/2025

University of Limerick Alumni - Rebecca Zamponi Shares Her Journey
https://www.ul.ie/news/university-of-limerick-alumni-spotlight-rebecca-zamponi

08/04/2025

Department of Politics and Public Administration
Spring 2025 Seminar Series

Joseph Lacey (UCD)

“Moral Agency in Election Campaigns: Preliminary Findings from Fieldwork”

Wednesday, April 9, 15:00
Online on MS Teams (link below)


Abstract
Elections are at the heart of modern democracies. But do election campaigns help or harm democratic norms and political trust? This talk will try to address this question when informed by the perspective of three key actors that animate election campaigns: candidates, campaign professionals and journalists. Each of these actors have essential roles in campaigns and the decisions they make from within these roles are consequential for our democracy, if not individually then at least in the aggregate. By trying to understand how these actors conceive of the responsibilities they do (or do not) have in this context – and what they expect of each other – this talk will present new evidence for how campaign actors seek to cope with normativity in the contemporary election environment. The focus of this talk will be on US federal campaigns to the House and Senate and based on a (very) preliminary analysis of interview-based fieldwork conducted in 2025.

19/02/2025

Today - seminar

Owen Worth (UL) “‘Mobilisation without Representation?’ The Far Right iIreland"

15:00, Lonsdale Building, Room LG011


Abstract
The anti-immigration protests that have emerged in the last few years in Ireland has seen several right-wing movements emerge that were previously missing within civil society at a time when far-right mobilisation across Europe has been widespread. Despite this, Ireland is often considered an anomaly in the fact that a radical right political party has never made any political break through electorally. This paper outlines the main reasons for this and suggests that what is emerging in Ireland is a unique case where we see a mobilisation of right-wing campaigns across civil society, but a lack of representation at the political level.

02/02/2025

Andrew Shorten’s new paper on Alienation, equality, and multifaith establishmentA merican Journal of Political Science - Wiley Online Library

14/01/2025

Rory Costello presents new evidence on the growing gender gap in political attitudes in Ireland

Dr. Rory Costello is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics & Public Administration at the University of Limerick. He is Director of WhichCandidate.ie and is a member of the …

28/11/2024

What might happen in Limerick …

Lecturer predicts who’ll get it ‘just right’

26/11/2024

Still time to use Rory's app and see what candidates have views closest to your own

“This research … shows that voters are very willing to change their minds if they find that their preferred candidate is not a good policy match. This also highlights the increasing importance that policy plays in vote choice today, particularly among younger voters who no longer have any strong party allegiances.”

New University of Limerick research has found that many voters who used WhichCandidate – a voting aid application founded by Dr Rory Costello, a lecturer in UL’s Department of Politics and Public Administration – switched their initial voting preference in favour of a different candidate.

READ: https://www.ul.ie/news/whichcandidate-new-ul-research-shows-voters-switched-preferences-after-using-election-website

20/11/2024

Public Debate with Limerick City General Election Candidates

19/11/2024

Rory's Costello's WhichCandidate is up and running. It is also available on the The Irish Times for this election at https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/11/19/election-2024-how-do-your-views-match-with-election-candidates-in-your-area-use-this-tool-to-find-out/.

Find the candidate that matches your views on WhichCandidate.ie

07/11/2024

Seminar

Rory Costello "Voting behaviour in Ireland’s first direct mayoral election”

Wednesday, November 13, 14:00
Main Building, Kate O’Brien Room (C1079)

Abstract
With the Limerick Mayoral election of 2024, Ireland has joined the growing list of European countries to hold direct elections for the position of mayor. The election was remarkable for the strength of the independent vote. Almost half (46%) of the first preference votes went to independent candidates, which is twice the number that voted for independents in the Limerick local elections held simultaneously. The success of independents came despite all of the main parties running candidates, including two incumbent TDs and four sitting councillors. This suggest that voters treated this election quite differently to other elections. This paper seeks to explain voting behaviour in the mayoral election using data from an exit poll carried out at 52 polling stations around Limerick city and county, supplemented by a candidate survey. The study compares the relative importance of issues, personal contact, government evaluations, partisanship, and social class on vote choice, and highlights how voting behaviour in Ireland’s first ever mayoral election differed from other types of elections in Ireland.

17/10/2024

UL Open Day today, come and join us tomorrow 18 October for program insights, Q&A and meet with our Faculty.

New for 2025
BA Global Politics
https://www.ul.ie/courses/bachelor-of-arts-global-politics
https://www.ul.ie/artsoc/schools-and-departments/politics-and-public-administration