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    #26
    bertie's gone

    It's a small point but for those actually living in Dublin public transport has never been so good. The LUAS and the QBCs (Quality Bus Corridors) and the new fleet of buses make commuting a lot easier.

    I take your point about developers building housing estates anywhere within a 50 mile arc of Dublin and selling it to commuters. That was just daft.

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      #27
      bertie's gone

      There are motorways everywhere in Ireland now. They are tools for increasing the value of Fianna Fail land.

      Roy Keane was in Dublin yesterday for his guide dog thing. When asked who should be the new Taoiseach, his answer was: "John Delaney"

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        #28
        bertie's gone

        John Gormley has brought about the downfall of Michael McDowell and Bertie Ahern, he's on course to become the Saint Patrick of Irish politics.

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          #29
          bertie's gone

          Gormley was a disgrace throughout this entire episode, especially after Bertie's former secretary got flayed alive by Mahon's barristers the other week, sitting on his hands till the skin burned off his palms.

          The Green Party convention is next weekend in Dundalk (!) and Gormley is in for a hard time from the grassroots (no pun intended).

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            #30
            bertie's gone

            heh - if Gormley is now responsible for the crucifixion of the ex-Taoiseach's former secretary then his duties have been truly expanded.

            I thought it was great - fanatical secretary burns at stake while her former boss mutters about breaches of tribunal remit.

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              #31
              bertie's gone

              On the really plus side, it got quite a few FF fundraisers wondering about where their fund raising went and whether any more funds should follow...

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                #32
                bertie's gone

                Bryan wrote:
                Don't forget Mo Mowlam, who seems to be getting wiped from history.

                Sure, Bertie did his bit in the North, but had Bruton, Reynolds, Noonan or whoever else been Taoiseach at the time, they would have done the same thing.
                I'd have to disagree with you there, Bryan.

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                  #33
                  bertie's gone

                  Are you going to say why, or just rehash some inane and unsubstantiated claptrap about "John Unionist", or not even going to bother with that?

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                    #34
                    bertie's gone

                    loose cannon wrote:
                    heh - if Gormley is now responsible for the crucifixion of the ex-Taoiseach's former secretary then his duties have been truly expanded.
                    You know exactly what I mean.

                    Gormley and his party are a joke now.

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                      #35
                      bertie's gone

                      It was Mary Harney who signalled the end. Only when she spoke up did the Greens realise that they had been made to look even more up Bertie's arse than the PDs.

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                        #36
                        bertie's gone

                        toro toro toro toro wrote:
                        Are you going to say why, or just rehash some inane and unsubstantiated claptrap about "John Unionist", or not even going to bother with that?
                        No.

                        When Reynold's and Spring's government collapsed in 1994, Bruton became Taoiseach in a FG, Labour and DL government. Probably the most important issue inherited by Bruton was the Peace Process. When the IRA broke its first ceasefire in February 1996, the process hit a logjam because of the Tory government's dependence on unionist votes. Bruton, at this important juncture was, shall we say, less than enthusiastic about pushing the process.

                        Fair enough, you might say, but Bruton in an interview with a reporter from a provincial newspaper was quoted as saying he was "sick of answering questions about the fucking peace process." I think this happened about 6 or 7 months into his premiership.
                        In December of 1995 Bruton was visiting some company and asked if "Charlie Bird was waiting in the bushes." When told that the intrepid reporter was not he said; "Good, now I won't have to answer questions about the fucking peace process." I don't know about you, but those outbursts didn't instil me with a lot of confidence in his commitment to the process.

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                          #37
                          bertie's gone

                          Scepticism on the piecemeal process doesn't necessarily equate to unionism. Brutal may have been waiting for McGuinness to be tempted by the Mercs and perks, and Paisley to become senile.

                          Any word on the Southern hack arrested by Mugabe's goons?

                          Rampaging orange sex maniac shot in Dublin:

                          http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7329775.stm

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                            #38
                            bertie's gone

                            There was also the problem that the personal relationship between bruton and the Provos was very bad, and that there was a certain amount of them holding off until he was out of power before moving on.

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                              #39
                              bertie's gone

                              Bruton in an interview with a reporter from a provincial newspaper was quoted as saying he was "sick of answering questions about the fucking peace process." I think this happened about 6 or 7 months into his premiership.

                              The North Korean peace process went on for an interminable length of time. All the participating politicians will have made comments like the above in private at some stage of the thing. Bruton just happened to be captured on tape.

                              And the Charlie Bird comment was clearly a joke.

                              I am not a huge fan of Homer Bruton but I don't see how he could be blamed for the IRA breaking their ceasefire in 1996.

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                                #40
                                bertie's gone

                                Hieronymus Bosch wrote:
                                Bruton in an interview with a reporter from a provincial newspaper was quoted as saying he was "sick of answering questions about the fucking peace process." I think this happened about 6 or 7 months into his premiership.

                                I am not a huge fan of Homer Bruton but I don't see how he could be blamed for the IRA breaking their ceasefire in 1996.
                                I didn't say that.

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                                  #41
                                  bertie's gone

                                  But you're saying Bruton had no interest in the North, and there isn't a massive amount of hard evidence for this apart from one bad-tempered comment to a radio reporter that was uttered when Bruton was under huge stress.

                                  In the middle of all this Bertie stuff, Beverley Flynn has sneaked back into the Fianna Fail parliamentary party under cover of the night. A good day to bury bad news . . .

                                  I was in Castlebar last summer. The first thing you see when driving into the town is Beverley Flynn's horrible huge mansion, built for her by her millionaire builder boyfriend.

                                  You have to be careful when her name comes up in conversation down there. Roughly 40% of the locals won't have a word said against her, and will get very narky with you if you criticise her in any way. Everybody else realises that she is a stinking embarrassment to County Mayo and wants her run out of town on a rail. (Fine Gael holds three of the five Dail seats in the county.)

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                                    #42
                                    bertie's gone

                                    'It was Mary Harney who signalled the end. Only when she spoke up did the Greens realise that they had been made to look even more up Bertie's arse than the PDs.'

                                    Get a grip, MH only spoke out because Fiona O'Malley is stalking for leadership of the PDs. (Talk of fighting over a leaking lifebuoy)

                                    Bertie's gone because FF want him gone, not because of any pious comments from Mary or John. And both of them know that too.

                                    Realpolitik - it's all the rage these days.

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                                      #43
                                      bertie's gone

                                      Hold on. Ah yes, found some grip.

                                      I think if Mary Harney had chosen to keep quiet he might still be here. But we'll never know. He's fucking off now, that's the main thing.

                                      Bertie's gone because FF want him gone, not because of any pious comments from Mary or John. And both of them know that too.
                                      Harney = FF in all but name.

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                                        #44
                                        bertie's gone

                                        Bertie is gone because he couldn't think of any plausible thing to say to the dail about the grainne carruth payments. While he was a bit of an embarassment, I don't see any great rush amongst the fianna failers to get rid of him.

                                        If anybody is wondering why cowen isn't in a mad rush to become taoiseach, he's a monstrously fat, 48 year old boozy man who had a mini stroke three years ago, whose father died of similar lifestyle issues at 52.

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                                          #45
                                          bertie's gone

                                          Cowen senior actually didn't even make it to 52, biting the dust a few days before his birthday.

                                          Yesterday afternoon I had to edit a piece about Cowen by one of our big-name columnists, who is also a famous presenter on RTE. His whole intro was based on the premise that Cowen had pulled off a staggering achievement by going from political obscurity to the post of Taoiseach in a mere 14 years.

                                          Except for the unfortunate fact that the correct figure is 24 years -- Cowen succeeded his dad in 1984, not 1994. (Bertie Ahern himself made the same journey in 20 years, Charles Haughey took 22 years, Jack Lynch 18, Albert Reynolds 15.)

                                          I had to rewrite the entire intro as a result. Anyone can make a mistake, but this guy probably got paid about €1,200 for the piece, and could have checked a detail like that on the internet in a matter of seconds.

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                                            #46
                                            bertie's gone

                                            I saw Bufflo* and his mentor, Albert Reynolds described in an article today as the C&W wing of Fianna Fail.

                                            I'd be more sympathetic to the cash-strapped Dublin media (and its overworked editors), if you didn't come on here regularly boasting that they pay you to rubbish dreary comeback albums by 90s indie rock dinosaurs. Why don't you borrow it, like much else, from the Guardian or Indie?

                                            * big ugly fecker from Laois/ Offaly

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                                              #47
                                              bertie's gone

                                              We don't take any copy from the English papers, you big eejit. We print the very occasional article from Bloomberg but that's all.

                                              The paper's finances are fine, by the way, which is why they can afford to pay outlandish sums to the likes of McGurk.

                                              (As an aside, nobody here ever uses the term "bufflo".)

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                                                #48
                                                bertie's gone

                                                Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm only reporting (London) Irish throwaway slang. As AIATL says, he's unlucky to be overweight and hardly an oil painting.

                                                As you're so solvent, and the Brit-borrowing Irish Times is usually skint, why haven't you started a daily set-up to push them aside?

                                                PS reunification of half of Cyprus proceeds apace- you'd be wanting to bring forward the fixtures, as I dread to think how many the whole island might score against O'Shea and co.

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                                                  #49
                                                  bertie's gone

                                                  I thought he was Biffo. Big Ignorant Fucker From Offaly.

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                                                    #50
                                                    bertie's gone

                                                    "Biffo" is correct.

                                                    As AIATL says, he's unlucky to be overweight and hardly an oil painting.

                                                    Paisley had a go at Cowen's looks once, which was rich coming from a man who resembles a constipated Easter Island statue. Some gibberish about Cowen's lips being so big because his mother glued them to the floor as punishment for being a badly-behaved child.

                                                    As you're so solvent, and the Brit-borrowing Irish Times is usually skint, why haven't you started a daily set-up to push them aside?

                                                    Too much could go wrong, especially in the current climate. We've remained in good financial shape by staying medium-sized and not spending beyond our means. No point in potentially pissing it all away just to try and give the dailies a bloody nose.

                                                    The Irish Times' finances have improved a lot since the days when €17 million fell out of the arse of their pension fund and nobody could find it. Unfortunately, in quality terms the paper has jumped off a cliff since then.

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