We can look forward to Fianna Fail being kicked out in a few months, only to be replaced with an alternative that offers little difference in terms of policies and outlook, and will be hamstrung by the mess left behind by the current incompetents in any case. The best we can hope for is that they are not quite as corrupt as the present lot - for those of us concerned about such things.
I had the radio on yesterday afternoon. Some shysters from Bertie Ahern's north Dublin stomping ground were being interviewed about his belated departure from politics. One said “Ah shure leave him alone. Shure dere all at it. He was no worse than the rest.” Something like that anyway.
And therein lies the problem. The people who vote for politicians with low standards have low standards themselves. How many of those who frequent Fagans and sing the praises of dodgy politicians are working in the black economy, cash-in-hand, and claiming income support?
There must be quite a few, because no hard-working, tax-paying, honest person could possibly be so tolerant towards corruption and clientism in Irish political life. And how come they have so much time to sit around Fagans during the day?
Alison Healy reported on the State papers of January to June 1980 in last Thursday's Irish Times. Her piece was about “two bulky files of letters and cards” sent by members of the public to one Charles J Haughey.
Now, when I was at school Haughey was in power, and everyone knew he was corrupt. I was a young punk then, and had a tee-shirt of my own manufacture with “Haughey is a pig” written on the front. I wanted something stronger than “pig” – “cunt” perhaps – but knew my mum would not let me out the door in it, even though she hated Haughey too. With hindsight, I should have written “Haughey is a corrupt chancer”. I wasn’t as subtle back then.
Here are some of the accolades Haughey, the corrupt chancer, received through the post around the same time my tee-shirt graced the streets of Dublin:
A Mayo woman cooed that CJ was "the world’s finest leader” and a “remarkable gentleman. You shine out amongst men. You bring dignity into ever (sic) place you go, so very noticeable in Dublin this week, really a great man amongst men, and women!… God spare you to this country for many years”.
Monsignor James Horan told Haughey he was doing “a magnificent job” and that he had “the personality, warmth, flair and above all courage which goes to make an outstanding leader”.
A woman from Dublin started her missive with “Dear Leader” and promised him a nine-day novena for his “guidance, protection and continued success… may God guard and strengthen you for poor Ireland’s sake. We all observe how you spend yourself in her cause.”
Where's the sick bag?
We all know now, without a doubt, how much Haughey spent – beyond his visible means – on his own lavish lifestyle. A corrupt lifestyle funded by the bribes of business interests seeking favours which were duly granted. He set the bar for those who followed.
And they loved him.
Back to Gombeen Nation main page
11 comments:
I was in a Mayo pub and Charles Haughey was electioneering. He called for free beer for everyone, no spirits. The people drank to their hearts content. I was astounded about his generosity. The landlord said ‘Generosity my backside. A beer lorry was high jacked near Kilkenny six weeks ago and they drop off the beer to certain pubs on his electioneering itinerary’. He was a thief and a liar and people literally cried unashamedly at his funeral. Good old Ireland
a wonderfull start to the new year gm all the fianna fail degenerate slugs going over the side of ss titanic there must be a berg up ahead. btw it has been reported that ELTON JOHN had a baby more wonderfull news some say its a miracle i expect it was a imaculate conception, the lads in the vatican will be making a statement on this in the fullnes of time, no plumbing problems here in beverly hills thanks be to god tis agrand day CHEERS BH
Dear anonymous- all disgracful stories - beer for votes- deserve to see the light of day: A Phillipines election 20 years ago had voters getting a few dollars with their ballot cards- this is NO different.
A man in his late 50's ( whose father was in FG) told me that his father lived in a county just below Dublin. This man claimed that at election time 40-50+ years ago, his father and other party members would keep vigil outside the polling station After it had closed for the night- so that local FFer's wouldn't quietly unlock it,go in and 'lose' some of the opponent's votea.(!!!!)I have no way of verifying this - but SUCH is the reputation of FF that I would well believe it: wasn't Haughey's own election agent done for voting twice himself??
Electoral fraud and buying votes has to be really blatant before it gets in Irish papers- and even so little editorial comment is made.So electronic samizdat may be the way forward.I was trawling for Bertie's website ( www.office of bertieahern,ie) and came across an item that his solicitor had sent letters to blogsite 'Bock the Robber.' VERY interesting- and encouraging. A good blogger may not know if anyone is listenong...but if the message is piercing the Grene Rhino hides of FF, then it's getting through- keep on blogging in the free world, revolution is on the way.
A LAND WITHOUT MORALITY
Ireland is a without any depth of morality. Election gerrymandering and smuggling are not considered to be malevolent. In 1969 Mr Haughey and Neil Blaney used government money to buy Arms for the IRA, and Haughey was sacked from the government by Jack Lynch. It seems that no Arms for the IRA ever materialised and the money completely disappeared. Yet this man became The Taoiseach and the leader of a corrupt and belligerent nation.
In Northern Ireland where a high proportion of the residents are practicing Christians, the Unionist and Democratic Unionist parties did not think it wrong to deprive Catholics of the right to vote, through gerrymandering, maybe for good reasons, as they thought, but it was still immoral and certainly most unchristian.
In Ireland there is a great outward manifestation of religious zeal and solemnity, with great theatrical performances and processions, vigils, visits to shrines and singing of hymns. Thank goodness the people have found out that it is not worth a damn.
The Fianna fail Party and the authority of Archbishop of Dublin and the Catholic church in general is synonymous with corruption. The other Irish political parties do not fare any better in terms of corruption.
I learned over the Christmas period from a Jewish lady who was born and lived in Donnybrook, that John Charles McQuaid and several Irish politicians had contemplated rounding up the four thousand Jews in Ireland and delivering them to the Nazi’s during the war. Thank goodness DeValera had the good moral sense and decency to prevent this. DeValera’s courage has been recognised by the State of Israel.
The Political Parties are not the problem; it is the Irish people who repeatedly and mindlessly allow themselves to be bought like common whores, and repeatedly tricked like simpletons, who are the problem. If you pay bribes to the politicians for favours, how in God’s name can you complain?
Charles Haughey was the worlds greatest leader by Irish Standards, just as Dana was the worlds greatest singer. When a nation is without sophistication, the standards of rouges and liars and being off-key are quite acceptable.
Actually, Dana had a beautiful natural lilting voice, before she decided to have voice training. Then her voice sounded as though a gasket had come loose in the engine. That was a great shame. It is the old 'silk purse' concept all over again, AKA "The Wellington Boot" trademark
The reason for this: “we would rather remain pig ignorant and without sophistication, than be like, or sound like THE ENGLISH”. In Ireland, poor diction, poor oratory and careless syntax are considered to be gifts from God.
Yet, paradoxically the Irish boast about how many Irish authors have received the Nobel Prize for Literature. They were all Anglo-Irish Protestants who attended Trinity College in Dublin. The National University of Ireland (to the best of my knowledge) have never produced a Nobel Prize winner.
Therefore what good has Charlie Haughey done for the people of Ireland? The answer: NOTHING
Hi GM, the world's finest leader indeed! Yeah, if you are a dishonest, FF voting networker with no morals.
A Happy New year to you and all your regular commentators Anna, PonyBoy, Dakota, Mr BH, Lew, Bernd and all the various anons.
Keep up the great work with your excellent blog.
And happy new year to you lot, as well. A blog is nothing without its readers.
Haughey is much credited with lowering standrads n irish politicl life- and ( tho not alone ) he may well have done the most to bring greed and dishonesty into Irish politics- in today’s money the wealth he creamed off for himself is worth €40 million. He also groomed a successor and described him as’ the cutes hoor of them all’ : surely the Guinness Book of Records should record this as Simply The Worst Compliment any Junior Cadet Ever Got From His Boss; step forward one Bertie Ahern.
However today I was reading Sunday Tribune which reminded me of the anniversary of some of the most blood soaked massacres in NI are about to reach their 35th anniversary; Reavy Bros and Kingsmills.
The anniversary piece was coincidentally in same edition as articles on Bertie. The writer said that these sending sneering texts to radio stations this week ignore the fact that Bertie went Straight from his Mother’s funeral ceremony back north-as the Good Friday Agreement had reached the most crucial part..
Comments on Bertie were invited from a variety of iIish people; few remembered Bertie’s role in the peace process : However Northerner Nell Mc Caffrey said it was his Priceless legacy ( she also mentioned the Mahon tribuanal as the grubby end of his career).
Helping 1.5 million people live without fear in the north was legacy worthy of any of the selfless socialists this State once had, such as Jim Larkin. Yet the Tribune article also mentioned Bertie’s policy of making sure FF stayed in power at all costs, never think of the polices or what damage they would do long term…so long as Ff kept getting elected.
Bertie merely carried on with the culture of gombeenism. But if we had stamped out such a culture long ago, his role in the North and in the EU could have expanded to encompass only worthy projects, and made him totally deserving of the big house in Phoenix Park
OH AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO GOMBBEN NATION; keep on blogging in the free world, the low calibre of critical political comment in Irish papers meand your country nneds its bloggers as never before.
Well Said Anna. There is a growing hypothesis that Fianna Fail do not want their filthy, diseased, foul smelling washing to be exposed to the public. The story is that they are leaning on blog-spots to omit information that could lose them the election.
Bertie Arhern has shown the level of his trust and integrity with his ranting onslaught about Brian Cowan in The News of the World Newspaper on Sunday. I hope that the blog-spot managers like Gombeenman will not be intimidated or bribed into censorship by the devious Fianna Fail.
It is most interesting that Mrs Thatcher wanted to give back Northern Ireland to The Republic of Ireland,when she came to power, because she saw it as a costly White Elephant. Official documents recently prove this to be true. John Major thought likewise. The Unionist Party (The Conservative and Unionist Party) had lost all credibility, power and influence in Northern Ireland and there was little to stop the re-unification of Ireland. Mr Paisley had mellowed in his approach and saw Ireland as an important trading neighbour.
Ironically, the thing that stopped the reunification of Ireland was the intransigence and pigheadedness of Sinn Fein. Yes, Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair must be congratulated for their efforts, but they did not start the peace process.
Incidentally, after WWII, even Winston Churchill wanted to reunify Ireland for the same reason as Margaret Thatcher (economic reasons) but the Irish government and the church cocked it up with their declaration of a The Republic of Ireland in 1949
All this information can be verified with a little bit of effort and intelligent research.
Post a Comment