Search Results for 'Bertie Ahern'

Mr Bertie Ahern TD.

Chief executive of the Special Olympics World Games Mary Davis has emerged as a serious contender to become the next President of Ireland.

A “dictator” is a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, Than Shew of Burma and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe are all dictators. They rule not because they have the approval of their citizens but because they want to rule. Brian Cowen’s democratic credentials are becoming increasingly suspect in this regard. This is a worrying development because the Taoiseach should be committed to democracy by its definition and not just on his own terms.

We now live in an age of cutbacks, economic austerity and diminished financial reward. We are told that we are all in this together and that we are all feeling the pain. That some people will not feel the financial pain to the same degree as others is a fact of life. Some of these are the very highly paid, such as senior executives from some of the larger companies who will take home huge salaries. They will take home these salaries if and only if they do their jobs effectively, generate acceptable results and display high levels of competence. If not they will be fired. That is the way the real world works.

“I might have appointed somebody but I appointed them because they were friends, not because of anything they had given me...”

Following its highly acclaimed presentation in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, Who Killed The Celtic Tiger commences a mini-tour that begins in the Royal Theatre, Castlebar, on Friday May 7. The outrageous show, from the pen of writer Peter Kennedy, is a satirical look at the state of the Irish political and economic situation, told through the medium of music and mimicry. The show is a whirlwind of political satire, with Mary Harney declaring her passion for Bertie Ahern, Brian Cowen trying to sell NAMA, Enda Kenny dreaming of glory and some of the country’s top pop idols releasing a charity single. Is Jedward’s career over before it even starts? Can Bono and Geldof show charity to the Irish people? Is Daniel O’Donnell really emigrating? Where has Willie O’Dea gone? Can Fairy Harney, Bertie Ahern, Biffo the “Bare”, and “End-it” Kenny find a solution to the recession? Can Michael O’Leary succeed where others have failed?

I have received some correspondence over the last few months telling me that I am unbalanced in my column because I have an anti-Fianna Fail agenda. This would be one of the more moderate and considered communications. Others have not been quite so polite. To set the record straight here is my personal position.

“We cannot fix the economy without fixing the political system as well,” is a familiar refrain in Irish political discourse these days. The calamity of the economic collapse and the role of the political and associated systems in bringing it about, or at least in failing to act to prevent it, have focused minds on this matter.

Newly-appointed Junior Minister at the Department of Equality and Integration Carlow Kilkenny’s Mary White has said that she understands the pain of Fianna Fail TDs in Carlow-Kilkenny who are none too pleased at the news of her appointment, as she has been there herself.

“You were a crap player and you are a crap manager. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country and you’re not even Irish….” It is alleged that after this tirade Roy Keane walked out of the Irish team at Saipan in 2002. Little did he know exactly what he just started, because start something he did. All contemporary economic and social wisdom indicates that the rot that exists in our socio economic and political system began to manifest itself during the middle of 2002 or thereabouts. Given that those tasked with managing the economy at the time deny any responsibility, then obviously someone else must be responsible for our economic distress. My money is on Roy Keane.