Search Results for 'Bertie Ahern'

Wind back the clock to early May. The Rhythm and Roots Festival is in full swing and four New Yorkers called The Duke & The King are the big hit of the weekend.

Now that was a sad story about the millionaire owner of the Segway company, who died after falling from cliffs while riding a Segway motorised scooter. Jimi Heselden (62) crashed into the River Wharfe while riding the vehicle round his estate in West Yorkshire last week and was pronounced dead at the scene.

This week cannot go by without making mention of Brian! The life of Brian - it cuold be a good movie... or a bad one, depending on your taste.

Brian Cowen and his colleagues should have nothing to fear from John McGuinness’s new book, but readers can expect an ‘honest review’ of the controversial local TD’s political life, the author confirmed last evening.

Brian Cowen sounded as rough as a bear’s arse on Morning Ireland following his all night revelling in The Ardilaun during this week’s Fianna Fáil think-in in Galway.

Mr Bertie Ahern TD.

When Bertie Ahern published his autobiography many felt it would be better suited to the fantasy section of bookshops rather than to non-fiction.

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.

The beautiful game and the world’s second oldest profession have often collided, colluded, and clashed on the big stage of the World Cup, so as the current tournament continues in South Africa, Talking Politics takes a politically slanted look at the competition’s history.