Mrs. Drumm, her husband's heart and money

I see Mrs. Drumm feared her husband David might drop dead from a heart attack because of all the pressure he was under.

He was working long hours at the bank, she pleaded. Ahhh…the poor man.

The marriage was going through a really tough time she said. Ahhh…the poor woman.

The world was going through a really tough time, she pleaded. Ahhh…the poor…what…the fecking world???

Anyway, the poor woman claims that the €1 million transferred to her account from her husband’s had absolutely nothing, I repeat, absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with hiding money from his creditors.

I mean, the very thought is, I’m sure, repugnant to every fibre of her principled and innocent being.

Still, while I believe her without question, I’m sure there are many, many people out there whose marriages, finances, futures and even lives have been destroyed by the likes of individuals like Drumm who would dearly have wished that he had dropped dead long before he became involved in destroying their lives.

All Ireland Sinn Fein

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

Interesting consequence of the elections.

A chara,

So Matt Carthy has completed Sinn Féin’s remarkable quadruple – a seat in each of Ireland’s European constituencies.

For the first time, every person in Ireland is represented by an elected member from the same party – every single one of us, from Antrim to Kerry, has a Sinn Féin MEP.

I imagine this fact will cheer some more than others, but it should please the almost half a million voters who gave Sinn Féin their first preference – over 100,000 more than any other party.

Is mise,
Daire Mag Cuill,
Baile Átha Cliath 7.

Why the peasants are not being heard

I walked into the great hall of government to be met with a wall of absolute silence.

This despite the fact that the hall was full to brim with Labour and Fine Gael politicians, ministers, advisors, special advisors, civil servants and a host of general hangers on.

Timidly, I approached a small group of FG/Lab TDs sitting at a table where they were studying with great intensity the recent election results.

What’s going on, I whispered?

Ssssshhhhhh…..they replied in barely audible tones….We’re listening.

Listening to what?

To the people, we think they’re trying to tell us something…..but we’re not sure what.

Surely it’s that they’re not happy with your performance in power?

No, no, no, they replied in chorus through gritted teeth.

We’ve done everything right. It’s just that the benefits of our enlightened rule haven’t trickled down to the peasant level yet.

You mean their ignorance is preventing them from appreciating all the hard work you’ve done on their behalf?

Yes, we’re completely stumped by the electorate’s ungratefulness.

We know we’re doing right because the bankers, the regulators, the EU, our fellow politicians and people of power and influence in general have been constantly telling us what a great job we’re doing.

But maybe the peasants resent that approach; maybe they want you to pay more attention to their needs?

Yes, of course, that’s why we’re here……listening, listening with great intensity.

Have you heard anything yet?

Not a thing….sure how could we with all that mad racket going on outside our ivory tower.

Sinn Fein: Will they cooperate with the corrupt political/administrative system?

It is now almost certain that Sinn Fein will be part of the next government and that means – decision time.

Will they accept power and cooperate with our corrupt political/administrative system?

Labour in 1992, the Progressive Democrats, the Green Party and Labour again in 2011 all decided to cooperate with the corrupt system in order to reap the benefits of power rather than challenge the rotten system for the good of Ireland and its people.

I hope Sinn Fein resist the temptation but I fear they will not.

Alan Shatter: A pompous, self-regarding, egotistic arsehole

I felt physically sick as I listened and watched that little prick Alan Shatter preen himself in front of my parliament and announce ‘his decisions’, on how he was going to disperse my money.

The €70,000 so called disappointment money for ministers who retire or, like Shatter, find themselves forced out of office for incompetence or worse, is nothing short of shame money granted to the incompetents by a corrupt body politic.

Any human with even a smidgen of decency, with even a hint of morality would make a discreet phone call to quickly disassociate themselves from the taint of such a disgusting payment.

But Shatter is not a decent human by any measure. He’s nothing but a pompous, self-regarding egotistic arsehole.

Like many, I thought the prick was going to make a significant announcement in front of Leinster House, that perhaps he was going to help clean up Irish politics by resigning.

But no, this excuse for a public representative cynically stretched out his ego circus for two days before telling the nation of his ‘decision’.

Have a look at the prick’s face as he informed the nation that he had decided to keep the severance payment before announcing that he was going to donate our money to his favourite charity.

This was supposed to be his big dramatic moment, when the media and nation would gasp in shock at his decision to keep the money quickly followed by deep gratitude and admiration for his unstinting generosity.

It seems, however, that his tiny, principles free brain wasn’t given a copy of the script and so, instead of looking like a great national hero, we witnessed a moronic sneer spread across the prick’s face.

All hail the generous idiot

Wolf of Wall Street: Getting it wrong about Ireland

The real Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, is advising Irish citizens to quit the blame game.

Here’s some of his advice:

One of the messages I want to say to the Irish people is that you can’t blame yourselves.

You’ve got to say it’s okay, we made a mistake and we are going to learn from that and grow stronger from that.

Yeah, people screwed up but they screwed up all over the world so you owe it to your children and your grandchildren to not dwell on that.

And remember it wasn’t Ireland where people overspent. You are no different from the United States and Spain and England.

The problem with Mr. Belfort’s advice is that it’s based on ignorance about what’s really going on in Ireland.

Here’s the minimum Mr. Belfort needs to learn.

All our problems were caused by our corrupt political/administrative system.

Yes, the global financial crisis had a massive impact but it could have been contained and managed if we had a functional democracy.

Mr. Belfort is completely unaware that our corrupt system is not into learning lessons from the disastrous consequences of its actions. To do so would not be in its interests.

The corrupt system did wobble a bit when the global financial crisis hit but it is now firmly back in the saddle of power and ruthlessly doing what it does best – screwing Irish citizens into the ground.

Unwittingly, while describing his own descent into a life of debauchery and fraud, Mr. Belfort pinpoints exactly how our political/administrative system evolved into a corrupt monster.

You don’t lose your moral compass overnight. You take tiny steps where you become desensitised.

This has been happening in Ireland since the corrupt/criminal politician Haughey came to power in 1979. Tiny step after tiny step until eventually the country fell over the cliff in 2008.

The first time you step over the line you feel bad and try to make things right again but then the next time you take that step further and further and before you know it you are doing things you never thought you would do.

This accurately describes the reaction/attitude of our politicians/administrators. Politicians and officials are now at a stage where they don’t even bother to make up excuses anymore.

They are supremely confident that accountability/transparency is a joke. They know they can do pretty much as they please, even break the law, which they do now on a regular basis.

I know myself now if you create wealth without ethics or integrity its not going to last.

The disaster for Irish citizens is that while the political sector is an ethics and integrity free zone it is, apparently, going to last well into the foreseeable future.

Leo Varadkar storms into the mid 1980s

Congratulations to Leo Varadkar.

Riding on his trusty steed the young buck has stormed into the mid 1980s, looked around and immediately summed up the dire situation – I quote.

The Department of Justice is not fit for purpose, it is clear that big changes are required.

We need cultural change. You know, too much in Ireland, and it’s not just a Garda issue, we still have the culture of doing favours, the nod and the wink, the use of discretion and those types of things.

Oh Jesus, save me. I’m going weak at the knees to witness such incisive analysis, such vision, and such cutting edge assessment of what’s happening in our country.

Why, I ask, why did we have to wait so long for the chosen one, for our saviour?

And of course, it brings me back to the mid 1980s too.

The time I realised that the banking sector was robbing customers and the State with total impunity, they still are, bless them.

It was the time I realised that the criminal Haughey was corrupt and the principal carrier of the disease that would eventually infect every level of Irish society but in particular the political, administrative and financial sectors.

I wonder how long it will be before Leo arrives in the 21st century?

Who know, but when he does he’ll see, I’m sure, with equal clarity, that every government department is unfit for purpose, that civil servants and particularly senior civil servants no longer serve Ireland and its people but are loyal to the anti principles of arrogance, incompetence and corruption.

But most of all he will see that the disease of corruption that has infected our law enforcement and other regulatory agencies is carried deep within the system in which he lives – the body politic.

Michael Martin and the steel in his spine

Some quotes from Pat Kenny’s show last Friday.

Paddy Duffy on how he judges politicians.

I really judge politicians on how clear they are on issues and how they deal with them.

What? Surely this is not the man who worked for the bumbling, grossly inarticulate, chronically incompetent Bertie Ahern?

Terry Prone on Michael Martin

This is a man who writes history, this is a man who care about history and the history of his party. He will go down in flames if he’s forced to go down, he’ll fight to the last. And he’s quite a gentle man but his spine is steel.

It’s difficult to believe that Prone has spent her entire working life mixing with incompetent, cowardly and self-serving politicians like Martin and still cannot see what’s right in front of her face.