Author: Anthony

Greeks on the street – Irish still sitting at home

There is very little difference between the economies of Ireland and Greece: both are on a slippery slope to disaster.

Neither is there much difference between the principal causes of these disasters – Political corruption and incompetence, massive tax evasion by the rich without consequences and the squeezing of ordinary citizens to pay for the whole rotten system.

There is, however, a huge difference between the reactions of ordinary citizens. A Channel 4 news report on Greek protests makes the point.

This is Greece, not Ireland. We the workers will resist.

We will fight; we will not accept the measures and that can only happen if we protest against them, not if we sit in our houses.

The Irish are still sitting in their houses – like sheep.

De Burca resigns

In a posting last June after the Greens were wiped out in local elections I wrote about Senator Deirdre De Burca.

And although it may not be very charitable I was also delighted that Senator De Burca of the Green Party did not get enough votes to qualify for a refund. De Burca may be a Green in name but in attitude and action she is pure Fianna Fail.

My views on this politician have not changed. She claims to have resigned because the Green Party has abandoned its political values and integrity. Perhaps she’s genuine, we’ll see as events unfold

The truth

Irish Times letter.

Madam,

As a one-time alcoholic and an inmate of St Ita’s, Portrane may I offer my observations of the Irish psyche.

As a nation we are inherently incapable of changing either ourselves or our nature of government, of which our leaders are only too well aware.

They realise that the only thing we are likely to do as a people is to go the pub, get drunk and bitch until incoherent about the situation, instead of doing something, anything, to change it. Some of us don’t even have to go to the local to do this.

As a result of this knowledge, they are not only quite prepared to take atrociously bad decisions, such as on Nama, in order to preserve their status quo, but to flaunt their dominance, and our powerlessness to do anything about them, as we regularly witness.

Our mindset is still the same as it was under 700 years of foreign rule, when, incidentally, we were really treated no worse than we are today, by our present generation of Irish political masters.

Yours, etc,

Liam Power,
Bangor Erris,
Ballina, Co Mayo.

Rowing in with the Government

Irish Times letter.

Madam,

The circumstances under which I will row in with the Government (February 8th) are very simple.

1. When the Minister for Education Science insists that his office is located in a 12- year-old secondhand Portakabin and he refuses to be relocated until no school children have to receive their education in a Portakabin.

2. When the Minister for Health insists on sleeping on a hospital trolley every night until no overnight medical patients in a public hospital have to receive treatment on trolleys.

3. When the Minister for Transport insists on only travelling by public transport until all Government ministers car-pool their chauffeurs and black Mercedes.

4. When the Minister for Justice has to spend one day a week holding a speed camera on the M7 for as many years as his department took to approve and sign the contract for the provision and operation of a network of safety cameras.

5. When the Government closes the gap between their world and the Ireland that I live in.

Then, and only then, will I row in with the current Government.

Yours, etc,
Dermot O’Rourke
Westbury Drive,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.

Betrayal through incompetence

During the discussion on last night’s Late Debate Journalist and political scientist, Elaine Byrne provided some interesting statistics that, more than anything else, prove how incompetent our public representatives are and how, through that incompetence, they betray the best interests of Ireland and its people.

Since its establishment in 1937 Seanad Eireann has produced 12 separate unimplemented reports about Seanad reform.

In the 88 years since independence there have been less than 40 private members bills that have become legislation in Dail Eireann. In the 32 years since 1978 almost 300 such bills have entered legislation in the UK parliament.

Since 1997, when the Constitutional Review Group met, there have been ten different progress reports, two substantial reports and another three reports since the committee met in 2007.

Elaine Byrne and the thee political morons

Journalist and political scientist, Elaine Byrne, had her work cut out for her on last night’s Late Debate.

Lined up against her were three moronic dinosaurs representing the current corrupt political system that has destroyed this country.

George Lee’s resignation was the topic of discussion but the underlying discussion was about the Irish political system and the need for reform of that system.

Elaine Byrne was saying the system is broken and, of course, she’s absolutely right but the dinosaurs are so far stuck up their own political rectums that they hadn’t the slightest inkling of what she was trying to tell them.

The political dinosaurs were Senator Regan of Fine Gael, Niall Collins TD of Fianna Fail and Joe Costello TD of Labour.

But before I deal with these morons I want to first quote the daddy of all political morons, Eoghan Harris where he rants on about the need for politicians to serve a political apprenticeship before they get too opinionated.

When reading this quote keep in mind that Harris never did a days political work in his life, he was appointed to the Senate solely for his unassailable ability of licking Bertie Ahern’s rear end

What’s been really concerning and worrying in the last few days is the way the discourse on the George Lee issue has become a general rejection of the notion that there should be no apprenticeship of any sort in politics.

The apprenticeship in politics is a very important preparation in terms of character. Listening to people who are annoying you, boring you, actually cranky people is a test of character and stamina and teaches people how to deal with the public.

I mean at the end of the day politics is about the rule of states and peoples and it starts with human beings, it’s not an abstract issue. I know there’s a delusion among college students and certain sections of the younger sections of the pol course (?) not the old guard I notice.

There is this delusion that all you have to do is assemble people with first class honours degrees and put them into politics and the country will be a land flowing with milk and honey. That is not how the real world works.

Incredibly, this idiot, who pontificates from the benches of that useless organisation, Seanad Eireann, claims to know how the real world works.

This moronic talk about political apprenticeships reminds me of Martin Mansergh’s (a prime example of an intellectual fool) idiotic idea that newly elected TDs shouldn’t address or criticise a Taoiseach until they’ve served for a number of years.

Not surprisingly, the political morons on the panel all agreed with Harris.

Costello (Lab)

I agree with Harris in terms of apprenticeship. I thinks it’s very important that people have to spend some time there learning…Elaine is missing the point she says the system is broken. We all agree that reforms have to take place…it’s not the political system that has failed the country, it’s the government that has failed the country and the two are totally different.

Collins (FF)

There’s an attempted circling of the wagons by the establishment around all the political parties and anyone who’s associated with politics saying the system is wrong. The system needs tweeking in particular areas, nobody’s disputing that, we all accept we have to try and better ourselves but this notion that Dail TDs and senators shouldn’t be available to the public who elects us on any level I think it’s farcical and the people who are making those comments don’t understand the work of public representatives in this country as far as I’m concerned.

Collins went on to give an example of how Irish political representatives work which sounded like a sketch straight out of Ballymagash.

We had a debate in our parliamentary party this evening about the dog breeding legislation. I met three groups of my constituents who are involved in dog breeding, that’s all part of it, we get out and about.

Byrne was completely stumped.

Dog breeding, you talk to them about dog breeding?

At this stage I lost the run of the discussion after falling to the floor in convulsions of contemptible laughter.

Collins wasn’t laughing though, he was, again, attacking Byrne because she’s an academic, what would her type know about the plain people of Ireland?

But Byrne is more tuned into the brutal reality of Irish politics than any of these morons.

It’s about politics, it’s about Ireland. We should have citizen assemblies where the citizens take ownership of the reform process where people can go into a room and say what needs reform.

I agree completely but would go much further. These political dinosaurs and all their fellow representatives from all parties have lost their right to govern or represent the people of Ireland.

The system they represent and defend so strongly is corrupt and beyond redemption, beyond reform.

We should indeed have citizen assemblies, the people should indeed take ownership, not of the reform process, but of the political system itself. The first step in taking that ownership is to destroy the current rotten system.

Bertie: Hoping that god is a card carrying member of Fianna Fail?

The chancer Bertie Ahern was his usual obnoxious self during an interview with Gay Byrne on The Meaning of Life.

On his father’s membership of the Old IRA:

He was greatly influenced by his father’s IRA record but father didn’t talk very much about his activities. He was very republican, he was different to the Provisional IRA, needless to say; he had no time for civilian atrocities.

This hypocrisy always amuses me. Apparently, the Old IRA were gentle folk. If we’re to believe all the guff about their ‘noble activities’ we could be forgiven for thinking that they love bombed their victims to death.

I can just imagine a victim thinking just before he was brutally murdered – I’m so lucky to be dying at the hand of this ‘good’ IRA man and not one of those nasty Provisionals.

On his Catholicism:

Believes in an afterlife, believes in communicating with the dead, including Fianna Fail backbenchers.

Oddly, he doesn’t believe in Confession but does receive Holy Communion which, according to the rules of his religion, is a serious contradiction and a sin in itself.

Now that he’s publicly admitted this sin it is the duty of all priests to refuse him Communion but given that they’re as hypocritical as he is I don’t this problem will arise.

Still, I don’t think god will be fooled. He’s very clear on the matter – confession is required in order to reconnect to god’s grace and avoid the fires of Hell.

The best the chancer can hope for is that god turns out to be a card carrying member of Fianna Fail.

On the Tribunal and the fact that 78% of people didn’t believe his evidence.

It’s all down to overpaid lawyers plotting against him, twisting the evidence, ambushing him at every corner, it’s all very unfair.

The facilitation of child rape by the Catholic Church

In a letter to the Irish Times a Fr. McDonagh refuted the suggestion by another letter writer that the Catholic Church should no longer be allowed control school boards because, as an organisation, it actively facilitated the molestation of generations of children.

There is, wrote Fr. McDonagh, a world of a difference between covering up these crimes and actively facilitating them.

Two days later, on Today with Pat Kenny (Fri. 5th Feb), a distraught American woman related how her life and the lives of her family were destroyed by the paedophile priest, Fr. Brendan Smyth.

He destroyed my entire family. He was moved around four states in the US, from parish to parish within those states. I think it is important for the people of Ireland to know the fraudulent concealment that is still going on within the Catholic Church about where this man was based over his years in the US.

The horror visited upon this woman and her family happened because Catholic Church authorities moved this monster out of Ireland in order to protect the reputation of their corrupt organisation.

By doing so they were knowingly facilitating child rape.

Central Bank governor now well integrated into the system

The astronomer was explaining to his audience that the earth would be destroyed in 4.5 billion years time when the sun explodes.

A lady, shocked to hear this news, checked with the astronomer. Did you say the earth would be destroyed in 4.5 million years?

No, replied the astronomer, 4.5 billion. Oh, said the lady, sitting down, that’s a relief.

The same logic can be applied to the Central Bank scandal where, apparently, everybody was relieved to learn that 52 spouses of staff had gone on 71 trips over two years and not, as was first thought, altogether on one trip.

I can see this ‘trick’ being enthusiastically taken up by politicians and officials as the ultimate red herring. Politician X, discovered to have defrauded the taxpayer of €50,000, will be off the hook when it’s learned that the fraud was only €49.000.

The official reaction to the Central Bank scandal makes one thing clear, nothing has changed.

The new Governor, Patrick Honohan, on first taking up his post naively expressed puzzlement at how banks could have been so reckless and called for an inquiry; he wanted to get at the truth.

Clearly, this unprecedented attempt to bring accountability to a corrupt banking system sent shock waves throughout financial and political circles.

There must, therefore, have been great relief when Honohan’s response to the expenses scandal clearly demonstrated that he had quickly learned how to work the system.

I knew nothing about this, I’m not responsible but I have put a stop to the practice and then, in traditional Irish style, he pulled down the shutters.

Was former governor John Hurley accompanied by his wife on a taxpayer funded trip to a symposium in the Rocky mountain ski resort of Jackson Hole? – Not telling you.

Was former governor John Hurley accompanied by his wife on a trip to Cape Town in 2007? – Not telling you.

Was former governor John Hurley accompanied by his wife on a trip to Paris in 2006? – Not telling you.

What about details on a number of foreign trips taken by senior officials in 2007/08? – Not telling you.

Yes, Mr. Honohan is well and truly integrated into the Irish system of secrecy and non accountability.

We’ll hear no more calls for investigation from this man.

George Lee's resignation

Last May I wrote about the passion of George Lee after listening to him savage the wasters that inhabit that useless institution; Seanad Eireann.

If every politician or even a significant number of them felt and acted with such passionate anger and honesty Ireland would indeed be a country of happy enlightenment.

I was not, however, optimistic about Lee’s chances of successfully integrating into the corrupt Irish political system.

Sadly, it is not to be. It’s only a matter of time before George is hauled down into the dark, damp pit of Irish politics where all new arrivals on the political scene are strapped into a seat, have a very bright light shone in their faces and are ruthlessly indoctrinated into the realities of Irish political life.

George’s unexpected resignation has saved him from making the choice of either challenging the corrupt political system or becoming a fully paid up member like the Progressive Democrats and Greens.

Still, it’s disappointing that he has decided to leave politics altogether. He could have remained on as an independent and used his insider position to expose corruption within the system.