Category: Government

Ireland now a visible banana republic

From 1922 until 1979 Ireland had the potential to go corrupt.

From 1979, when the criminal Haughey came to power, Ireland did go corrupt. The disease spread rapidly throughout the body politic, the public and civil service, the financial sector and the general population.

The administration did, however, manage to preserve, especially on the international stage, the illusion that Ireland was a fully functional, democratic state.

The international financial crisis in 2007/2008 began to expose the rot for the entire world to see and ever since the country has been on a rapid downward spiral to what I call a visible banana republic.

Here’s just one small example of what I mean.

Broadcaster Joe Duffy had the following conversation on Liveline (Friday) with government minister Conor Lenihan on who exactly was the real Justice Minister.

Duffy: Dermot Ahern is saying I’m still Minister for Justice. We were told yesterday that the new Minister for Justice was the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith.

Minister: Well, as I understand it the Taoiseach announced in the Dail yesterday that those powers previously exercised by Dermot Ahern have now been transferred to another minister.

Duffy: It’s bizarre that we don’t know who the Minister for Justice is.

Minister: But we do, it’s certainly not Dermot Ahern, he’s resigned.

Duffy: No, he said he is, his spokesman says it is him, it is still Dermot Ahern. He’s insisting that he he’s still in charge of the Gardai from his hospital bed.

Minister: Good Lord, well that is a surprise to me.

Hanafin: Ruthless, arrogant – and stupid

Fianna Fail TD Mary Hanafin, one of the most ruthless politicians in the country, was challenged on Frontline (Monday, 17th Jan) on who she was backing in the heave.

Pat Kenny: Brian Lenihan has indicated that before the meeting tomorrow night he will indicate his thinking.

Hanafin: And I’ll do the same thing.

Later in the programme a caller made another challenge.

Tell Mary Hanafin to get off the fence…to show some leadership or backbone.

Hanafin put on her most arrogant face and dismissively issued a one word reply.

Amárach.

Hanafin was, of course, lying. She didn’t reveal who she was backing until it was forced out of her by media pressure on Wednesday.

Here’s a flavour of how this ethical/principles free politician responded to media questioning.

I was never going to be part of a heave, if there was going to be a heave I was not going to be party to that.

But you said you would address the parliamentary meeting and reveal your stance, you didn’t do that.

I think it was obvious to people that I would vote according with my views, so I chose to vote in secret.

I was not part of the campaign that was going on. It was a motion of confidence, it wasn’t a leadership contest, it wasn’t about coming out in favour of one person or the other. If it had been then I might have been active and actually canvassing for one person or another but it wasn’t.

So having not expressed confidence in the Taoiseach how can you sit around the Cabinet table over the next two months?

Because it wasn’t about confidence in the Taoiseach, the motion was very specifically about the leader of Fianna Fail.

Do you have confidence in him as Fianna Fail leader?

Yes I do, I’m a party person and I have always said whoever the leader of my party is I am very happy to support that person.

This level of hypocrisy, even by the extremely low standards of Fianna Fail, would be difficult to surpass.

Hanafin’s actions also demonstrate how operating within a corrupt political culture can reduce the political mind to pure stupidity.

Instead of retaining her credibility by openly and honestly challenging Cowen which would have put her in a good position to win leadership of Fianna Fail Hanafin opted for two more months of having her arse ferried around in a state car.

Tunisia more democratic than Ireland

A panelist on the Marian Finucane Show last Sunday made some comparisons between Ireland and Tunisia which recently overthrew a corrupt government.

Unemployment is at 14% with youth unemployment at 25%. This is much the same as Ireland.

Public debt is 50% of GDP. Ireland’s public debt is 100% of GDP.

The president was despised for living a life of excess while ordinary Tunisians struggled to survive.

Ireland’s ruling elite are despised for living a life of excess while ordinary citizens struggle for survival.

Then up pops Sean (son and benefactor of the criminal) Haughey with a ‘profound’ contribution.

The big difference is that Ireland is a democracy.

Ireland is a democracy? Only a complete fool would make/believe such a statement.

There is only one difference between Ireland and Tunisia – Irish citizens have not yet taken to the streets to destroy the corrupt political system that operates in the exact same manner as the Tunisian regime did before it was overthrown.

Senator Ross joins Public Inquiry?

Hallelujah, Independent Senator Shane Ross has finally come around to Public Inquiry’s core philosophy – that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt country.

Speaking on The Saturday Night Show, Ross said that Ireland is a country run by cronies for the benefit of cronies.

Significantly, he also (rightly) claims that a Fine Gael/Labour government will make little difference because they operate within the same (corrupt) system.

This is important because most people/commentators/politicians seem to believe that a FG/Lab coalition will introduce radial reform – they won’t.

Accepting that the situation was extremely serious Ross promises to work on three main reforms.

An end to cronyism.

Renegotiate the IMF deal and burn the bond holders.

Reform the political system.

I genuinely wish him well.

Cowen: The Mad Hatter

From an Alice in Wonderland website:

Although she understands the meanings of each individual word he (The Mad Hatter) uses, Alice is often unable to find meaning in a statement as a whole.

Cowen on recent events.

If he had any other dealings with Sean Fitzpatrick (Six One News)

From facts within my own knowledge I didn’t have any other dealings.

On denying he asked NTMA’s Michael Somers to intervene on behalf of Anglo Irish Bank (Six One News)

I suppose the best way of deciding whether it happened or not is to know whether I did (pause) and I didn’t.

Cowen: A lying traitor

Brian Cowen is a liar.

This needs to be clearly stated to bypass the mountain of bullshit that has been spewing from political and media sources over the last few days.

I’m not going to compromise my intelligence by analysing Cowen’s statements or motives; he’s a liar, end of story.

I am, however, going to express an opinion about the now infamous golf meeting.

In my opinion Cowen met with this cabal of businessmen to sell his country down the river.

In other words, Cowen is not just a liar, he’s also a traitor.

David McWilliams on stupid Bertie

From the Attic Archives.

Irish Times, Friday January 30th 2004.

Broadcaster wrote Ahern speeches.

The broadcaster David McWilliams has said that he wrote magazine articles under a pseudonym in the 1990s criticising the then finance minister, Mr. Bertie Ahern, for whom he was writing speeches at the time.

McWilliams said in an interview with Hot Press magazine that he wrote speeches for Mr. Ahern for three years when he was working in the Central Bank.

“Bertie was the minister for finance and wouldn’t have been very well versed in the intricacies of exchange rates and so forth, so we used to prime him on appropriate governmental reaction to economic events,” he said.

McWilliams said that he wrote a series of articles for Business & Finance magazine at that time using the pseudonym Jock Rosen.

“So I was writing speeches for Bertie on Wednesday and criticising him on a Friday in Business & Finance.”

McWillimans presents a radio show on NewsTalk 106 and he is host of TV3s Agenda programme. He said that many powerful institutions were made of sand “and that’s something my time in the Central Bank taught me.”

The people who are supposed to be in control aren’t in control, and this is the beauty of all sorts of powerful institutions which flex their muscles publicly,” he said

“I mean, I really did observe that at a certain point we could more or less have written anything, and it would have been read out. Fortunately I’m not that devious.”

This article tells us a number of things.

McWilliams, as early as 2004, was on the ball about what was happening in Ireland. He was aware that powerful institutions were made of sand and were not in control.

He was also having great fun showing up Ahern for what he is – an idiot willing to read out anything handed to him no matter how ridiculous.

Ireland enters the Mugabesque sphere

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

Madam,

The sweeping powers now held by the Minister for Finance seem to be similar to those held by the Eastern German regime of Eric Honecker.

Since the passing of laws to legally transform private debt into public debt and to have the related court hearings held before only certain legal personnel, excluding any independent media to represent the taxpayers interest, one can only shudder at the totalitarian implications for our future.

These powers contain things unheard of in a western democracy including that any one who leaks any information is subject to a serious jail sentence.

All of this is none other than summary censorship on public matters, (we own these banks), and whistleblower prevention extraordinaire.

This moved by an un-mandated government and endorsed by the now autumnal Green Party.

Hiding behind the fig-leaf of the mooted abolition of the Seanad, TV and radio have been remarkably quiet about all of this and the implications of this legal enshrining of banker interests above those of the public are swept away with the crumbs of the Christmas turkey and pudding.

Yours, etc,

Eileen O’Sullivan,
Vevay Road,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.

A nation rarely goes corrupt overnight; it’s usually a slow process over many years.

Bit by bit freedoms are restricted, state secrecy becomes the norm, the media begins to die as an effective guardian of free speech and citizens begin to accept the abnormal and dysfunctional as normal and acceptable.

The situation has become so serious that only revolutionary steps by a new government will prevent Ireland from moving into what an Irish Examiner editorial described as a Mugabesque sphere.

Given that the entire body politic operates within a corrupt system this is unlikely to happen.

Mary Robinson: Sorry folks, you're to blame and I can't help

I won’t play the blame game.

This was the banner headline in last Sunday’s Sunday Times (Sub. Required) introducing an interview with former president Mary Robinson on the occasion of her return to Ireland after a 13 year absence.

Robinson then went on to play the blame game in unequivocal terms.

We can certainly put a great deal of responsibility on the banks and those with political responsibility, but it’s our own mistakes as Irish people, collectively. There was a sense of foolishness and, unfortunately, we’re now paying a high price.

The clear message here is that while the political system and banks had some responsibility it was the greed of ordinary Irish citizens that caused the catastrophe.

It should also be noted that the ‘we’ who will be paying the price does not include the ‘partially’ responsible bankers and politicians or, indeed, Mrs. Robinson herself.

The ‘we’ is strictly confined to the ‘greedy’ citizens desperately struggling to feed, clothe and provide shelter for themselves and their families while the non ‘we’ continue to live comfortable, non accountable lives.

Don’t misunderstand me; I have great admiration for Mary Robinson, she’s a woman of great courage and vision.

But it is depressing to realise that she, in common with the rest of our ruling elite, has no understanding whatsoever of the deeper cause of our destruction as a nation.

Nor can the ‘guilty’ Irish citizens expect any help in their hour of greatest need from this highly respected global leader.

I don’t want to get involved in the politics because as a former president it’s important to stay outside the political blame game.

So out of respect for a corrupt political system and the expensive and useless office of president this potentially great national leader has written herself out of any participation in the nation’s recovery.