Political lies cause suffering and death. Enda Kenny is a political liar

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Political lies cause suffering and death. Enda Kenny is a political liar.

War is the most obvious and most deadly consequence of political lying. Over the centuries, countless millions have died because politicians lied when they should have told the truth.

But war is not the only cause of death as a result of political lies. There was a massive increase in the suicide rate following the economic collapse in 2008 (Recession directly to blame for up to 566 suicides).

These desperate people died, at least in part, because our politicians lied to them.

In Ireland, alone among Western democracies, political lying has become a fully accepted part of political discourse. It is also common right throughout the civil and public service.

Political lying has become part of Irish political culture principally because lying politicians are rarely challenged by the media.

Here’s Pat Rabbitte casually demonstrating this truth when asked about election promises regarding child benefit:

Sean O’Rourke:

You didn’t go into all that detail before the general election, you kept it really simple – Protect child benefit, vote Labour?

Rabbitte:

Well, I mean, isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?

The criminal politician Haughey lied right through his decades long career, including lying under oath at various tribunals and investigations. Despite the enormous damage done to Ireland and its people by this criminal’s lying he was, largely, fawned upon by large segments of the media and members of the establishment.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern almost certainly lied under oath at the Mahon Tribunal. My assertion that lying is the accepted norm in Irish political and administrative goverance is confirmed by the disgraceful fact that no action has been (or ever will be) taken against Ahern by any state authority.

Political lying is the principal cause of the catastrophic economic collapse of 2008 that resulted in thousands of suicides, massive emigration and the horrific destruction of the wealth, hopes and ambitions of hundreds of thousands of Irish citizens.

And yet, a disturbingly large section of the media and most of the establishment appear to be more than happy to live in comfortable denial amidst the wreckage and suffering caused by political lying.

The following is just a sample of various journalists, commentators and politicians who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not make the obvious link between political lying and the infliction of great hardship.

Caroline O’Doherty: Irish Examiner:

Kenny’s lie was:

A fisherman’s tale.

O’Doherty then went to use most of her article to advise Fine Gael on how best to present their (lying) leader to best advantage in the upcoming election campaign.

Caroline O’Doherty is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Editorial: Irish Examiner:

Kenny was, while dishonest, just a Walter Mitty character using:

Folksy parables.

The editor warned that Kenny must act quickly if he wants to be re-elected and, as always, took the opportuntiy to take a swipe at Gerry Adams/Sinn Fein.

The editor of the Irish Examiner is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Eilis O’Hanlon: Sunday Independent:

Kenny ruined it by going a ‘a little bit too far’ in attempting to portray himself as the man who saved the country from anarchy and, predictably, O’Hanlon blamed the media:

So why the outcry last week? The media, having got bored with the feel-good narrative which the Government has been pushing since the Budget, saw a chance to put the Taoiseach on the back foot.

Eilis O’Hanlon is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Michael Lehane: Morning Ireland (RTE):

On being asked did the whole issue matter:

It doesn’t matter but there is a political vacuum there because the Dail isn’t sitting so the focus didn’t come off it (but) it has gone the distance now.

Michael Lehane is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Pat Rabbitte: Labour TD: (Speaking on RTE):

The Taoiseach makes the point, perhaps in a folksy, homespun way.

Pat Rabbitte is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Noel Whelan: Irish Times:

Mr. Whelan believes that Kenny is a storyteller whose utterance was no accident.

It was part of a cleverly designed but clumsily implemented strategy from Fine Gael to remind voters of how serious the crisis was so as to talk up its part in turning it around.

Noel Whelan is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Gerry Adams: Sinn Fein president:

Mr. Adams accused Kenny of being a spoof who tells tall tales. Mr. Adams said he was not accusing the Taoiseach of lying but of just getting carried away with himself.

Gerry Adams is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Fergus Finlay: Chief Executive of Barnardos and former Labour Party advisor: (Late Debate RTE):

Why are we getting our knickers in a knot about it? Mother of God, this kind of thing happens all the time. It’s a bit of craic, that’s all it is, a bit of political craic and I don’t see how it affects anything other than the gaiety of the nation for a week.

I think it shows that we don’t have a sense of humour. You know, let’s get a grip for heaven’s sake, it’s about nothing.

Fergus Finlay is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Gary Murphy: Professor of Political Science, DCU (Late Debate RTE).

The Taoiseach does have a habit of self-aggrandisement or over-egging situations. He’s guilty of guilding the lily so to speak.

Professor Murphy is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Catherine Halloran: Political Correspondent Irish Daily Star: (Ryan Tubridy Show, RTE):

I think it’s his folksy way of trying to relate to people.

It’s better than telling lies. At least we know he has his finger on the pulse he met the man or woman who told him this and I don’t doubt for a second that he has met those people, he’s a politician… The fact that Enda does take the time out to stop and talk to people and listen to their experiences means he’s in a position to make judgement on them.

Catherine Halloran is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Shaun Connolly: Irish Examiner:

Mr. Connolly believes Kenny was simply caught out telling an over-excited porkie. He was guilty of a slightly embarrassing, but ultimately harmless, comment.

Shaun Connolly is not aware or doesn’t care that political lies cause suffering and death.

Copy to:
Enda Kenny
All individuals quoted
All political parties
Government

Perjury law: Only applies to the peasants

Go away and give careful consideration to the manner in which you are giving evidence said the judge to Marie Farrell.

And in case there was any doubt whatsoever in Ms. Farrell’s mind the judge added:

There are very severe penal sanctions for people who commit perjury.

And the judge is right, there are severe penal sanctions for those who lie under oath but, and it’s a very important but…the severe penalties only apply to the little people, to the peasantry.

Politicians, bankers, government officials, and other members of the ruling class do not have to worry about such niceties when it comes to giving evidence under oath.

For decades we have watched such people, time after time, lie under oath without even a warning from a judge.

For example, it is almost certain that Bertie Ahern lied under oath to the Mahon Tribunal.

Much of the explanation provided by Mr. Ahern as to the source of the substantial funds identified and inquired into in the course of the tribunal’s public hearings was deemed by the tribunal to be untrue.

In a functional democracy Mr. Ahern would, at the very least, be put under immediate investigation. In Ireland the DPP and the Garda Commissioner are still sitting on the tribunal report a full two years after the final report.

Why is this? Well, again judge Mahon gives us a hint.

It (corruption) continued because nobody was prepared to do enough to stop it. This is perhaps inevitable when corruption ceases to become an isolated event and becomes so entrenched that it is transformed into an acknowledged way of doing business. Specifically, because corruption affected every level of Irish political life, those with the power to stop it were frequently implicated in it.

So we can ask the question – what are the chances that the current Garda Commissioner will act on the Mahon Tribunal Report.

Well, let’s put it this way. Politicians promoted Commissioner O’Sullivan and as a recent tribunal concluded – loyalty comes before duty in our police force so Bertie has nothing to worry about but Marie Farrell should watch her step.

The missing link in the Irish regulatory system

The Government has still not implemented the key recommendations of the Mahon Tribunal almost a year after its publication.

This refusal to respond to major corruption is normal in corrupt states.

In Ireland, such matters are dealt with as follows:

Corruption discovered followed by denial and/or blame. If the scandal continues to attract attention the matter is sidelined into a powerless tribunal or government committee.

When a report is published it’s ignored.

The key point is that no action is ever actually taken against anybody.

The whole idea, which is the norm in functional jurisdictions, of taking the evidence/facts and placing them before a court of law is skipped.

The Irish system ignores this vital step of bringing people to account and simply carries on as if nothing of note had been uncovered by the investigation.

We can see this in the response to the Mahon Tribunal.

The tribunal made some very serious findings including the fact that corruption affected every level of political life.

In other words, the tribunal effectively agrees with the core philosophy of this website – that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.

This fact has been completely ignored. Instead of actually doing something to cure the disease of political corruption the politicians focus on some other matter.

In this case it’s the problems and difficulties surrounding the establishment of an independent planning regulator.

Planning Minister Jan O’Sullivan:

A number of key issues had to be resolved before such a regulator could be established.

Should the minister’s powers be fully transferred to an independent regulator or should the final forward planning decisions remain political in nature to be taken by the minister/ government/ Oireachtas with a regulator providing an independent advisory/supervisory role?

Decisions, decisions, decisions – but never the real decisions that need to be made.

After diverting attention away from the actual corruption the political system reverts to waffle mode.

Minister O’Sullivan again:

I am determined to see this recommendation is fully and comprehensively considered and appropriately acted on.

It is important not only that we address this crucial issue but that we do it right.

So there you have it. Serious and widespread corruption is uncovered, an investigation ensues, a report is published, the political/administrative system ignores its findings and simply skips over the vital step of bringing the guilty to account.

This missing link in the regulatory/justice system is one of the principal differences between a country like Ireland and functional democracies.

Copy to:
Minister O’Sullivan

Mahon Tribunal fallout

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

A chara,

I refer to Anthony Sheridan’s letter (April 18th) in which he seems annoyed about the lack of progress by Fine Gael in its investigation regarding Olivia Mitchell TD.

He can imagine how I feel whereby in the Clondalkin area another elected Fine Gael politician, Cllr Therese Ridge has had findings by the Mahon tribunal made against her and yet Fine Gael has now appointed her to the executive of the Local Authorities Members’ Association (Home News, April 14th).

Is mise,

Paul Doran
Monastery Walk,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22

Ireland: The land of never ending inquiries

Letter in today’s Irish Times

Sir,

For 15 years we listened to politicians refuse to comment on those under investigation by the Mahon tribunal on the grounds that such comment could undermine the work of the tribunal.

Now, after Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell was found to have acted inappropriately by accepting £500 from Frank Dunlop, we’re told by Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton that any comment could undermine the work of the recently established Fine Gael internal inquiry.

The Minister tells us that the inquiry will make recommendations, which, no doubt, will be forwarded to a committee for further consideration before being forwarded to a sub-committee before being . . . quietly forgotten.

Yours, etc,

Anthony Sheridan
Cobh

Fr Ted Republic

Letter in today’s Irish Independent and Irish Examiner.

Our Fr Ted Republic

It is certain that if a Mahon Tribunal-like report were published in any self-respecting, functional democracy there would have been immediate arrests and police investigations. In Ireland the response was predictable.

A copy of the report was sent to the DPP, the Revenue Commissioners, the Garda Commissioner and to the Standards in Public Office Commission.

There was the usual fake anger from politicians mouthing meaningless Fr Ted-like utterances such as ‘down with this sort of thing’ before heading off on their two-week Easter holiday.

Some commentators called for heavy fines to be imposed on those named in the report, some called for the Criminal Assets Bureau to investigate while others called for pensions to be withdrawn.

None of these suggestions will be acted upon, that’s not how things are done in our dysfunctional democracy.

We can see this from the response of the above-mentioned state authorities to the publication of the Moriarty Report last year.

At the time we were told that these authorities would, as a matter of urgency, examine the report for potential criminal charges.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said an examination of the report by a team of detectives would be finished sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, he did not provide us with his definition of the term ‘sooner rather than later’.

The failure to properly respond to the Mahon Report and countless other reports and scandals in the past tells us, and the rest of the world, exactly what we are as a country; a two-bit, backward, banana republic.

This will not change until arrests are made, charges are brought and justice is seen to be done.

Anthony Sheridan
Cobh, Co Cork

Gombeen clones set to perpetuate rotten system well into the future

Fine Gael Minister of State Alan Kelly, responding to the Mahon Tribunal Report on a recent Frontline programme (26th March), put down a marker on how Ireland is to be governed in the future.

Well Pat we can never ever, allow this to happen again. The simple fact is that Fianna Fail and others polluted this country with corruption for over 20 years.

The Minister didn’t specify if he was including Fine Gael in the ‘others’.

There’s a whole new generation of politicians including myself and michael (McGrath, Fianna Fail TD) who need to advance politics in this country in a progressive way. We cannot put up with what Fianna Fail has done in the last 20 to 30 years.

Immediately Kelly contradicted all his fine words when he defended the termination of planning inquiries by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.

Minister Kelly is a fool if he thinks Irish politics can rid itself of corruption while continuing to engage in Tammany Hall type strokes.

Fianna Fail TD, Michael McGrath also claimed that young politicians like himself were the future for Ireland and then, like Minister Kelly, immediately contradicted his fine words by telling us that people like Brian Lenihan, Seamus Brennan, David Andrews, Mary O’Rourke and Rory O’Hanlon were people of the highest personal integrity.

These are people who served themselves, their party, their party leaders (which included unquestioning loyalty to the criminal Haughey and the liar Ahern) before considering the good of Ireland and its people.

It is crystal clear from the attitude and mindset of Kelly and McGrath that they are nothing more than gombeen clones of those responsible for the destruction of the state.

Far from injecting new, honest, radical, reforming blood into the Irish body politic they are sure to perpetuate the same old rotten system well into the future.

Copy to:

Alan Kelly
Michael McGrath

Des Peelo locates the source of corruption

Recently, somebody, commenting on the liar Ahern’s claim that he won his money on the horses, said that Ahern wouldn’t know one end of a horse from another.

On Frontline last week, a Fianna Fail head responded to the comment saying that Ahern did indeed know one end of a horse from another.

In other words the liar Ahern’s ‘I won it on the horses’ excuse is reasonable and probably true.

Now only the most backward, most stupid, most uneducated moron would even contemplate believing such drivel never mind actually admit it on live television.

But, incredibly, self-confessed friend of the criminal Haughey and the liar Ahern, Des Peelo, agreed with the Fianna Fail head.

Now in case anyone thinks I’m biased against Peelo I’d like to say that anytime I see him, never mind actually hear him speak, my skin begins to crawl and I develop an overwhelming need to take a shower.

On the same show Peelo actually confirmed that he is indeed a moron when he delivered his very own thesis on the source of corruption.

Corruption happens for one of two reasons, sometimes both.

Corruption happens through greed which is a human dimension.

It also arises in a political sense and only in a political sense when people develop a sense of entitlement.

My good friend Haughey fell into that category.

I do not believe that Bertie is corrupt because he’s not greedy nor does he have a sense of entitlement.