Category: The State

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.

Gombeens in the political pigsty

Deep anger and utter disgust was my reaction to the moronic behavior of our gombeen politicians (from all parties) in our national parliament last Wednesday.

We witnessed a gombeen Taoiseach, supported by his gombeen party, slagging off a gombeen Opposition.

It was all fun and games with laughter all around as if this gombeen body politic had nothing to do with the absolute destruction of our country.

Our idiot of a Taoiseach was so impressed with his performance that he instructed his staff to email an internet link of his moronic behaviour to supporters.

Amid all the pigsty politics the imbecile revealed the contempt in which he holds our national parliament when, having triggered a laugh from his supporters at the expense of Enda Kenny, he declared:

It’s worth coming in here for half an hour.

So let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening here.

Brian Cowen is a non entity; he’s nothing more than a drunken fool who managed to float to the top of a cesspool political party that operates within a corrupt political system.

His exit from politics will be a non event; the destruction of his corrupt party will be a non event and the succession of Fine Gael and Labour to power will be a non event because it will make little or no difference to what is urgently required before Ireland can become a genuine democracy – the complete destruction of our corrupt political system.

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Fianna Fail

Cowen's last fan

For pure entertainment it’s worth listening to the giggling joy and admiration expressed by Sunday Times political reporter Sarah McInereny when asked by Matt Cooper what she thought of Cowen’s performance in the Dail last Wednesday (Today FM, podcast).

Positively exuberant, I mean I think he was just in the best form I think I have ever seen him in the last two and a half years since he became Taoiseach.

I mean everybody was looking at each other, it seems that the relief and tension of the last couple of days was spilling over into this joy really and excellent form really, he was laughing and looking at the press gallery and looking around the room and most relaxed I’ve seen him in a long time.

I think he’s happy to have the last couple of days over with and the tension and stress of the last couple of days.

I think everyone needed a laugh and everyone is willing to join in the laugh and have a bit of a good time.

Yes Sarah, we’re all going to have a laugh and a good time – On 11th March.

O'Grady's prediction

The Attic Archives

Irish Times, September 8th 2003

O’Grady’s dire prediction

Madam,

About a hundred years ago James Standish O’Grady said:

“Nationalistic aspirations, if realised, will bring about a shabby sordid Irish republic, ruled by knavish corrupt politicians and the ignoble rich.”

Had he a crystal ball?

Yours etc.

George Kennedy
Salthill
Monkstown
Co Dublin

Pathetic Cowen exposes cowardly Martin

I wrote yesterday that I hoped Brian Cowen was successful in his pathetic attempt to remain in power because it would increase the damage to Fianna Fail, I never dreamed that my wish would be granted in spades.

Not only has the drunken fool decided to stay on but he’s also exposed Michael Martin for the cowardly creep that he is.

Martin’s strategy of ‘I’ll resign but I won’t resign’ is an attempt to convince people that he’s a man of courage and principle but who, at the same time, skulks in the bunker instead of bravely taking to the field of battle.

We can add ‘stupid’ to his list of characteristics if he thinks anybody will fall for this stroke save for the most moronic Fianna Fail supporter.

Meanwhile, the whole farce provides yet another excuse for the body politic and media to avoid dealing with the real reason for the destruction of our nation – the all pervading disease of political corruption.

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.

The continuing destruction of the Fianna Fail cancer

I hope Cowen is successful in his pathetic attempt to remain in power. It will cause more conflict and self destruction within Fianna Fail and that can only be good for Ireland.

It doesn’t matter who succeeds the traitor because all front runners, Martin, Hanafin and Lenihan are all members of the most corrupt political party in the country, they’re all strong supporters of the traitor/mafia ward boss Bertie Ahern and they all admire the criminal Haughey.

Not one of them has even the slightest notion of what the word/concept corruption means in an Irish context and will therefore behave in exactly the same manner as their predecessors triggering, hopefully, the ultimate destruction of Fianna Fail.

The destruction of the cancer that is Fianna Fail would be of greater benefit to the people of Ireland than any amount of political reform.

What are the chances…?

Brian Cowen is leader of the most corrupt political party in the country. His party and all other political parties operate within a deeply corrupt political system.

That system has corrupted whole sections of the civil and public service and most of the financial sector. The disease has seriously damaged the democratic process to the point where draconian laws are casually introduced without the slightest objection.

It has disempowered the media to such an extent that they are willing to talk endlessly about any subject under the sun so long as it doesn’t concern the principal reason for our destruction as a nation – the complete and utter corruption of our political system.

Against this background, what are the chances that a politician will emerge from the rot with the vision to realise that he/she is part of a diseased political system and with the courage to lead his/her party and the country out of the swamp of corruption and into the fresh air of normal/functional democracy?

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.

Haughey: Still seen as a man of style by Irish journalists

It would be great to start off 2011 on an optimistic note but unfortunately our situation is as dire as ever and getting worse at an ever increasing pace.

An ineffective, uninformed and, at times, lazy, media play no small part in our continuing descent into chaos.

RTE in particular, as the national broadcaster, exhibits a disturbing lack of awareness of whom and what lies at the core of the catastrophe currently engulfing the nation.

Three recent interviews will make the point. The first occurred on 30th December on Morning Ireland.

Rachael English discusses with Irish Times journalists David McCullagh and Deaglán de Bréadún the newly released papers for 1980 from the National Archive.

Haughey’s criminally irresponsible spending at the time was treated in a light hearted manner as if there was no direct connection between the criminal’s behaviour and the ultimate destruction of our country.

Charlie had style as we all know; you have to give it to him.

said Deaglán de Bréadún.

Wrong, Haughey was nothing more than a low life scumbag, a criminal who robbed and plundered his way through a long career of corruption with very little challenge from the media.

Later in the discussion de Bréadún said there was a general kind of suspicion about Haughey’s lifestyle but that we had to wait until the Ben Dunne business before he was finally caught out.

Again, de Bréadún is wrong. The British government, for example, knew exactly what kind of low grade politician they were dealing with.

In April 1980, just four months after Haughey gained power; the British ambassador in Dublin made the following accurate assessment of the man (criminal) now in charge of Ireland’s fate.

His primary characteristic seems to be one of calculating and ruthless ambition. He has become pretty sophisticated and would like to be more so. His present fortune is derived in part from property speculation undertaken while he was Minister for Finance.

This is very strong language for a senior diplomat to put in writing in assessing the Prime Minister of a friendly state. The message translates as follows.

Haughey is a low grade, ruthless politician with high ambitions who made his money under murky circumstances.

Fast forward 30 years to a nation disastrously infected by Haughey’s legacy – the disease of corruption, and we still have journalists incapable of calling a spade a spade, who continue to praise this ruthless criminal as a man of style.

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Morning Ireland