Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

Today its up to a once-off £30,000 which the Tribunal put to Ahern he received from developer Owen O Callaghan after a March 1994 meeting about the tax status of Quarryvale and Blanchardstown shopping centres. When he looks around at the empty press gallery and reads headlines of economic woe, he must think it was [...]

Is there a curse of Mahon? Added to the list of deceased on the witness lists comes today’s announcement that Albert Reynolds has “cognitive impairment” and cannot give evidence to the Tribunal. Albert has had a strange twilight to political career, having inadvertedly given his name to the standard libel defence in English [...]

“Ahern said he was not really a gambling man, but he enjoyed attending festive race meetings when he had the opportunity.”
So reported the Irish Times at the end of December last year when Bertie Ahern was at the Leopardstown races. Despite that, he appears to have been quite successful at the old gee-gees.

The Drumcondra mafia, that is.  Can anyone keep track of the last two days’ Mahon revelations, let alone reconcile them with earlier testimony?  In particular, we have learned that it looks like Celia Larkin was never intended to be out of pocket, at least not anytime soon, on the loan that she got to buy [...]

Does any of this sound familiar? –
Not all of the money was a gift, New York businessman Morris Talansky told the court.  Some of the cash “donations” handed over to Olmert were loans, which he expected to be repaid. “Famous last words,” Talansky jokingly told the court when he explained that the money was never [...]

Yea, you would guess it’s all over since Bertie Ahern resigned as Taoiseach. Well, it isn’t. And there was more explosive evidence. Didn’t hear about it? Quelle surprise. The media, read RTE, seem to be taking their eye off the ball.
Remember that whole B/T account thing?

Bock has been following this for a while and gives his take on the Morris Tribunal report over on the blog, he is not impressed with the Gardai, neither is Justice Morris and neither is Jim Higgins.
Considering he was being moved on, it is clear that Lenihan was covering for any successor in dumping this [...]

Early last week, when things were quieter and the world was still spinning, allegations and remarks were abound as they have been for some time. The evidence of Gráinne Carruth was being lamented as a bad day for Bertie in the newspapers as they executed their never-ending campaign of vicious and snide comment on the [...]

No doubt many people are sick of Bertie coverage at this point, especially following the Sunday papers. But it’s worth taking a look at Bruce Arnold’s assessment in Monday’s Wall Street Journal Europe, because it’s something that the vaguely curious international business-leaning audience that hasn’t paid attention to the affair will read about it. [...]

There is a quickly growing consensus that the Mahon Tribunal will be little more than a footnote - albeit a very unsightly one - in Bertie Ahern’s legacy.
However while there is little doubt that Ahern has done the State enough service to be remembered fondly, his most loyal supporters worryingly seem to believe that this [...]

And now what are we we going to do?
It was the net wat done it
By the way that is an ugly ass interface in the new Wordpress. Ugh.

The main points from Bertie Aherns speech delivered seconds ago outside government buildings. He will be stepping down on May 6th. (Forgive the jump from 1st to 3rd person and back, it was typed on the go).

Breaking: Bertie Ahern to resign Tuesday 6th of May.
10:30am: Bertie Ahern has announced a last-minute, unexpected press conference to be held before his statement to the Dáil.
Reports on the substance are mixed although many outlets are suggesting that a resignation date, or even an immediate resignation from the leadership of Fianna Fáil, is expected.
RTÉ One [...]

Perhaps out of worry that the High Court will not find in his favour after tomorrow’s case or perhaps out of that deep-seated predisposition to change his mind more often than the weather, Ahern is widely reported as considering only giving sparse detail to the Dail tomorrow. I am not sure we would have known [...]

So he was for turning after all. I didn’t take long for Ahern to turn ‘I will not be making a statement’ into ‘I will in fact, ah, be making a statement’. The Indo reports this morning that he will make use of Dail time on Wednesday to make a speech which will attempt to [...]

According to many pundits and politicos, the panel debate held on The Late Late Show just before the last general election marked a turn in public opinion back towards Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fáil - carrying them to victory in May’s poll.
If this theory can be taken as fact and the logic of it carried [...]