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

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. [...]

The time of the departure of Bertie Ahern has now been announced. What of his legacy, his place in Irish history? Here are some points that might be considered.

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).

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 [...]

Noel Ahern doesn’t give much weight to John Gormley’s worries aired yesterday and captured here by Green Ink. He reckons that Gormley was only following Harney and anyway he is Minister with responsibility for tribunals so should be keeping counsel. Well it is only “small money” we are talking about here so perhaps the partners [...]

Irish Election: The dog barks?
Greens join calls for Ahern statement

Bertie Ahern’s brother Noel Ahern –
Fifteen thousand is no big deal. There might be a very simple explanation. I understand he may have given the wrong details for a wrong lodgement … There’s nothing special about the amount…
He’s referring to the £15,500 Sterling.   In early 1994, a punt bought about 96p Sterling so that’s [...]

The Irish Independent revealed today that the Taoiseach will tell the Mahon tribunal that he converted his salary cheques into sterling, and then back into punts, before lodging them into the three accounts he kept at the Permanent TSB branch in Drumcondra. This is in response to Grainne Carruth’s devastating evidence to the Mahon [...]

Junior Minister John McGuinness gave an interview on Newstalk’s Lunchtime Show regarding this week’s proceedings at the Mahon Tribunal this afternoon - Newstalk have press released the interview with quotes after the jump. The overall tone of the interview was less than convincing in it’s endorsement of the Taoiseach.

As Bertie works his way back Washington, yet another interesting development at Mahon.   It seems that the relevant manager of Bertie’s accounts at the Irish Permanent is a bit less reticent than his counterparts at the AIB, who were nearly as effective at the strategic memory loss as Bertie himself.   The man from the Irish [...]

At the Saint Patrick’s Day reception –
President, as we say good-bye on this occasion, but hopefully we’ll keep in touch over the years, I will remember — and I hope that everyone in Ireland will — how kind, how favorable you’ve been, how really open you’ve been to helping us, and the amount of time [...]

During a discussion back in 2002, John Gormley certainly didn’t hold any punches when it came to a sum of £30k and a Taoiseach who misled the Dail. Ah, how times change. I guess Gormley would now say “That was then and this is now.”

Tánaiste accuses FG of witch-hunt

Am I right in thinking that there are two distinct ‘party lines’ emerging as Ahern continues to get hauled through the Mahon Tribunal?
The first is the all-out defence of Martin Mansergh et. al. refusing to even countenance any possible wrongdoing by Ahern and willing to defend to the hilt Ahern no matter what evidence emerges [...]