Thursday January 01 1970
Launch of Bertie Ahern's memoirs
national |
history and heritage |
event notice 
Monday October 05, 2009 17:23
by T R Eason
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 1 PM
Bertie Ahern will launch his autobiography "I got away with it" at Eason, Donegall Place, Belfast
on Wednesday, October 7th at 2009 at 1 PM.
Bertie Ahern, three times Irish Taoiseach, is often described as an enigma.
The IRA man’s son who claims he delivered peace in Ireland. A working class boy who claims he was responsible for the Celtic Tiger. The devout Catholic man of faith who lived openly with a mistress for years. Now in this frank and revealing autobiography, Ahern gives his own account of a remarkable political life and the personal story that accompanies it.
Ahern has in the past that he was educated at UCD and the London School of Economics while those institutions have no record of him. Why did his marriage break down? How did he buy his house? Why did he meet with Shell executives in private? Why did hs friends have to do a whip round for him when he was earning a high salary and had no outgoings? Why dd he open so many bank and building society accounts? What was his relationship with Ben Dunne during the Haughey era?
This and other mysteries of Bertie may be cleared up in the book. Or maybe not.
Comments (14 of 14)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Bertie had a different answer to the same question every time he was asked in the tribunal. His political party was responsible for the squandering of this small countrys wealth, Crooked land deals, corrupt planning and re-zoning, the giveaway of 520 billion of our natural resource in Mayo, the destruction of the World heritage Site known globally as Tara and Skryne valley -kown as 'the valley of the Kings', -which rank among the oldest manmade structures on the planet and he claims to be Irish.
Besides the 114 million of taxpayers money in tribunal lawyers investigating his party mainly, the open chequebook signed for Haugheys lifestyle while he was in the position of Minister of Finance handing over taxpayers money, the multi billion euro gas giveaway. He also said that removing facilities at Shannon to the US military to illegally invade, destroy a country and kill 2.5 million citizens so far would be seen as ....'A hostile Act'...by the the then US President GW Bush..
For a man who cant answer a straight question or cant remember when pressed and only comes on live TV to answer pre approved questions on Dunphy's failed talkshow or RTE's Dobsons excuse for an interview.....it must be a miraculous event to write your memoirs. They should call Rome or the neurological department at Beaumount hospital and get this listed as an extraordinary event or an actual miricle.
No doubt the media will treat him to all his undue respect he dosent deserve and help him become a 'best seller'.....
I have always been able to "read" Ahern.
So I wont be reading his bulls*it..
Something to be missed.
Anyway....Who elected Him?
.
He got nearly two quotas in the last election in Dublin Central.
"He got nearly two quotas in the last election in Dublin Central."
I know.
He reflects the people who elected him.
That's what I meant.
"Cwoote Hoowres" are often elected in Ireland.
Sadly.
The guard was down.........the country crashed.
(Rather..the "Guardians" were in Cheltenham or Manchester United or in a Tent at the Galway Races.)
Dougal's Eurovision song "My Lovely Horse" would be a more apt title for Ahern's book.
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I swear ta God I never evin rote the ting! Well, I hadda bitta help. Sadly, de buke, loike meself, is alreddy cut-pryce in sum shoppes an' I wont forget dem when I becum Prezident. Oil taks every artist in de countree cept Cecelia and meeself and maybe Jawn 'Six Figures' O'Donahew. Oil tell hymn when I see him at de nekst rasis. Did hee not menshun dat? Kerrymen for yur life! Heez doin a travill buke about de best hotells in de wurld and Jackie Well-Heeled Cod . . . .Oi meen Ray, is doin' one on cheep Eyer-enn Rode Errin' travel dat you can put in expenssis for even doh yur entytelled to gerrit for nuttin.' Deez bukes will fill yur Christmass stockin.' Wit all de cutts, yew'll only have one stockin' in anyways. Its better den not havin' a leg ta stand on, as Oi no onlee two well!
Will these memoirs be in time for the tax breaks to writers!
When is the Mahon Tribunal going to make a report?
I thought Ireland was the only country awash with corruption but looking at today's papers, problems with Bribery are leading headlines for the Italian PM. The Judiciary have intervened in this case and he cannot escape formal charges. This should pave the way for Mahon to proceed!! Perhaps I am expecting too much.
Poland and Spain too have had their share of corruption problems and they too will have to engage with lawbreakers.
Prison is the answer to White Collar Crime and Deterrence (particular emphasis for those in Govt, public companies, professions, HSE etc. The lack of prison for offenders has created a cult of fraudsters that feel they are endorsed by the society they are part of. This is not the case.
I would go one step further. If I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Ireland and was in receipt of 480 euros invalidity pension per month, the State steps in after a number of weeks and they stop 80% of that amount irrespective of your bills at home or life style needs. This may have changed but the old people need to look very astutely at the new legislation introduced by Minister for Health, Mary Harney.
Perhaps we need some form of legislation that if a corrupted human being is adjudicated by the Judiciary to a stay in prison that he ought to forfeit 80% of his earnings on his capital i.e. post recession wealth to the State?
He will be in Eason's at 3pm Saturday. Sounds like a good opportunity for a demo, hecklers welcome :)
Bertie just on Late Late show. Audience rolled in laughter at his answers . No wonder the country is in such a state . Not one person at the show had the balls on live televison to challange him . Pity .
Didn't watch because I knew that he was on - but isn't that the problem? Irish people laugh at everything, nice when its not important but a disaster when its essential to the country. Bertie might be a joke or a clown but he put us where we are, its not funny, its deadly serious. He should be attacked with rotten Green veg or stoned because we will never jail him and his kind. He still believes that he will be President and looking at the voting of people in this country - he probably will.
I think you'll find that its not so simple- FF have a habit of filling an audience with 'their people' so as he looks good. Hence when any of them are in trouble- you see them drive out and some 'random' (not) stranger go up to the car on front of tv cameras and say 'keep up the good work, etc'
I'd say last night really annoyted a lot of people watching!
Yizzer all begrudgirs! In anyways, yiz shud all no by now dat Orr Tee Eee is anudder way of sayin' Feena Fall and Oi wuz a ded-sert to ger onnih! Rent-A-Laff did de rest. Ardent yiz not happy dat De Bull is put ow to grass in darkissed Kerry widdout givin ow abow me? Oi sed all reddy dat Oi forget wrytin dat buke an' sumwun else did ih! Now leeve me alowan to enjoiy me royaltys! Slawn Awallyeh!
Can someone please tell me why the Mahon Tribunal has not yet reached a conclusion?
Berlusconi, Prime Minister in Italy, is under serious reprimand for 'corruption' allegations and the Constitutional Courts have ruled that he will not be able to exclude himself from enquiries and charges for corruption, bribery etc.
Ireland has been ahead of the posse in dealing with corruption through the 1990's established Tribunals of Enquiry but we have now lost the plot with former Taoisigh and politicians becoming media icons when there are serious legal questions pending.
What about the Criminal Assets Bureau and intervention while Tribunals of Enquiry fail to conclude over such long periods of time? There is too much narcissism in our media portrayal. We need to deal with crime, blue collar, white collar, drug related to the degree that it will deter others from this path.
Aided and abetted by the too-Friendly media, particularly the government broadcaster, RTE, efforts are well under weigh to try to reinstate Bertie 'I-won-it-on-the-horses/dogs/from-me-Granny' as a stout fellow, a man flawed but misunderstood. In other words, there won't be anything to deter him (since we are an amoral country with a no-morals political culture) from running for Mayor of Dublin or even for The Park. Media won't be thanked for rehashing the fact that he supplied no real answers at the Tribunal; certainly none that weren't, in the end, laughable. Now in any other country the media would steer clear and he wouldn't show his face. But a culture of repentance, shame, or even awareness of public disdain does not exist here, where we have retained the political culture of the village pub. I have seen drunken, impoverished, lonely, bachelor farmers thumping the wet bar-tops in country pubs and saying Charles Haughey was a great man. In Cahirciveen pubs, the same accolades will spill out for John O'Donoghue. As they did for Lowry. The wretched of the earth will always applaud the conniver, the wheeler-dealer, the gombeen. RTE will do what it's told. One appearance already on the ridiculous 'Late Late Show,' (the audience, if they were even half-awake, could have demolished him, but instead they lapped him up) followed by an interview on this morning's RTE radio - Bertie's restoration machine is in full swing. We, the helpless ones, will be expected to swallow whatever mythology and pap about this little peoples' anorak whenever it is tossed at us and in whatever form.
This is a song that I hope will show the people of Ireland that though the Government don't take any notice of the struggle to get recognition for these victims, some people do!
Caption: Video Id: wW99kmE-mzk Type: Youtube Video
magdaline laundries
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