Bertie Ahern has finally announced that he will go. And the reason he hung on for so long while evidence of money received, tax evaded and lies told by him piled up one on top of the other? He truly believes he did nothing wrong.
In an emotional speech surrounded by his Government colleagues, Mr Ahern expressed thanks to his supporters over more than three decades in the corridors of power.
However Mr Ahern said he had no doubt that a simplistic analysis will suggest that his decision was influenced by more recent events at the Tribunal.
Mr Ahern insisted he had never put personal interest above the public good.
‘I have never done anything to corrupt my office’ he said. ‘I know in my heart of hearts that I have done no wrong and wronged no one.’
Accepting tens of thousands of pounds from cronies, passing it on to your mistress to buy property, being pursued by the Revenue Commissioners for dishonest tax returns, and lying about it to the Dail, to a Tribunal and to the people of Ireland again, and again, and again – Bertie, you wronged us all.
Charles Haughey has a lot to answer for. Ahern believes there is nothing wrong with accepting money from political supporters for his personal use, as long as he can’t be proven to have given anything in return. Even the least materialistic of Haughey’s coterie believes to the depth of his being that accepting money illegally is morally sound, because it is simply his droit de seigneur.
I’m glad to see Ahern finally go, but sickened that yet another self-serving generation of the largest political party in Ireland will believe we have wronged this liar and thief, and not the other way around.
{ 21 comments }
Kieran Healy 04.02.08 at 3:04 pm
‘I have never done anything to corrupt my office’ he said. ‘I know in my heart of hearts that I have done no wrong and wronged no one.’
Did he say he had done the state some service, as well?
Maria 04.02.08 at 3:09 pm
No, but I’m sure someone from his craven cabinet will. Or maybe even John Gormley who stood right behind him for the announcement. How the mighty have fallen!
Colin 04.02.08 at 3:13 pm
It’s a disgrace. He’s been done down by a liberal intelligentsia-Dublin Four-media & lawerly elite conspiracy, aided by a British right-wing tabloid’s conspiracy with a radical republican journalist. Irish democracy will be the weaker, not to mention Europe, which has just lost the greatest president it never had.
KCinDC 04.02.08 at 3:15 pm
“A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.” –Ronald Reagan, 1987.
P O'Neill 04.02.08 at 4:05 pm
11 years as Taoiseach and 3 election victories — all after the period in which the very strange financial dealings took place. And those issues still quarantined in the Tribunal while his successor — who like Bertie was rising up in the party during the Haughey area — carries on the tradition of permanent government.
Mark 04.02.08 at 4:33 pm
The best take on this I saw was on The Panel with Dara O’Briain. The picture quality is awful but you can hear it fine and the discussion over the fact that he didn’t have a bank account when he was minister of finance is great.
Paddy Matthews 04.02.08 at 7:23 pm
p o’neill:
his successor—who like Bertie was rising up in the party during the Haughey area
“Rising up” in the sense of being a backbencher from 1984 (when he replaced his father in a by-election) until Haughey’s departure, yes. But it wouldn’t be all that much of a rise.
He wasn’t appointed to ministerial office until the replacement of Haughey with Albert Reynolds, and he’d been one of the second “Gang of 22” who had publicly voted to replace Haughey the previous year.
Fine Gael might be wiser to concentrate their criticism on his handling of the economy over the last four years and on his previous ministerial performances rather than coming up with tenuous links to Haughey which are unlikely to have much credibility with the public.
Speaking personally, the fact that Ahern’s sycophants in the Sunday Independent spent the last year attacking Cowen is a plus in my book.
P O'Neill 04.02.08 at 9:17 pm
I agree Paddy but there’s one among many things I find mindboggling about these FF cabinet members now. They are not that old. They were the young people making the decision to join the party, go to cumann meetings, attend Ogra FF bashes, and generally be active members at a time when FF was at the heights or depths of the Haughey era, depending on your perspective. But I’ve never heard of a hint of reflection from Cowen, Hanafin, Dempsey, Martin, the non-related Ahern etc about what they were thought they were joining under CJH, other than a path to power.
And believe it or not, I kind of like Cowen relative to the others. It must date from the time when Edenderry seemed cool (where I grew up, because it had a cinema) so that aura extends to the rest of Offaly.
Paddy Matthews 04.02.08 at 9:48 pm
P.
They were the young people making the decision to join the party, go to cumann meetings, attend Ogra FF bashes, and generally be active members at a time when FF was at the heights or depths of the Haughey era, depending on your perspective.
One thing that depresses me about Irish politics – or more especially about the two bigger parties – is the degree to which their support is based on family tradition rather than any judgment about ideology or about the particular current leadership. (But then at this stage, is there any ideological difference between the two parties?)
It leads to a kind of football-fan, City vs. United, politics that leaves me cold. Party X in opposition derides every action of Party Y, but then do exactly the same once they get into government.
That applies to both parties.
It’s quite possible that they joined the party because of family tradition or because they felt closer towards the party’s perceived ideals, rather than because of any personal attachment towards Haughey.
In some cases, it might even have been in spite of Haughey (I’m thinking here of someone like Mary Hanafin), in the same way as someone like David Andrews remained in the party all through the Haughey era in spite of the mutual antipathy between himself and Haughey, because he felt a greater loyalty to the party.
(Similarly, on the other side of the house, Garret FitzGerald stayed in the Cosgrave cabinet despite the actions of the Heavy Gang and the Donegan/Ó Dálaigh affair.)
To my mind, assuming that every single member of FF at every level was complicit in Haughey’s crookery simply because they were a member of the party is bigotry, much like assuming that every member of FG in the 1930s was a supporter of fascism because of O’Duffy’s leadership.
mollymooly 04.02.08 at 11:57 pm
Garrett FitzGerald more or less said he joined FG rather than Labour because it was bigger and he had family connections, and so he could have more influence.
Johnny Pez 04.03.08 at 5:17 am
Accepting tens of thousands of pounds from cronies, passing it on to your mistress to buy property, being pursued by the Revenue Commissioners for dishonest tax returns, and lying about it to the Dail
Sounds like he ought to be running for Mayor of New York City.
jay bee 04.03.08 at 8:03 am
Kieran, I think the line on Bertie:
He has done the State. Some service.
bernarda 04.03.08 at 10:04 am
Though it is not directly related, what effect will this have on the vote on the Treaty of Lisbon(AKA European Constitution in sheeps’ clothing)? Isn’t Ireland the only country where EU people will get to vote on it?
Kevin Donoghue 04.03.08 at 11:00 am
Sounds like he ought to be running for Mayor of New York City.
Yes, it’s time Tammany Hall was restored to its former grandeur.
P O'Neill 04.03.08 at 12:30 pm
bernarda, quite good column in the FT from Quentin Peel on exactly that point.
toby 04.03.08 at 4:35 pm
I’ll not cry for Bertie Ahern; I think history will judge him positively for Northern Ireland. However, he was always a “blue skies” Taoiseach with a booming economy. He ducked all the tough decisions (health services, education, infrastructure) and leaves a mound of dung for his successor.
What I can’t figure is: it seems that something like the present-day equivalent of 1M Eur passed through various bank accounts under his control (personal and party) over a four to five year period. What use was the money put to? There are no obvious trappings, as there was with Haughey.
I have a theory that Ahern desperately wanted to always show off a “professional accountant” (as he once described himself) and financial wizard exterior. He could not bear to be shown up as a financial incompetent who could not handle a simple bank account without help; hence the spun-out stories, the lies, excuses and prevarication.
As someone who can’t keep his current account out of the red, I sympathize. If the man just put up his hand and said “I’m just crap at managing my money; my accounts for the period in questions are in a state of utter chaos and I don’t even know where to start.”, I would have taken him to my bosom.
Ahern’s “accountancy” qualifications have been called in question before. His CV claims UCD and the London School of Economics as his colleges, but he have never been found in a list of graduates. Some years ago a claimed “Oxford qualification” turned out to be a short course, and was taken off the Fianna Fail website. His last job before politics looks suspiciously like that of a wages clerk in Dublin’s Mater Hospital.
Another fantasist, like Haughey, but living a different fantasy. Bertie Ahern could not claim to be one of the aristocracy, so his fantasy was to be a technocrat who rose by merit in the world of high finance, while still being a main of the people. Like Haughey, his fantasy was his ultimate downfall.
P O'Neill 04.03.08 at 6:39 pm
Toby, it’s one possible theory but don’t rule out cherchez les femmes. Celia had expensive tastes. And then there’s the daughters. Cecilia would have to spend quite a bit before the chicklit career took off — I believe several years of creative writing courses and then putting the books together while cultivating the leading people in the field. And keeping Westlife company is expensive (the other one) even with Nicky probably picking up the tab a lot of time.
Paddy Matthews 04.04.08 at 12:21 am
Ahern’s “accountancy†qualifications have been called in question before. His CV claims UCD and the London School of Economics as his colleges,
According to his older brother interviewed on RTÉ Radio yesterday, he’s a qualified Cost and Management Accountant. He studied part-time while working, as far as I know at Rathmines College of Commerce (now part of the Dublin Institute of Technology).
Thers 04.04.08 at 5:37 am
(But then at this stage, is there any ideological difference between the two parties?)
Same as it ever was.
Ahern still beats the hell out of anyone in the Bush administration, so there’s that…
Paddy Matthews 04.04.08 at 12:10 pm
Same as it ever was.
Well, there would have been differences over Northern Ireland pre-GFA but that’s no longer a point of disagreement between most of FF and most of FG. Similarly with the “bedroom issues” (contraception/divorce/abortion).
Ahern still beats the hell out of anyone in the Bush administration, so there’s that…
Faint praise. Ballymagash Urban District Council would beat the hell out of anyone in the Bush administration.
shteve 04.05.08 at 9:31 pm
Yes, Ballymagash bristles with nuclear missiles. And they have a fleet of invisible aircraft carriers stationed at Lochwhimsy.
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