OK, I'll start it then- Bertie Ahern announces resignation as Taoiseach

RIP yer man

"All Kinds of Everything" was a great song, sad she died.

Dirty Bertie From Number Thirty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/images/2007/08/14/carolineaherne_1_396x222.jpg

RIP

'most successful PM since de Valera', the Guardian report said

I've never really liked him.

De Valera was successful?

"Never in all the time that I served in politics have I ever put my personal interest ahead of the public good," he added.

"I have never received a corrupt payment...I have done no wrong and wronged no one".

.

in the same way bertie was, i guess. and haughey.

farewell speech was classic, there will be wordplay of lewinsky proportions when he's found out.

But did he actually do any good at all, though?

he did things right to the extent that people wondered if he did anything at all

he facilitated a huge amount of good. i'm not sure what he actually 'did'.

he certainly had a major part to play in the peace process. he kept the partnership process in place for twelve years, which i think had a major part to play in the boom years. he seemed to have a very good profile internationally. we pretty much changed completely as a country/society under his tenure.

OTOH...

corruption in his party (some would say it's a part of the fabric of his party) has led to dreadful planning and zoning in a lot of towns and cities. infrastructure is poor for a first order economic country (thought not as bad as the roads i was driving on in new england this week, wow). the health service is bad, undeniably so. again, i'm not sure how much of this is down to him. he was definitely forced out of office because he couldn't answer questions on his personal finances, and there'll be more to come on that if the tribunal bothers to continue.

i've mixed feelings on him.i'm not sure charisma is the word i'd use, but he's always been very likeable on a personal level.

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE 'TAOISEACH'?
This has been on my mind lately.

it ends as shock. the taoi is a little trickier. it's not quite ta-yee, but not quite tee.

tyee-shock?

lol Gaelic!

Rhymes with tea shop

is there a western european leader of the last 40 years or so who enriched himself thru corruption more than haughey? i don't know that much about irish politics, but is this kinda graft a fianna fail specialty, or is fine gael just as dirty?

it's hard for me to say re: FG- FF have been in power practically the whole time i've had any interest in politics. this kind of graft is most certainly a FF specialty though, and they're pretty blatant about it most of the time.

GOMBEEN MEN

steady, steady- can you afford the IR£.01 that'll cost you?

Ho ho etc:
http://www.recruitireland.com/job/?jobID=10012942

He is a very clever guy, plays the "good guy to have a beer" with card so hard he'd make Bush look like Stephen Fry.

Even his resignation speech had that awful self pitying schtick he's adopted of late. The fact is, years ago, before any of this came out, Haughey denounced Bertie as being more crafty than anyone in the party.

Whatever people think of Haughey, you've got to put some credence in that.

On Irish radio a few months back somebody asked him: "don't you think though, that most people listening to this show would think someone being given these huge amounts of money in cash is just crazy, completely unusual and alien to a normal person?"

Bertie: "Well, I was going through a divorce, it was a very unusual time in my life, a very hard time"

"But many of these people listening will have had very hard times in their lives, and they never had to receive gigantic financial payments to get through them?"

Bertie: "Well I would sincerely hope they never go through a divorce as I went through one."

I mean...what a complete creep he became in the last year. I had some tolerance for him before that, even with all the nonsense.

it was easy for him to be a nice guy when no one ever called him on anything.