OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

Dublin Report Scandal shows Irish pols reinvented Tammany

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By John Kelly

One might think that there is a definite "Us" and "Them" if one entered any one of thousands of animated discussions taking place in Dublin watering — or eating holes, for that matter. Much the same conversation takes place over a brace of pints as a plate of scallops.

Thus, one might conclude as two visiting Philadelphia journalists did last week that the population south of the border is more concerned with the welfare of the Celtic Tiger, the price of housing and the impact of refugees than with any conceivable subject north of the border.

It’s not really true, however deceiving the appearances. But it is true to say that David Trimble has not been the centerpiece of conversation in the Republic of Ireland, even as the deadline for the Ulster Council meeting was reached.

One will suspect that it was not the meat and potatoes in Northern-based discussions either. The plain, simple fact is that the majority of Irish people, north and south, are bored to the teeth with speculation concerning Trimble and the warring unionists. They don’t really believe that it matters a jot how the Ulster Council has voted. The Good Friday agreement will not be subverted, not at least insofar as the Irish and British governments are concerned. If it is the case that the outgoing president of the U.S. stuck a finger in the leaking dike of Tony Blair’s government, effectively nobbling any further concessions to the unionists, then he was perfectly correct to do so.

He has certainly worked as hard as anybody to make this agreement work, while some unionists, those who are determined not to have any truck whatsoever with nationalists, have chipped away at its terms like a whipped convict in a quarry. It has not interested the Irish people overmuch. After more than 30 years of the same sea-saw swinging, they have just about had enough. It is not decommissioning that will finally bring peace to this island. It is the sheer boredom of it all.

Follow us on social media

Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo

The subject that drew the most comments — and the most guffaws — were the further startling revelations concerning former Taoiseach Charles Haughey, a rather unfortunate leader who seems to have turned lavish free-loading into a subtle, very well paid art. The revelation that he bought expensive Charvet shirts in a top-drawer Parisian haute couture outfitters almost brought the entire population to its knees with laughter. But even as Haughey continues to suffer from a serious illness, revelation is piled on revelation. Little of the newly elicited facts tend to encourage huge confidence in the movers and shakers who have given Ireland a merry dance for years.

The Moriarty Tribunal, sitting in Dublin Castle, has now established that Haughey was the recipient of no less than £8.5 million within a 15-year period. This was money donated to him. It has nothing to do with the fund he administered as taoiseach. It certainly has nothing to do with his salary.

This was graft, impure and simple as it may be. This was money donated personally to Haughey by a several individuals and companies, foremost among who was the inimitable Ben Dunne of Dunnes’ Stores, Ireland’s largest department store groups.

It emerged last week that Ben, who visited Haughey to be thanked with the singular salutation, "Thanks, big fella," after he had handed him a quarter of a million Irish punts had paid no less than two million. This was double the figure he had already admitted to the earlier McCracken Tribunal.

The facts are so astonishing and so unbelievable that it prompted Taoiseach Bertie Ahern into making a harsh rebuke. The action of the former leader of the country and the Fianna Fail party had let down both, Ahern declared in effect.

Haughey is still a member of the party. One cannot help wondering if Ahern is going to sack him after the Moriarty Tribunal findings are issued. That’s if the former taoiseach, the man who described Ahern as the "cutest" of them all, survives to see the day.

In Ireland, of course, the meaning of "cute" is totally different to its U.S. counterpart.

Ahern, being the craftiest of them all, has distanced himself as far away from his predecessor and former mentor as the Rev. Ian Paisley from Sinn Fein.

Already badly shaken by revelation after revelation at two tribunals under way in Dublin Castle, he has been forced to make some sort of condemnation to preserve his increasingly perilous association with the Progressive Democrats.

One wonders just how long the government can continue. Ahern has a few things going well for him. The economy is thriving. Best of all, John Bruton is anything but publicly popular as leader of the main opposition party, Fine Gael. Labor, its erstwhile coalition partner, just has not managed to get its act together effectively. He also has the independent T.D’s pretty well sewn up.

Then there is Mary Harney, leader of the P.D.s, a determined woman who realizes only too painfully that she came within the proverbial cat’s whisker of losing her west Dublin seat last time out.

No more than the glamorous and highly effective Liz O’Donnell, her party colleague, Harney does want to be launched into the political wilderness.

On the other hand, she cannot continue to buttress Fianna Fail in power, a party that has clearly stood aside as many of its members cavorted in the political sleaze for years, especially if any of the muck comes to rest at Ahern’s feet.

Many observers who have become even more cynical than was their wont believe that this will happen eventually. How could he remain so clean, they wonder, when all around him were wallowing in the dirt?

One man who may topple the entire edifice is Tom Gilmartin, a property developer in England. Originally from Ireland, he claims that he will testify to the Flood Tribunal concerning demands made on him by political leaders.

In the meantime, within all of the parties, various councilors and T.D.s are under investigation on foot of planning favors. It seems to the average member of the public that they were all at it.

Trimble and the unionists are vitally critical in the long term but in the shorter term the Irish people just don’t want to know. It now seems that, having exported Tammany Hall to New York, we have reinvented it here in Ireland.

Other Articles You Might Like

Sign up to our Daily Newsletter

Click to access the login or register cheese