Bye Bye Bertie

Max McGuinness is unimpressed by Bertie's political bow.

When politicians resign, hacks often scramble for their collected Shakespeare and retrieve Malcolm's lament for the treacherous Thane of Cawdor in Macbeth, which foretells of the protagonist's own demise: "Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it."

Does Bertie, who announced this morning that he will resign in just over a month on May 6th, deserve such an accolade?

Absolutely not -- the complete reverse in fact. A fine political career, filled with unprecedented success -- three election victories, continued prosperity, major international prestige, peace in Northern Ireland -- has ended in ignominy. Ahern has shuffled off the stage, leaving a litany of unanswered questions which will doubtless preoccupy the Tribunal for months, nay years, to come.

His speech, which can be watched on RTE's website, was marked by the same dissembling and bad faith which have characterised Bertie's public appearances for over a year.

Bertie pledged to continue "robustly refuting any imputation against me", even though Bertie's account of himself at the Tribunal has been so inconsistent that it suggests that, as William Goldman might put, he is having difficulty remembering which lie he told the day before.

Bertie avowed that he has provided more information about his personal interests than any other public figure before him. This comes a day after, in a bizarre interpretation of the meaning of parliamentary privilege, which I previously wrote about here, he successfully challenged the Tribunal's attempt to question him about statements he had made in the Dáil. The High Court is now considering whether the Tribunal should be given access to important financial documents held by his financial advisor Paddy Stronge. How can this man baldly proclaim himself the most transparent Irish politician in history yet refuse to hand over a few sums relating to foreign exchange transactions?

In yesterday's Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole showed that Bertie in fact lied on six separate occasions in the Dáil during the late Nineties, entirely unconnected with his more recent comments about Paddy Stronge.

Surrounded by his cabinet, it is clear that Bertie had been unable to convince even them that he was telling the truth about his finances. As I write this, Fianna Fáil stooges are lining up on RTE to commend the taoiseach's willingness to put "the national interest first", as if concern for their own seats at the next election had absolutely nothing to do with all this. The line being peddled was that the Mahon Tribunal was a "distraction" from running the country. Indeed it was, but only because it is doing its job; and in doing its job, the Tribunal has categorically shown that Bertie is not fit to be running the country.

Bertie insisted this morning that he "never received a corrupt payment". I almost believe him. Why then does he refuse to answer the questions which would allow the Tribunal to vindicate him? And why has he repeatedly lied, insisting that he never lodged sterling when he had in fact lodged very substantial amounts of sterling?

And as Colm Keena calculated in Saturday's Irish Times, transactions in and out of Bertie's accounts to the value of close to €900,000 in today's money are currently being investigated by the Tribunal. This was big money, in excess of his official salary, not just a few discreet wads which you might bring to the races, as Eoghan Harris bizarrely claimed on Friday's Late Late Show.

Harris's humiliation last week portended the shape of things to come. For this promiscuous sycophant completely failed to offer any convincing defence of his political benefactor, blithely insisting that he knows the taoiseach is a good man and that's good enough for him. This was a bit like George Bush's creepy comment that he had looked in Vladimir Putin's eyes and got a sense of his soul.

On RTE, Martin Mansergh has just accused Fine Gael's typically pathetic attack dogs of lacking "magnanimity", while Bertie is getting about four parts praise to one part criticism in the studio. But the circumstances of this morning's speech mean that this is no time for magnanimity. Announcing his resignation with a half an hour's notice, a day after his High Court challenge to the Tribunal, and hours before he was due to face the Dáil, Bertie has just cashed in a Get Out of Jail Free card. The airwaves are now being flooded with pro-Bertie comment and he will receive a similar reception in the Dáil.

Bertie was supposed to answer questions this afternoon. As a result of this morning's statement, the heat will be off and there will be tributes instead. The tail was wagging the dog today. Bertie can run but he cannot hide.

Comments

[Frank Maguire]

Well done. This is a timely, accurate assessment of a disgraceful chapter in Irish history. The man is a relic of an older, more unsavoury era, and he has let down the whole country. At least he is going now.

[Jay Lyden]

In most private businesses, the actions and habits of those at the top help form those occupying the lower rungs. The embarrassing outpouring of grief witnessed yesterday is symptomatic of just that process: when the nation at large accept mé-féin-erism in their leaders, they accept it in themselves, and genuinely believe their leaders are not out of line when they act immorally in public office, rather they are 'victimised' by the media. Men like Bertie Ahern and the political lineage he exemplifies have helped estabish this paradigm and we should feel no sympathy for their fate. He has brought disgrace to the office of Taoiseach, and his exit from office could not come sooner.

[Saffron Rainey]

I like the comment that this is a "disgraceful chapter in Irish history" by Frank Maguire. Tell me a recent chapter that wasn't. Ireland must rank with Italy as the most politically corrupt countries in Europe.

A country that is smothered with a low to middling political class. A country that shields behind the years of poverty under Britain's thumb. A country that claims to be one of the richest in Europe but has not a road or rail-line that even 3rd world countries can better. Then a non-existent health service and one suspects an education system living on borrowed time. I hope for this wonderful country's sake this acts as a wake up call but I doubt it. It will have to wait for the collapse of its financial system to do that and I think that is not too far away.