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Fianna Fáil (+ the PDs): absolutely morally and ideologically rotten to the very core

category national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis author Monday September 25, 2006 13:09author by nothing leftist - the last international

Monday morning rant.
320pxbertie_ahern_with_bush.jpg

Bertie will have all of this week to try and dig himself out of the hole created by the Irish Times leak last week, which revealed confidential details from the Mahon tribunal about payments to politicians. The Taoiseach has now made several statements on the issue, each time evading the actual amounts given and instead attempting to deflect attention towards the leak itself as irresponsible journalism, or now describing the donations as loans. Apparently the money was given to him temporarily, by a close circle of 13 friends, to pay for his solicitors fees during his breakup with his wife Miriam in 1993. Reportedly in some cases the money wasnt (or hasnt yet been) paid back. The rumoured amount of the total donations/loans is anywhere between €50k and €100k, although the Taoiseach himself has said that it is nowhere near that amount.

Bertie has hands down refused to divulge the details of these donations during his tenure as the Minister for Finance, comparing them to communion money presents from his grannies. He maintains he has a right to privacy, and that all of his dealings have been 100% tax compliant. This is fair enough, and when pictures of him out on a date with a new potential partner appear in the gutter press, you cannot help but wish him some privacy in his personal life. Likewise with his marriage breakup - nobody needs to hear the ins and outs of a personal relationship and the runup to its dissolution. The money however, is a slightly different matter. As everyone knows being an elected representative comes with the duties of power. You are in a position to make decisions at a very local/parochial to a national level, which affect people you may not be at all acquainted with. These decisions can be very influential in many ways.

In an ideal world, an elected representative would take into account many factors independently when arriving at a decision from that power bequeathed on him/her. The wishes of the community (not just the majority), the impact on the environment, the benefits to society as a whole, and so on. Yet as we have seen time and time again, it simply does not work that way in reality. The brown envelope and the corporate funding seem so hard for politicians to refuse. In this particular case, it seems very, very strange that a man in Bertie Ahern's position, and wages - a TD with a high ranking minsterial position - would have to solicit loans from 13 (13!!) of his friends in order to pay solicitors fees for a separation. Stranger yet that after 13 years that some of these loans have never been paid back. Where can I get one of these loans please? My local rip-off bank doesnt seem to offer those long term options with 0% interest. On the few desperate occasions that I have had to borrow from friends, I usually pay the money back as soon as possible when my financial situation improves. I cant say that Bertie would approach paying back loans in the same way, but his financial situation/salary has definitely improved somewhat since 1993.

Even if everything is tax compliant, donations or loans to politicians stink. As taxpayers, all money being paid to politicians (whose salaries we bankroll, never forget) should be open and transparent. Government departments funded by the exchequer (which is funded by our taxes, never forget) must provide a detailed breakdown of where their spending is being done. Shouldnt all TDs bank accounts be publicly viewable? Why not? These people are being paid by us to govern the country in an independent and fair manner with our best interests at heart rather than their own, and we have the right to see if their decisions are being tipped by the scales of dodgy payments.

The whole episode shows how rotten Fianna Fail is to the very core. It is one of several issues to have cropped up in recent weeks which demonstrate how ideologically and morally bankrupt the party is. One of these was the dismissal of Dublin City Councillor Liam Kelly from the party whip on the council. Kelly was pictured at a party in an apartment in Blanchardstown on a grainy mobile phone camera with what appeared to be a rolled up banknote in his hand, and hoovering up a white powder on a table in front of him. He claimed he was being blackmailed for the pictures but never fully explained what he was doing in them. If he was doing cocaine or speed, does it really matter? He was at a party minding his own business, he's an adult and he has the right to decide what he wants to do with his own body, even if this involves putting a load of chemical shit into his nostril. Yet: Jim McDaid TD, a GP who claimed no less than six months ago that politics no longer held any interest for him, has changed his mind recently, and has decided to go for re-election up in Donegal. This man is a convicted drink driver, who was caught driving the wrong way up a dual carriageway in the pitch black of night after a corporate schmooze fest. He could have easily killed many people with his actions. Yet has he been expelled from Fianna Fail? Of course not. For all the bullshit about wanting to cut down on deaths on our roads, stripping McDaid of his party membership would have been a way to demonstrate to the public that drink-driving is simply not socially acceptable in any society - as would have been a similar move with GV Wright, who knocked down a nurse while driving over the limit. Yet this has not happened. It seems as if there is one law for drink drivers and another for recreational drug users.

But what Liam Kelly was doing was illegal, I hear you say, and it finances criminal gangs who are killing innocent people. The last time I checked drink driving was also illegal, but lets move on. Michael McDowell (PDs, nothing to distinguish them from FF) in particular has been very vocal on this. He has strongly spoken out against middle class users of recreational drugs washing their hands of the killings and turf wars that erupt between rival drug dealers. He wants people to stop snorting cocaine because it ultimately finances the purchasing of weapons and the killing of human beings. There is a longer argument here about drug use and personal choice, which I wont get into, but McDowell ultimately believes that it is in the power of the people to stop the level of violence in our communities. Yet at the same time, McDowell and his cohorts have it in their power to stop innocent people being killed by the guns and machines of death being transported through Shannon on a daily basis by the US Military. Yet they choose not to. How do they expect the middle classes to give up their fix of coke or yokes to stop violence which is not immediately visible in their sphere of existense, when Fianna Fail refuse to give up their fix of money floating Shannon airport from the US treasury? If politicians are meant to lead by example then they are not doing it in this case.

You may also recall Dermot Ahern (FF) accepting assurances from Condi Rice on her visit her that the US was not transporting suspect to secret detention camps because it didnt have any. This assurance was enough for him not to have US Military warplanes inspected. The Council of Europe report on this network was rubbished at the time by politicians here in the Republic. Since then George W Bush himself has admitted that these secret detention camps do exist. So will FF authorise inspections of the planes any time soon? Dont hold your breath.

Another recent example of Fianna Fail's left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing was Noel Ahern's call to tax property investors "out of existence". This was appealing to lower middle class voters who have found themselves priced out of the home market in the last five to ten years. Many housing units in Dublin have been bought by speculators who rent them out or simply leave them empty and let the price go up for a sale in a year or two. Apart from the nonsense politicking of calling for something and not actually doing it when you can, it was actually Fianna Fail who watered down the Part V judgement which facilitated local councils taking up to 20% of private housing developments for social, shared ownership and affordable housing. This meant that instead of vital housing units coming on stream for those on lower incomes, local councils (many controlled by FF) were able to take cash payments from the developers instead. Also the 10,000 affordable homes financed via central funding rather than local councils, which was trumpeted by Bertie himself a few years ago, never materialised. The unions were supposedly instrumental in negotiating this previously, yet there was no mention of the complete lack of social housing being built during the last round of cosy partnership talks, which of course were given the green light by the membership after the leadership instructed them to do so.

So what does all this mean? In the end - NOTHING. You would think that people would learn from obvious corruption and hypocrisy, so blatant and glaring as the sun on a cloudless day. Yet, people will vote for Fianna Fail at the next election. In their thousands. Jim McDaid will probably top the poll in his constituency, as will Bertie. It is not limited to Fianna Fail either. Ex-FG man Michael Lowry, whose house was paid for by Ben Dunne, topped the poll in Tipperary last time round. His greed was exposed, but the Irish public are stupid enough to reward it. Take your pick anywhere in the country where you think there is a groundswell of opposition against the current political system. Its an illusion. The people will happily vote for the parties that have been shown not to have their slightest interest at heart. As they will time and time again... what can I say? We get what we deserve.

Comments (24 of 24)

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author by Doorstepperpublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 14:32author address author phone

The good people of Monaghan who are losing their hospital in the consultant/rationalisation
medical company relocation (check out the land controversy over the re-siting of the Children's
hospital at the Mater site)are doorstepping the vested interests who are turning the sod
right now at the Monaghan bypass. The Mater land grab which clearly does not fit
criteria for an extensive Children's hospital will include the sale of Mountjoy Prison by
Minister Mc Dowell to lessesn the exorbitant cost of the Purchase of lands at Thornton Hall.

The name of the game is uprooting the vested interests.
Solidarity to the Monaghan patients.
Don't let the fuckers near your door come the snap election.
They are in power too long and they have to go.

author by JFHpublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 14:55author address author phone

“This is fair enough, and when pictures of him out on a date with a new potential partner appear in the gutter press, you cannot help but wish him some privacy in his personal life. Likewise with his marriage breakup - nobody needs to hear the ins and outs of a personal relationship and the runup to its dissolution. The money however, is a slightly different matter.”

You have modern life summed up in a nutshell with your comments above. The Capitalist “Money is God” Material world will not operate properly without proper rules and regulations into payments of money etc.

Yet rules and regulations that traditionally insured continuation of our race and held our society together i.e. sex for marriage, ban on contraceptives, prohibition on extra martial relations, divorce, abortion etc have been dismantled as a consequence of modern secular leanings. What can be regarded as more important when we eschew fidelity to one’s mate and the offspring?

Modern Irish Society is no match for the regimented, exploitative, organized, money ethics and global undercurrents that are associated with laissez faire economics. Has anybody noticed our now over twenty year collapsing birth rate? There are c. 250,000 less children under twenty in Ireland today than in 1984, and that with a population increase of over 700,000. We are no longer producing children to replace the population and the problem is rapidly worsening. But modern society sees the problem as an “elderly” one. This is the bottom line, we have got to home in on it and see the folly in our ways or we end up like the frightened elderly societies of the rest of the Western World! And don’t go and blame International Finance for our perceived ills, it is our lifestyle.

author by 10,000 doorstepperspublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 15:54author address author phone

Pat the Cope, close personal friend of Bertie was prevented from
opening de bypass in Monaghan today by 10,000 people WHO WANT
ADEQUATE HOSPITAL CARE. They object to maternity units being shut down,
and centralisation of health services. Yes. Well done.

Now if Bertie gets booted out by the'sinister' campaign to objectify his
crony roots- tell the feckers to get off your doorstep.

author by JFHpublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 17:11author address author phone

Does People Power not realise that the government is just reacting to the type of society that I referred to in my submission above. Maternity Units, National Schools, Secondary Schools, Bakeries, Sales of children’s' clothes all closing down right throughout the land. Now even the numbers doing the Leaving Cert is dropping at a phenomenal rate; and so are the points needed to get into University.

Fat lot of use to us or the 10,000 doorsteppers are the graduates from the modern focus in education i.e. exploitative subjects such as economics, business, commerce etc instead of the thinking disciplines i.e. religion, social history, Greek and Latin (which covers the origin of thought) etc.

Mea Culpa! for having just sat back for the last thirty years, and watch my people undergo a metamorphosis into a society of morons.

author by 10,000 doorstepperspublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 19:43author address author phone


There is a dire need for thinkers to help the kids left behind by the massaged
figures extruding from the Department of education, the growth industry
in personal tutors puts the ideology of money and competition before the
mind and thought. Good educators who can teach children to see are needed.
Check out the local educate at home co-operatives. There is always a need
for educators in Ireland, share the knowledge.

author by Tottipublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 20:52author address author phone

Should any Fianna Fail or PD candidate campaign at my house door I will give them a good kick up the arse and post the pictures on this website.

author by mepublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 20:58author address author phone

They share the constituency with Mr Mc Dowell. Two post-offices have closed
down in the area, but the clientelist shops are thriving, they'll be replacing the
community information services next.

I regularly tell Jim O Callaghan to fuck off, but he comes back for more.

Last time I told him to fuck off was about corrupt planning.
This time was about corrupt practice.

He brings an FF clipboard holder with him. yep, they are on the hard sell and the stalls
are not even open yet. bets on a November snap election?

author by Tottipublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 21:09author address author phone

I wonder who is financing and sponsoring the FF and PD election campaigns?

author by The Potpublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 21:16author address author phone

But if you check out old telly pictures and look at the non-family mourners at Haughey's
funeral, you will get a good idea. Luminaries include the owners of our
communications infrastructure (recently resigned a lot of directorships)
I believe CRH and the land -grabbers all along the toll roads also fund,
vested interests matey.

author by Tottipublication date Mon Sep 25, 2006 21:35author address author phone

That's what I thought, FF/PD financed by the irish oligarchy. I also find interesting that the PDs get much more media coverage relative to their electoral representation. While parties with a much larger mandate ie. Labour and Sinn Fein hardly get any coverage these days.

In Germany a party needs to exceed the 5% hurdle in order to take seats in parliament. The PDs would not even be in parliament over there but yet the media here treat them as some kind of mainstream movement. What's that all about?

author by Potpublication date Tue Sep 26, 2006 08:41author address author phone

The politicos run one-stop shops for their constituents. Ensuring those whom they serve
will be the ones going to the ballot. Wide-ranging information skewed to the market
is provided. In FF/PD its planning, (one -off housing, tax breaks, private medical care-right
up to the crony lobby). Jobs for the boys, they help each other along.

A taxi driver told me that his kids needed dental care, about 10,000 euros worth, he
was from Drumcondra. He went to his local TD and was put on a 'second list' in the Dental hospital.
He paid two grand, he votes, to this day for that particular TD.

The only way to even out the system to to abolish clientalism. The parochial aspect
of local politics and get people to run on issues, such as free-speech, health care, corruption
and war.

The PD phenonmena is simple- personality driven politics.
Love him or hate him, he uses the media-any publicity is good publicity. Pantomime villain.

As I said above. Jim O Callaghan (Miriam O C's) brother runs an info-premises, one-stop
shop- which is competing with the voluntary community info service.
We have lost two post-offices.
Its supermarket shopping for the politically truncated.

FF uses a system wherein they bring in a running mate with surplus vote.
These things can be dealt with, people just have to say "fuck off, give me my Post-office,
hospital, inquest, family member... " back.
don't take the soft sell.

author by Miriampublication date Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:44author address author phone

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I've got others." (Groucho Marx). I've quoted this before but its so good I cant help wheeling it out again.

The reason we dont hear much about Labour and the others is because they are so busy riding on the policy shirt tails of FF and the PDs that we dont really need to. All we have to do is listen to Fianna Fail to know where the others will shortly be following. There is no point in them anymore.

For about twenty years now Labour et al have been slugging away on the basis that their only chance of getting into power is to hand the political agenda over to the right, hook line and sinker. They seem to think that by dropping forceful opposition they might slip in unnoticed - possibly even tinker a little with some of the more objectionable policies - nothing too drastic of course. But it isnt actually working out like it was supposed to. It has clearly failed as a strategy and was always bound to anyway. Surely a principled and strong opposition is more likely to keep the debate focussed on the real issues - i.e. the things that we, the voters, actually want to see tackled. One precious principle after another has been abandoned and when it is pointed out that the opposition are no longer actually reflecting the beliefs and wishes of their core voters, they throw fits of the screaming ab dabs. You tread on their most tender nerves. They jump up and down , red-faced, and refuse to speak to people who cannot help not being reassured by their reassurances. They expel lifelong supporters from within their own ranks. Why they even arrange for false allegations to be made about them in the newspapers. They speak instead of the need for 'discipline' which is really code for suspension of disbelief - as is necessary for the enjoyment of any good fiction. They scream at us to understand that they have invented new issues about which to be concerned, that all those old ones are no longer relevant. Boring stuff like housing, education, loss of our natural resources etc etc. Instead we are asked to believe that it is all now about the appearance of principle without any of the tedium of living up to its substance. When you find labour party spin doctors embracing SSIAs and wishing people joy of their (bribe) money you know, dont you, that things are rotten to the core. When you find them gladly embracing individual self-determination as an alternative solution to state funding for health and other problems, you realise that they are not even pretending to care anymore. Labour batting its eyelids coyly at the PDs is an embarrassing spectacle. Not so much rainbow coalition as technicolour yawn.

Another problem is the life long party aparatchik or elected representative, the whiff of government ever tantalisingly present in his or her nostrils. Personal ambition melds so easily into self-delusion in the comfortable furniture of the political estate. With shocking arrogance, they shout at us to know that we are impudent and presumptious to question, let alone to expect results, that it's all a matter of pragmatics, that we dont know what we are talking about, that they are our betters and to return to our place among the little, stupid people. 'Of course we'd like your vote, but shut up and stop annoying us once we've had it.'

Pick any issue you like:

corruption
house prices
social welfare
disability funding
infrastructure
health care
war of terror
environment
fianancial mismanagement
and lots more besides

The situaiton is an open goal. What an opportunity! Any political opposition should be able to take principled advantage of it on the back of a determined and forceful election campaign. Absent that, frankly, I'm not sure if I wouldnt prefer FF than FF Lite. Perhaps thats going too far.

A snap Novmeber election is an alarming possibility - a possible stroke of genius by FF. On the other hand its very risky. An impulsive election might result in impulsive voting too and voters seem to be pretty testy about politics at the moment.

author by 10,000 doorstepperspublication date Tue Sep 26, 2006 21:26author address author phone

Bertie tearfully admitted 50,000 from donations- OMIGOD.
It's like princess Di- thats 5 euros each for the 10,000 doorsteppers, who want
a hospital. Its microcosmic in terms of what Cullen paid on voting machines
that did not work.

The Taoiseach expects to pay it back with interest....

Meanwhile the loose cannon at Justice is rubbing his lily white hands at the prospect
of a fallen Bertie, even though He brought in a new bill that is open to constitutional
challenge (june 2nd) - Its not gender neutral, Mr Mc Dowell. He has run down the prisons,
paid eleven times the market rate for Thornton Hall-the panacea for all ills, never mind the
three coffins that left the Joy.

And intends to enforce biometric passports on the immigrant community.
In the UK there is a very good anti-id campaign, which features Bliar barcoded across his
tache. Almost as good as the Bliar-devil campaign by the godforsaken tories.

Bertie has pulled a princess Di- now when do the feckers come off their summer break?

They are not merely corrupt, they are Irish people acting against Irish people.

author by Muireann Ni Bhrolchain - Save Tarapublication date Tue Sep 26, 2006 23:34author address author phone

The €50,000 that Bertie received from friends and these are the people named:
Paddy Reilly, Des Richardson, Padraic O'Connor, Jim Nugent, David
McKenna, Fintan Gunne, Mick Coillins and Charlie Chawke (first set of
payments) and then there were Joe Burke, Dermot Carew, Barry English and Paddy Reilly
(second payment).

I don't recognise most of these names but one of them jumps out at me:
Des Richardson. Taoiseach's best friend, associate of Frank Dunlop,
corrupt lobbyist and associate of none other than Cathal McCarthy. This C. McCarthy is the man who looked for planning permission
in the Gabhra Valley, at the foot of the Hill of Tara, for a recycling facility.

Below the two articles from Ireland on Sunday (March 2005) but the
stories sank like a stone. This issue should be revived in view of these present allegations.
I would like to know how these friends have prospered since 1993.

Ireland on Sunday February 15 2005
Bertie’s link to Dunlop
(John Lee)
Embarrassment over fundraiser’s deal with the disgraced lobbyist

The Taoiseach’s close friend and advisor, Des Richardson, is a partner
of disgraced lobbyist Frank Dunlop in a speculative property investment.
The previously undisclosed business association between Mr Richardson
and Mr Dunlop is acutely embarrassing for Bertie Ahern and will probably
prompt a political storm. The Taoiseach has worked hard to dissociate
his party from planning and financial corruption.
But this link between a member of his so-called ‘kitchen cabinet’ and a
man who has been exposed as a key figure in the planning corruption
scandal is acutely embarrassing.
Recent revelations that Tommy Reilly – Fianna Fáil’s intended candidate
in the upcoming Meath by-election – was involved in property speculation
with Mr Dunlop were enough to see him stand down. But Mr Richardson is
more than just a by-election candidate – he is a former party
fundraiser, an intimate of Mr Ahern’s and a man with access to the inner
sanctums of Government.
Mr Dunlop won overnight notoriety in 2000 when he was forced by the
Flood Tribunal to confess that he had paid massive bribes to Dublin
councillors in return for votes on planning applications.
According to Land Registry documents seen by this newspaper, Mr Dunlop
and Mr Richardson each own a 25pc stake in a valuable property in the
centre of Navan. The site of less than one acre is at present a carpark
but is at the centre of an area scheduled for major commercial
development in the coming years.
The other equal partners are well-known Co Meath property developers
Eamonn Duignan and Cathal McCarthy. The property is strategically
important to a multi-million euro portfolio controlled by Mr Duignan and
Mr McCarthy.
Business dealings involving Mr Richardson and Mr Dunlop have been
investigated by the Flood Tribunal but it was believed all connections
had been severed.
Sources close to the Taoiseach said will be ‘apoplectic’ at the
revelations coming so soon after the jailing of Ray Burke and the
deselection of Mr Reilly.
Both Mr Dunlop and Mr Richardson confirmed that they had been involved
in the investment but denied last night they were still in partnership.
But documents filed at the Land Registry appear to contradict this claim.
Bizarrely, Mr Dunlop claimed he had left the partnership before 1997 –
the year in which ownership of the site is first registered. Land
Registry files show that Mr Richardson, Mr Dunlop, Mr Duignan and Mr
McCarthy bought the land on Abbey Road near Kennedy Road, as a
partnership in February 1997.
All four give their address as 25 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2 – the
location of Frank Dunlop and Associates Mr Dunlop’s consultancy company.
Thirteen ‘dealings’ or transactions were carried out on the property
between March 1997 and March 2004.
Mr Duignan and Mr McCarthy own Navan Shopping Centre, which recently
underwent a multi-million euro expansion. The shopping centre stands
immediately opposite the controversial plot of land.
Documents seen by Ireland on Sunday show that Mr Duignan, Mr McCarthy
and Mr Richardson have been buying up land in the area since 1997. There
is no record of Mr Dunlop’s involvement other than in the carpark.

Navan is one of the country’s fastest-growing towns, and property values
have rocketed in recent years, Mr Duignan and Mr McCarthy made the news
late last year when they offered more than 20m euro to members of Navan
Pitch and Putt Club for their course.
Some of the land partly owned by Mr Dunlop and Mr Richardson is now the
subjedct of a compulsory purchase order by Meath County Council to
create a civic space.
“It was something that was with the Companies Office a long time ago and
I forgot all about it”, said Mr Dunlop. “Myself and Richardson bought a
couple of small properties in Navan many years ago in the Kennedy and
Trimgate Street area. It’s so long ago it was lost in the recesses of my
mind”, he added. “but I decided I didn’t want to be involved and around
1995 and 1996 , I got out. But my name seems to have been left on it”.
“You’ll have to Duignan about that. He owns a lot of property in Navan,
including Navan Shopping Centre.
“I got involved in the deal in the early ‘90s” added Mr Dunlop. “Duignan
was a tenant of mine in Mount Street and he asked me to go into
partnership with him on the deal”.
“But in 1996 I think, I decided I couldn’t remain in partnership and
Duignan bought me out. We had, how should I say it, differences of
opinion. We were the owners. There was no company – it was a partnership. “
Mr Dunlop’s assertion that he got out of the deal in 1995/6 appears to
be incorrect, as the property was not acquired officially by the four
men until 1997.
Mr Richardson also said the partnership with Mr Dunlop is at an end but
said he was aware some of the property was the subject of a CPO.
“Frank Dunlop is not involved” Mr Richardson said last night. “As far as
I know, he sold out a number of years ago – around five years ago, I
think”.
Neither Mr Duignan or Mr McCarthy were available for comment yesterday.
(There are two more articles on that page regarding Bertie Ahern and a
short biography of Mr Richardson)
Opinion – Same old story from Fianna Fáil
It is the Achilles heel of Fianna Fáil. Every time it appears the
Soldiers of Destiny have shaken off their links to the murky world of
property speculation and planning corruption, another embarrassing
connection seems to surface.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is reported to have been ‘furious’ at the
revelation last month that his chosen candidate in the Meath
by-election, Cllr Tommy Reilly, was tarnished by his association with
the disgraced Frank Dunlop. Cllr Reilly was dropped like a hot potato –
and rightly so.
Now we discover that one of Mr Ahern’s closest associates, Des
Richardson, has an almost identical association. This is not just
embarrassing – it is a stark reminder that cronyism is still embedded at
the very heart of the Irish political process and that Fianna Fáil, at
its highest level, is still far more closely associated with property
speculation than it cares to admit – or the rest of us would wish.
Mr Dunlop has gone out of his way in recent years in his efforts to
persuade us that the days of the brown envelope and the quick buck are
behind us, that this sort of activity was – as the former lobbyist likes
to put it “part of the culture of the time” but that times have now
changes, thank you very much, and that everything is now squeaky clean
and above board.
It would be nice to take him at his word. But, instead, what do we
discover? That one of the Taoiseach’s closest associates is still – as
far as the Land Registry is concerned – a partner in a speculative
property investment with somebody who has admitted to his part in
wholesale bribery and corruption of the planning process.
What’s more, although Mr Dunlop’s own unsavoury role in planning
corruption has been known for several years, there appears to have been
no attempt to publicly terminate the relationship. Indeed, it might have
gone unnoticed for years to come had the local authority not decided to
compulsorily purchase a few feet of the site’s frontage for a public
amenity.
Mr Ahern must take action. Either Mr Richardson must distance himself
immediately – publicly and irrevocably – from Mr Dunlop, or the
Taoiseach must distance himself equally clearly from Mr Richardson.
There is a clear precedent – the example that was made of Cllr Reilly.
If an exception were to be made of Mr Richardson just because he happens
to be a personal friend of the Taoiseach, this would be doubly
monstrous. Irish politics has come a long way in recent years, we cannot
afford to return to the bad old days.
Our rulers, we have subsequently discovered, were frequently venal and
corrupt throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. It has taken 10 long years – and
millions of euros in tribunal lawyers’ fees – to untangle this web of
deceit. That work must not be undone.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Ireland on Sunday 13 03 05

Tara Tycoons – political cronies poised to make fortunes as
controversial motorway runs close to ancient site and right through
their land – John Lee, political correspondent

(Photo of the high cross on the hill with the text “Opponents of the new
motorway say ‘Valley of the Kings’ will be destroyed forever”)

(Three photos, Cathal McCarthy – backer, Frank Reynolds – tribunal,
Joseph Murphy – landbank)

Major developers who are also financial backers of Fianna Fáil stand to
make millions from the controversial M3 motorway which conservationists
say will destroy the historic Hill of Tara.
A company controlled by multi-millionaire builder Joseph Murphy Jr –
whose main business, JMSE, was exposed as corrupt the Flood tribunal –
owns valuable lands along the route.
So too does multi-millionaire Fianna Fáil backer Cathal McCarthy,
formerly a business partner of Frank Dunlop, the corrupt former
government press secretary, and of Des Richardson, a close friend of the
Taoiseach.
Both Mr Murphy and Mr McCarthy stand to make millions from the sale of
land needed for the motorway – which campaigners say will destroy some
of our most important archaeological sites – and for the construction of
intersections.
But Mr Murphy, in particular, stands to make even more substantial
profits from the hundreds of acres of land which he owns within a few
miles of the motorway route and which may well be opened up for
development once construction is completed.
Support for the M3 route formed a major part of the Fianna Fáil campaign
in Friday’s by-election – even though archaeologists and ecological
activists have compared it to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and insist
that it should be preserved.
Mr Murphy faces an investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau after
playing a central role in the Flood/Mahon Tribunal into planning
corruption.
Mr Murphy and Frank Reynolds, the former managing director of JMSE who
was also condemned by Mr Justice Fergus Flood, are beneficial directors
of Newland Properties Ltd with an address at Ashley House, Batterstown,
Co Meath.
Newland Properties owns 26 acres in Roestown, Ratoath, Co Meath, of
which five-and-a-half acres are subject to compulsory purchase by Meath
County Council for construction of the M3.
But in recent years, Newland Properties has bought up more than 130
acres in nearby Ratoath, Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne and ther parts of south
Meath near the proposed route.
Though the CPO on the five-and-half acres is expected to net the company
about €5m, the real potential for profit is in its other properties
beside and near the M3 route.
Inevitably, there will be pressure to rezone this land for housing and
industrial development – a move that would bring in millions more for
the two building magnates, according to property experts.
Frank Reynolds said the company owned more than 100 acres “if you take
in Dublin and other places”.
“I think if you ask anybody whose land will be affected by the M3 or N2,
they would say they’d rather have the land. I wouldn’t say I’ make a
killing on it. You can’t do much with land that has a road running
through it”, said Mr Reynolds.
“I don’t know if you can do much with it building-wise as people don’t
want to live by a motorway”.
Land Registry documents show that Newland Properties also has a massive
land portfolio in Dublin. JMSE has made huge financial contributions to
Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.
Tribunal star James Gogarty, when accompanying Joseph Murphy and another
corrupt building tycoon, Mick Bailey, to a 1989 meeting with now jailed
ex-minister Ray Burke to make a corrupt €30,000 contribution, innocently
asked: “Will we get a receipt?”
“Will we f***,” was the reply.
Cathal McCarthy, meanwhile, has made millions from the development of
Navan town centre in partnership with another rich developer, Gerry
Duignan.
IoS has seen files that show Mr McCarthy owns 12 acres at the most
controversial interchange on the motorway – right beside the Hill of
Tara, ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland.
An additional 200-acre landback beside the interchange site was
transferred to the name of Mr McCarthy since April 2004. The land is
highly valuable given its proximity to the interchange and the M3.
Opponents of the current route of the new motorway argue that the
29-acre, floodlit interchange will damage the Hill of Tara.
It has also been learned that in 1999, Mr McCarthy and Mr Duignan –
registered with the Public Offices Commission as Duignan & McCarthy, PO
Box 44, Navan, Co Meath – contributed £30,500 to Fianna Fáil.
The contributions are listed as ‘£2,500 for attendance at a fundraiser,
£3,000 for attendance at a fundraiser and £25,000 for attendance at a
fundraiser’.

author by cool jpublication date Wed Sep 27, 2006 00:05author address author phone

The obvious anwer is that the bulk of the mainstream media are made up of fiercly right-wing capitilist types who would also like to eleminate any vestiges of native Irish culure so that we can become yet another sattelite of an Anglo/American empire. Much of this is now being done through historical revision of irish history and the foundation of the state.
Adherance to this cause include all the O'Reilly owned newpapers, the bulk of RTE etc. and has seeped into the reporting of many local papers and radio stations.

author by Muireann Ni Bhrolchainpublication date Wed Sep 27, 2006 01:33author address author phone

I agree that there appears to be a move to eliminate our culture. UCD have abolished the teaching of Old Irish and Maynooth appears to have abandoned it. Without this tool no one will be able to read the manuscripts. What luck that the latest one was in Latin, at least someone will be able to read it. UCD have also abolished the teaching of Modern Irish at night.
McDowell said that we should not look back, well at this rate, we will not be able to.

author by Tottipublication date Wed Sep 27, 2006 19:57author address author phone

The media don't even need to report false facts, its enough to simply not report facts i.e the truth.
Most media in this country are not even owned by irish people and I believe they have no interrest in the irish language what so ever. How best to colonize a people by stealing their language and culture.

The internet has become the last refuge for people searching for true facts that the media seem to blank out. Its like living in a matrix full of lies and spin. Just take mondays Question & Awnser program, all they were talking about was B.Aherns private life and the Ryder Cup. No debate about, housing, elections, the war in iraq, no they were talking about playing golf. And that Noel government minister with his big red face clearly delighted not be asked real questions.

I think its high time for another Bastille Day!

author by Ernst Udet 7th - Jasta 11publication date Wed Sep 27, 2006 20:37author address author phone

Naturally they took no action against Drunk Driver McDaid. After all they could hardly pick on him after they failed to take any action against their Drunken Driver from Malahide who wrecked a young womans life when he ploughed in to her on the North Strand. I mean McDaid hit no one so he would surely feel hard done by if his little slip was considered more serious than the other blackguard's regretable lapse of "impeccable behaviour". Remember they tried the old "immunity while going to and from the Dail" trick, a law dating back to the days of Adam and Eve. Drunken drivers everywhere, Bertie on a nice little earner but still requiring free loans to pay his solicitor (not a solicitor in sight willing to do a senior minister a favour WHAT), Mary using the Air Corps to slip her down the bog to cut the red tape at a mates grand opening. Dodgy money here and there, holidays, porches etc etc etc etc. We have front and back pockets in our strides, the have extra ones, backhander pochas. Did ya see Bertie turning on the waterworks and I thought Mel Gibson could act.

Ernst

author by W. Finnerty.publication date Wed Sep 27, 2006 20:43author address author phone

Like oil and water, Globalisation and national sovereignty do not mix it seems.

It appears to follow that Globalisation and national heritage will not mix either.

Consequently, national heritage is something undesirable to be quietly got rid of - as far as the fans of Globalisation are concerned? Such fans include most (possibly all?) Bilderberg associates I assume, including Deputy Prime Minister McDowell?

Small wonder perhaps that Minister for Justice McDowell and his senior colleagues in Dail Eireann are showing such strong signs of contempt for Bunreacht na hEireann (the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland) - possibly the most important part of our heritage in certain respects.

For more on the basics of Globalisation, please see:
http://www.augustreview.com/

http://www.europeancourtofhumanrightswilliamfinnerty.co...r.htm

author by Tottipublication date Wed Sep 27, 2006 22:18author address author phone

Globalization as a system / force has no interest in sovereign states protecting their borders and language. Therefore a language like Irish becomes irrelevant as the system needs one easy language in order for things to run smoothly. It feeds on the free movement of capital and cheap labour, always looks for the place were it can produce at the lowest cost by making maximum profit. Regardless of human culture and the environment.

Globalization is nothing else but capitalism at its worst. No border, no law, no government will be able to stop it in its tracks. It basically destroys the planet while the globalised media focus on terrorism and silly TV shows. Taking our minds of what really happens around us, the total destruction of this planet.

author by Cross The LInepublication date Thu Dec 17, 2009 17:12author address author phone

How dare they! How BLOODY DARE THEY!!!

But what else would you expect from this bunch of fools. Extending thier Christmas holidays as if they have earned it? What brass, what arrogance! This is another two fingered gesture directed at the Irish people. No No No, it is just so wrong, they are such a bunch of dossers and there goes your proof. Country's in the manure and as usual it ah sure we shall have a nice long holiday. PAID at that.

Well, if its holidays they want, it's a holiday they will get. I urge a voters to vote for a permanent holiday for this ridiculos excuse for a government at election time. God, I cant believe the audacity of it. They deserve to be sent to hell, forever, the lot of them.

author by Diablopublication date Thu Dec 17, 2009 20:02author address author phone

Despite the "Thousands of highly compromising emails and documents" released onto the Internet some weeks ago -- which could well result in criminal charges being made against the fraudulent scientists involved apparently -- your government continues to fully support the "Copenhagen Knees-Up" it seems: "Copenhagen F**k Up" more like?

See "Exposing the Global Warming Lie" by Dr Michael S. Coffman at:
http://www.augustreview.com/news_commentary/general/exp...2153/

Suggestion: Let them rot in one of your jails first, before I take final delivery of them.

author by Michaelangelo - -publication date Thu Dec 17, 2009 21:04author address author phone

Celeb prisoner Frank Dunlop changes exchanges his prison garb for seasonal cheer as he gets out of Arbour Hill Prison next week for a week off for Xmas on his Dunshaughlin country estate to check up on his interest and dividends from the millions Ireland's popular and loveable Bagman made out of putting buildings out of place all around Dublin .

And he still has his fat pension from completeing seven years in the more luxurious and elevated environs of the Civill Service where he was graded as an Assistant Secretary -General though the Departments of Taoiseach,, Environment and Education as Government Press Secretary, annually to Frank and his wife , the local school principal, on anoother fat salary too . .

By Easter he'll be out for good , on the strength of his promise to the cops to bear witness against his fellow grafters in court, although sentenced to two years with six months suspended only last May 26th .

And they say that ' Crime doesn't pay ' - White Collar crime a la Dunlop does ! - and just like the criminal he is and will always be, Dunlop now sets out to rat on his pals !

a maggot :-)

author by Jerry Corneliuspublication date Fri Dec 18, 2009 15:28author address author phone

Cullens PD heritage is now more at home than ever in in FF. He now wants to have the pay of Catering Workers cut and Olivia Mitchell of FG backs him up. His attack on extra Sunday pay is part of the attack on the entire trade union movement. These additional allowances were hard fought and hard won. They are not going to be taken away because Cullen is after the votes and donations of gombeen restraunt and hotel owners.

EXTRA LABOUR costs for Sunday opening of restaurants was unsustainable, Minister for Tourism Martin Cullen has said.

“We have all moved to a seven-day week, so we will have to renegotiate this across the entire workforce to remain competitive,” he added. “It will have to come to the next step and I hope that by negotiation in the near future it will be seen as a normal rotation of whatever a 40-hour week is. That is the way it has to be.”

When did Cullen move to a 7 day week?

Costs, Ms Mitchell said, were too high, and one of the many issues raised was that of higher payments for Sunday working.

Mitchell showing which side FG are on .

Related Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1218/1224260898359.html

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78601

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