In March 2008, Bertie Ahern announced his resignation as Taoiseach, prompted by ongoing evidence in a planning inquiry that uncovered he had received large sums of money when minister for finance. Yet, even in defeat, he remained the most popular politician of his generation, one for whom the defining 'Teflon Taoiseach' tag had not entirely slid away. However, what made Bertie Ahern unique was not his enormous popularity or the revelations about his personal finances, but his dependence on a power base largely separate to Fianna Fail: 'the Drumcondra Mafia', a largely unknown, fiercely loyal, close-knit group of friends. When Ahern was Taoiseach the centre of power was arguably as much in St Luke's, the legendary constituency office bought by the Drumcondra Mafia, as in Government Buildings. Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia takes the reader inside the organisation and examines how they not only established the most efficient electoral machine in the country but put 'their man' in the most senior political office in the state. It also details how, in his rise to power, Ahern acquired substantial sums of money while propagating the image of a man with no interest in money. Finally, it tracks his descent with the investigation into his finances, a descent punctuated by one final victory, in the 2007 general election. This is the story not just of Bertie Ahern but of the men and women who travelled with him on his extraordinary journey.
In March 2008, Bertie Ahern announced his resignation as Taoiseach, prompted by ongoing evidence in a planning inquiry that uncovered he had received large sums of money when minister for finance. Yet, even in defeat, he remained the most popular politician of his generation, one for whom the defining 'Teflon Taoiseach' tag had not entirely slid away. However, what made Bertie Ahern unique was not his enormous popularity or the revelations about his personal finances, but his dependence on a power base largely separate to Fianna Fail: 'the Drumcondra Mafia', a largely unknown, fiercely loyal, close-knit group of friends. When Ahern was Taoiseach the centre of power was arguably as much in St Luke's, the legendary constituency office bought by the Drumcondra Mafia, as in Government Buildings. Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia takes the reader inside the organisation and examines how they not only established the most efficient electoral machine in the country but put 'their man' in the most senior political office in the state. It also details how, in his rise to power, Ahern acquired substantial sums of money while propagating the image of a man with no interest in money. Finally, it tracks his descent with the investigation into his finances, a descent punctuated by one final victory, in the 2007 general election. This is the story not just of Bertie Ahern but of the men and women who travelled with him on his extraordinary journey.
Bertie Ahern, three times Irish Taoiseach, is often described as an enigma. The Old IRA man's son who delivered peace in Northern Ireland. A working class boy responsible for the Celtic Tiger. The man of faith who ushered in progressive, cosmopolitan secular Ireland. An ardent nationalist admired by European leaders. 'I know 25 per cent of Bertie Ahern', said his finance minister, Charlie McCreevy, 'and that's 24 per cent more than anyone else.' Now in this frank and revealing autobiography, Ahern gives his own account of a remarkable political life and the personal story that accompanies it. He shows the cost to his family of a life played out in the public eye and, for the first time, discloses what really happened in his final weeks in power. Here for the first time is the truth behind the man who is Bertie. Ahern has been at the cutting edge of Irish politics for over three decades. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in the Fianna Fáil landslide victory in 1977 that saw Jack Lynch returned as Taoiseach. In 1982, Charles Haughey appointed him Government Chief Whip. In volatile political times, he strongly supported Haughey during three challenges to his leadership of Fianna Fáil. In 1987, Bertie Ahern received his first cabinet portfolio as Minister for Labour. It was a time when the Irish economy was in crisis. Ireland had a higher debt per head than Ethiopia or Sudan. Unemployment stood at 16%. Ahern negotiated Ireland's first social partnership agreement, which underpinned economic recovery and put in place the foundations for a period of sustained growth. In 1991, he was appointed Minister for Finance. International commentators first began to refer to 'Ireland's Tiger economy' in this period. When Bertie Ahern left the Department of Finance in late 1994, for the first time in almost 30 years, Ireland had a budget surplus. Bertie Ahern succeeded Albert Reynolds as leader of Fianna Fáil in November 1994. Following the General Election in 1997, he became Ireland's youngest ever Taoiseach. The Ahern Era was a time of unprecedented progress in Irish society. Over the course of his tenure in office, Ireland's economy out-performed that of every other European country. For the first time ever, the number of people in employment in the State reached 2 million. Working closely with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, Ahern won widespread acclaim for his perseverance and skill in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement, which has provided the political framework for a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. On the international stage, he was a respected figure who enjoyed an acclaimed Presidency of the European Council in 2004. He presided over the completion of the largest ever expansion of the EU and concluded negotiations on a European constitution. He is one of only five visiting statesmen to have addressed both the United States Congress and the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. At home, Ahern enjoyed phenomenal electoral support. He was the first Taoiseach since 1944 to win three successive General Elections. Bertie Ahern resigned on 6th May, 2008. He had served for ten years, ten months and ten days as Taoiseach.
The fascinating story of the man who blew the boom. Colm Keena, the journalist who first broke the story of Bertie Ahern's finances, gives us an in-depth examination of the former Taoiseach's character, his lust for power and his obsession with money. Keena scrutinises the evidence produced by the Mahon Tribunal about Ahern's personal finances and his personal political machine, and illustrates the lengths to which Ahern went in his effort to hide the truth about what he was up to. Ahern's political career is re-charted in the light of what we now know about his character. Keena looks at how his desire for power existed alongside an almost complete absence of political conviction, this lack of which left him open to the influence of those with strong opinions, and did nothing to arrest his mismanagement of the Irish economy. His lust for popularity brought Ireland from rude good health to economic disaster. An historic opportunity was squandered, but Bertie walked away from the wreckage with his wallet bulging. His legacy: the near-destruction of a European economy and the collapse of one of the most successful political parties of the past hundred years.
During the years when all seemed well with the Irish economy, a scandal bloomed in front of our faces but went mostly unnoticed: the scandal of public waste. Vast overspending on infrastructure (including a number of white elephants), extravagant use of overpriced consultants, the creation of dozens of quangos whose primary purpose seemed to be jobs for the boys, the culture of junketry that took hold in the semi-state sector and the Oireachtas - these and other dubious practices flourished during the years when the state's coffers were overflowing. The insiders benefited; the rest of us got ripped off. Now, as the state scrambles to bail out the banks and to bring order to the shattered public finances by taking money out of the pockets of ordinary working people, Shane Ross and Nick Webb tell the story of the wasters: the people who perfected and benefited from the culture of cronyism and waste. Thanks in large part to Ross and Webb's journalism in the Sunday Independent exposing scandals in FAS and CIE, we already know part of this story. In Wasters, the authors show how wide and how deep the rot runs, and they show that every scandal has one thing in common: insiders profiting at the expense of ordinary people.
We are where we are has become one of the great truisms of the current crisis facing the country. But how did we get here and can an inspection of the roots of our modern failings - of government, state agencies and church - help us to pave a way forward? Scandal Nation argues the case as it analyses twelve key events since the foundation of the Irish state that shaped us as a nation. It examines the culture within which these events occurred, how they unfolded and their impact on what followed.
This is a dispassionate examination of the viability of a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the politics of Israel, Palestine and the United States. It includes instructive case studies from South Africa in Namibia and the Irish claim to Northern Ireland. The results of Israeli elections from 2001 to 2013 are analyzed (with the conclusion that the Likud will be in any government coalition for at least the midterm future, giving it a veto over policy). A chapter examining the history and ideology of the secular right over the last 90 years follows. There are three chapters of case studies: the Likud withdrawal from the Sinai in 1979-1982 and from Gaza in 2005, the withdrawal of South Africa from Namibia in 1988-1989, and the dropping of Ireland's constitutional claim to Northern Ireland in 1998 under a Fianna Fail government--the same party that wrote the constitution in 1937. A chapter examines Palestinian politics since the mandatory era and another, the American-Israeli alliance and American politics. A concluding chapter draws lessons from the case studies and the analysis.
The collapse of the Irish 'Celtic Tiger' economy, in the wake of a banking disaster, provoked a joint EU/IMF rescue plan in late 2010. The election that followed saw Europe's most successful ever party lose more than half of its vote and almost three quarters of its seats. This book provides the definitive analysis of an electoral earthquake.
In light of its upcoming centenary in 2016, the time seems ripe to ask: why, how and in what ways has memory of Ireland’s 1916 Rising persisted over the decades? In pursuing answers to these questions, which are not only of historical concern, but of contemporary political and cultural importance, this book breaks new ground by offering a wide-ranging exploration of the making and remembrance of the story of 1916 in modern times. It draws together the interlocking dimensions of history-making, commemoration and heritage to reveal the Rising’s undeniable influence upon modern Ireland’s evolution, both instantaneous and long-term. In addition to furnishing a history of the tumultuous events of Easter 1916, which rattled the British Empire’s foundations and enthused independence movements elsewhere, Ireland’s 1916 Rising mainly concentrates on illuminating the evolving relationship between the Irish past and present. In doing so, it unearths the far-reaching political impacts and deep-seated cultural legacies of the actions taken by the rebels, as evidenced by the most pivotal episodes in the Rising’s commemoration and the myriad varieties of heritage associated with its memory. This volume also presents a wider perspective on the ways in which conceptualisations of heritage, culture and identity in Westernised societies are shaped by continuities and changes in politics, society and economy. In a topical conclusion, the book examines the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Garden of Remembrance in 2011, and looks to the Rising’s 100th anniversary by identifying the common ground that can be found in pluralist and reconciliatory approaches to remembrance.
Few countries have been as dramatically transformed in recent years as Ireland. Once a culturally repressed land shadowed by terrorism and on the brink of economic collapse, Ireland finally emerged in the late 1990s as the fastest-growing country in Europe, with the typical citizen enjoying a higher standard of living than the average Brit. Just a few years after celebrating their newly-won status among the world's richest societies, the Irish are now saddled with a wounded, shrinking economy, soaring unemployment, and ruined public finances. After so many centuries of impoverishment, how did the Irish finally get rich, and how did they then fritter away so much so quickly? Veteran journalist David J. Lynch offers an insightful, character-driven narrative of how the Irish boom came to be and how it went bust. He opens our eyes to a nation's downfall through the lived experience of individual citizens: the people responsible for the current crisis as well as the ordinary men and women enduring it.
