Farewell
April 2, 2008
Bartholomew, classy to the end, departs. He does find the time in his resignation speech to claim credit for most good things that happened in Ireland over the past decade. He also finds time to indulge our fondness for self-congratulation - “The Irish people are innately decent and I’ve been privileged to serve them and to enjoy tremendous support.” Even better, he thanks the plain people of Ireland for praying for him. He mentions DeValera and Lemass, but not CJH.
Always the professional speaker, he works in a few jokes “I believe the secret of Fianna Fail’s enduring success is rooted in the quality of people we have as public representatives”, “I look forward to comprehensively dealing with these matters at the tribunal and robustly refuting any imputation against me” and “I look forward to the completion of the tribunal’s work and I am confident that, when it reports, the tribunal will find I have not acted improperly in any way.”
As with many topics (see house prices), more reasonable coverage is provided by non-Irish media outlets.
MSNBC: “Irish PM resigns over cash-payments scandal. Ahern denies wrongdoing after probe uncovers $150,000 in secret deposits
CNN: “Irish PM to quit over payments scandal“.
Daily Mail: “Bertie Ahern ‘took controversial payments’ when he was out of pocket over separation”
Turkishpress.com: “… Bertie Ahern, who has come under growing pressure over alleged financial irregularities …”
Guardian: “Irish prime minister Ahern resigns amid financial controversy”
If you fancy a flutter on what Bart will do next, Paddy Power are giving odds of 5-2 on him becoming the first permanent president of the EU, and 4-1 on him becoming the next president of Ireland. That makes him the favourite in both of those races. Perjury obviously does not disqualify.
Now, let’s see when / if we find out exactly who was showering Bart with such large amounts of cash, and why?
More Bart
