So now we're debating Bertie Ahern's legacy, and it is just getting more incredible by the day. Not only was the Irish Mother Theresa solely responsible for the Celtic Tiger and bringing peace to Norn Iron all on his own, but I guess it'll come out soon that he also fed the multitude with just 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Impressive, no?
Well if you're somebody who actively avoids the shite scrawled by Eoghan Harris in the Sindo or the chest-beating rubbish that Martin Mansergh trots out on the radio you'll realise that it's all heavily spun lies. The troubles had ended in Norn Iron and the foundations for peace were there - it didn't matter whether it was Albert Reynolds, John Bruton or Bertie Ahern in office. The extremists had grown old and the public tired of violence. Undoubtedly a good job done, but anyone in that office would have done the same.
A group of inebriated teenagers could have steered Ireland through the last 15 years of unprecedented wealth and economic growth. Contrary to now popular belief Bertie did not create the Celtic Tiger - that was a natural economic product of past policies of free third-level education and low corporation tax. Examine the three most important societal needs after all these years of prosperity, budget surplusses and overflowing bank accounts:
- A bloated, unefficient and frequently lethal "health" service where we employ more middle managers that front-line staff, headed by the most un-healthy looking toad you could ever lay eyes on.
- A monopolized public transport system where it can cost more to travel by rail than by air, and an arterial road system where we still haven't managed to connect any of our cities by (tolled) motorway.
- An underfunded school system that's "free" yet depends on donations from parents, where some school buildings aren't fit to house animals in, where we reward exam-time regurgitation and not critical thinking, and where after 14 years of 'high quality schooling' our nation can't even speak it's national language.
Think of the voting machines, the LUAS overspend, and the PPARS debacle; think of the man who called Turks "kebabs" and got appointed as Minister for Integration; the backing of Ray Burke, Liam Lawlor and Charlie Haughey as decent fellas; the new pay packet that made him the highest-paid leader in the democratic world; the iodine tablets sent to every house in the country, the millenium clock that never reached the millenium and the millenium spire that was a year late; the lies, delaying tactis, crocodile tears, cover ups and high-court challenges while under investigation for corruption.
This is your legacy Bertie Ahern. No glory, no rose tinted glasses, and no quarter. You sir, were a shitebag, are a shitebag, and will always be remembered (by me at least) as a shitebag.
