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While Senator Mary White remains on the warpath (see article here), Bertie Ahern should count himself lucky there is no currently identifiable Mrs Ahern. Senator White may have an unusual political approach to her opponents but she has hita chord on Aer Lingus. Her outspoken stance on the
The Aer Lingus decision to abandon
It was Bertie’s day in the sun. Behold the Taoiseach, applauded by priests and poets, by businessmen and actors, by princesses and prime ministers. Up there in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster, it was Bertie’s finest hour.
His predecessors as guests of honour in the holiest of parliamentary holies included Boris Yeltsin, Bill Clinton and Francois Mitterand. On Wednesday, the list of political dignitaries in attendance embraced John Major, Gordon Brown, Neil Kinnock, Peter Brooke, General John de Chastelaine, Senator Maurice Hayes. All had been players in the peace effort. They came to honour Bertie.
Sportsmen Eddie Jordan and Keith Wood arrived to bow the knee to Bertie. Ireland’s business elite in the UK greeted Bertie. BA chief Willie Walsh was there; investment banker Hugo McNeill was invited; so was designer Paul Costelloe. The Great and the Good of the Irish in England rubbed shoulders.
Suddenly, along the Royal Gallery strode the slimmeddown figure of Sean Dunne (or Lord Ballsbridge’ as he is sometimes known). One of the invited guests told me that he gasped at the sight of Sean.
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Following yesterday’s historic agreement in Belfast, tribute must be paid to the Taoiseach for his incredible achievement. Further, we should not forget former Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, one of the great unsung heroes of this agreement who took the issue by the scruff of the neck and had the nerve to do things other politicians did not.
It may be that he was not burdened by ideology, in the sense that many in all parties throughout this island are burdened. He had incredible courage and while his language of taking risks for peace was to some extent rhetorical, it was also true. Today, it is as much his creation as anybody’s.
Tribute must be paid to people here and in Northern Ireland following the extraordinary agreement reached yesterday between the two largest parties. However, one of the sad results of yesterday’s agreement is that many of the moderates have been sidelined. Whereas the extremists may have been moderated, those who have been responsible for the process have found that their parties have been marginalised.
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I wish to pay tribute to Archbishop Eames who has announced his plans to retire. It must be immensely frustrating to be a clergyman in Northern Ireland where the only weapons one possesses are words to be used against the weapons of action used by politicians and the real weapons used by paramilitaries. Archbishop Eames wielded the weaponry of words very well.
He consistently preached the gospel of peace and practised ecumenism in that he consistently joined with other denominations in an attempt to bring peace to Northern Ireland. (more…)
Reacting to comments by Senator Mary White in the wake of ETA’s ceasefire, I told the Seanad that apologies for terrorism from Government benches should not be tolerated.
I am concerned about the apologies for terrorism emanating from the Government benches. If Senator White wants to use the Seanad to praise the president of Sinn Féin and his 14 years striving for peace, she should join that party. (more…)
This country’s attitudes to Northern Ireland have moved on in the most encouraging way. The Leader [of the Seanad, Mary O’Rourke] stated that the Taoiseach’s great flexibility and the fact that he does not carry any baggage are assets. I endorse that view. We can sit back and criticise the Taoiseach for many things. However, on the issue of Northern Ireland he has a permanent place in the history of Ireland.
The reality is that whatever the setbacks, the situation improves by the day and the great tolerance the relative sides have of each other has improved immensely. (more…)
In the Seanad, I called for a debate on Northern Ireland. The problem of Northern Ireland is developing into a problem of crime. Out of the recent welcome outbreak of peace has sprung an incredible amount of cross-Border racketeering, money laundering and co-operation among the former criminals who have committed violent acts and who have diverted their energy into criminal activities of a different sort.
The Seanad should recognise the scale of that and not brush it under the carpet. I refer to pubs, hotels, bookmakers’ shops, cash businesses — diesel, springing up all over Ireland on both sides of the Border. If we ignore this we do so at our peril. I hope there is no consent or turning of a blind eye to such activities among officials of the Irish establishment.
Today the Seanad debated a Government motion on Sellafield. I am delighted this motion has been proposed because I have been tabling motions on Sellafield for a very long time in a similar, but perhaps not quite so detailed, manner.
No matter how many times motions are tabled regarding Sellafield and the danger it poses to Ireland they have little effect, and this is one of the many failures of both Houses. The Government has great and good intentions in putting forward this motion, but the end result will be the same as the motions I previously proposed and the court cases and confrontations between the Irish and British Governments with regard to the issue. (more…)
Trinity College has changed its method of calculating ‘A’-levels requirements. It will now consider results in four subjects (three is the norm). If this affects you or someone known to you, please contact me and I can explain the details of the changes and what can be done.
