Bertie Aherne book signing in Kilkenny

t63m

"Bonfire of the Vanities" 2
Words fail me to describe this farce

Stephen

Please go to Bertie's book signing and tell him what you think of him.

Raze_them_all

Nothing but a smugg bastard that raeped the country for everything he could, got out at the right time so he can in the future say " Sher the country was in great nick when I was [strikethrough] a developer [/strikethrough] running it

catbear

I think his book is totally misunderstood. I mean the other day I was down in the book centre and they had him in the non fiction section, come on, give the struggling writer a break.
Anyway I did him a favor and moved a copy of his book up where it belongs, no 1 in the fiction section.

i heard his follow up is called "P.S. I owe you!"

t63m

Fairytales or Fantasy

Firetrap

Ugh. Now I'm no fan of the current government but Bertie and his denial/delusion about the whole thing really gets my goat. :mad:

Of course, making up stories run in the Ahern family..

fabbydabby

Of course, making up stupid stories run in the Ahern family

FYP

hobochris

Don't forget to bring some eggs to throw.

Johnnnybravo

Whens this robbing fcuker in kilkenny?? Ive a few questions for him.

t63m

Johnnnybravo wrote: »

Whens this robbing fcuker in kilkenny?? Ive a few questions for him.

Too late Elvis has left the building!!! People queued for an hour- tis too fantastic!
the usual lets all s***t green howyas were of course there wuuhuuuuuuu!

Sycophant (from the Greek συκοφάντης sykophántēs) is a servile person who, acting in his or her own self-interest, attempts to win favor by flattering one or more influential persons, or by saying lies against a fellow citizen for gaining a kind of profit. These actions are executed at the cost of his or her own personal pride, principles, and peer respect.

Johnnnybravo

t63m wrote: »

Too late Elvis has left the building!!! People queued for an hour- tis too fantastic!
the usual lets all s***t green howyas were of course there wuuhuuuuuuu!

Sycophant (from the Greek συκοφάντης sykophántēs) is a servile person who, acting in his or her own self-interest, attempts to win favor by flattering one or more influential persons, or by saying lies against a fellow citizen for gaining a kind of profit. These actions are executed at the cost of his or her own personal pride, principles, and peer respect.

did anyone confront him or how did it go down?

kdfw

Bertie's biggest mistake was that he was much too generous to the pensioners, social welfare, teachers, civil service etc. etc. etc. all those who have very short memories and who are first to complain now !!!

To be fair to him he presided over a million jobs being created, peace in the North etc. etc. etc.

iamhunted

peace in the north? changed his name to 'reynolds', 'adams' or 'hume' as well has he?

kdfw

I remember bombs going off when Reynolds was there as well as when Hume was there

iamhunted

he also presided over pulling the wool over the eyes of a lot of fools who kept voting for him, never mind Nice I and II and encouraging short term emplyment with large overseas companies rather than stimulating home grown Irish industries that wouldnt have fecked off to the cheaper countries (thanks to Nice I and II) when the going got tough.

That was a long sentence.

iamhunted

kdfw wrote: »

I remember bombs going off when Reynolds was there as well as when Hume was there

so bertie waddles in when the deals are almost done and you reckon he sorted it all? the GFA took well over 10 years to get sorted. He's as bad as John Major in reckoning he done the whoel thing himself. Pity no-one remembers how Hume got scalded in the press in the 80s for even talking to adams in the first place (which is where the whole thing started). Dont want to take this off topic, but really - Bertie didnt sort out peace in the north. thats bullsh!t.

kdfw

I would disagree with you about the multinationals. When a multinational sets up in Ireland they transfer alot of valuable expertise to locals. Alot of the home grown industries you refer to are actually started by people who have gained their experience in these multinationals especially in the ITC and medical devices industries

tinkerbell88

iamhunted wrote: »

he also presided over pulling the wool over the eyes of a lot of fools who kept voting for him, never mind Nice I and II and encouraging short term emplyment with large overseas companies rather than stimulating home grown Irish industries that wouldnt have fecked off to the cheaper countries (thanks to Nice I and II) when the going got tough.

That was a long sentence.

Very well said.

iamhunted

I would disagree with you about the multinationals. When a multinational sets up in Ireland they transfer alot of valuable expertise to locals. Alot of the home grown industries you refer to are actually started by people who have gained their experience in these multinationals especially in the ITC and medical devices industries

When you tak into consideration the tax breaks and balance that against the short-term profits to society it's not such a great deal. Where are they now I ask you ..... in eastern europe thats where. PLus you are making the assumption knowledge is only learned by companies moving to ireland rather than irish people working abroad and bringing that knowledge back.

kdfw

I'm not saying Bertie was the only one to contribute to the peace process, but to be fair any unbiased impartial person would give credit where it is due

iamhunted

i wouldnt give him any tbh. Its the same as everything he done - all for his own glory - and sod the average working gimp.

kdfw

You will always get companies that will move to lower cost countries, but that doesn't mean you should turn your back on all multinationals. Many of them have been here for 20 or 30 years

Only one Keano

Multi-nationals may serve thier own agendas but they are the only ones at this time who have the capacity to get people back in employment and help greatly to our flagging economy. So I wouldn't be slagging them off too much.

Scallion 'ater

iamhunted wrote: »

so bertie waddles in when the deals are almost done and you reckon he sorted it all? the GFA took well over 10 years to get sorted. He's as bad as John Major in reckoning he done the whoel thing himself. Pity no-one remembers how Hume got scalded in the press in the 80s for even talking to adams in the first place (which is where the whole thing started). Dont want to take this off topic, but really - Bertie didnt sort out peace in the north. thats bullsh!t.

Hear hear. Virtually all credit for the peace process goes to John Hume with an homourable mention for George Mitchell. Ahern happened to be Taoiseach at the time the deal was signed. He did nothing other than what he was well paid to do. He contributed nothing that made a blind bit of difference to the outcome.

The man is a bloody disgrace in my opinion. Roll on the Mahon tribunal report and to hell with him and the money he won on the horses.

Scallion 'ater

kdfw wrote: »

I remember bombs going off when Reynolds was there as well as when Hume was there

Yeah ... and Ahern was Taoiseach when the Omagh bomb went off so what point are you trying to make?

t63m

My Story

By Bertie Aherne

Once upon a time in an ungrateful land lived a

t63m

t63m wrote: »

My Story

By Bertie Aherne

Once upon a time in an ungrateful land lived a

an Ogra -geddit! Come on more please!

Firetrap

Two words: Property bubble.

femur61

Just looked at the Kilkenny People seemed an awful lot of people were at his book singning and the reporter must be a Fianna Fail supporter.

kdfw

Well said. At least there is someone else on this thread who understands economics

catbear

Firetrap wrote: »

Two words: Property bubble.

Then there was the sequel, what happened when the bubble burst; "NAMA Bailout". In both stories, the taxpayer gets screwed.
The gurrier was in the right place at the right time and the only smart thing he did was to get out in time.

Folks he was leader of a government that did nothing to stop predatory lenders from signing up people to lifetimes of personal debt. They did nothing to stop the gazzumping by developers in the heady days of the bubble.

And now those same lenders are been bailed out by the taxpayer and still absolutely no one has been held accountable (fired without entitlements).


If he really was patriotic he would at the very least abandoned the populist agenda coming up to the last election and promised to correct light touch (no touch) regulation on lending. He didn't because he's vain and doesn't like being unpopular. As far as he's concerned anyone critical of his living on credit economic model should go kill themselves for being so negative.

"Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don't know how people who engage in that don't commit suicide because frankly the only thing that motivates me is being able to actively change something" Bertie Ahern, 4/7/2007

How many will thank him for the opportunity to overpay on their homes and then face rising taxes to bail out the ones that engineered the bubble prices. After food, shelter is most important for sustainable society, him and his friends turned it into a game that one way or another all of society will have to pay a price for. Thanks for a futu

The reign of Bertram Ahern will be known as a vacuum of leadership. Instead of capitalising upon the gains made up to 2001, this country was turned over to gamblers and now the current government are doing everything in their power through NAMA to keep the gambling on property going.

The people kept voting for ice cream, Bertie let them have as much as they wanted, now the nation has the trots and Bertie says is all Lehman Brothers fault. He may as well blame Ben & Jerry, but he neglected his duty of leadership.

t63m

well said!

t63m

kdfw wrote: »

Well said. At least there is someone else on this thread who understands economics

On what emperical basis do you make this claim of intellectual superiority

iamhunted

Firetrap wrote: »

Two words: Property bubble.

three words - who encouraged that?

iamhunted

Only one Keano wrote: »

Multi-nationals may serve thier own agendas but they are the only ones at this time who have the capacity to get people back in employment and help greatly to our flagging economy. So I wouldn't be slagging them off too much.

Thats not the point I was raising. int he mid 90s the government should have been encouraging Irish people to run their own businesses - which they werent doing. they were handing out enterprise grants to keep people off the dole rather than to start and sustain a business. They were, on the other hand, encouraging multimationals to come over - with lots of tax incentives - and employ people on the short term. If you believe multinationals are going to pop out of the woodwork in this present eonomic climate and save the economy then I really don't know how to break the bad news to you.

You will always get companies that will move to lower cost countries, but that doesn't mean you should turn your back on all multinationals. Many of them have been here for 20 or 30 years

... and many of those have closed down. It's too expensive to do business in ireland and theres only a trickle of multinationals basing themselves here compared to, say, when Trek got themselves a nice plush business unit in Carlow for 10 years and then left once the tax breaks ran out.

kdfw

t63m wrote: »

On what emperical basis do you make this claim of intellectual superiority

Emperical ?

QED

t63m

t63m wrote: »

On what emperical basis do you make this claim of intellectual superiority

Empirical is the word we use to describe evidence that is capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment. As you have no way if establishing the "economic intelligence" of contributors to the post through either means then your point was either shot off in haste without thought or you pretend an intellectual superiority to everybody else
QED.

kdfw

I was pointing out that you spelt it incorrectly. Sorry man, I couldn't resist. Forgive me.

t63m

kdfw wrote: »

I was pointing out that you spelt it incorrectly. Sorry man, I couldn't resist. Forgive me.

Well aren't you very clever. But unfortunately wrong in fact again The spelling is correct. Try looking up the spelling in a scientific dictionary.-

The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment.[1] A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. It is usually differentiated from the philosophic usage of empiricism by the use of the adjective "empirical" or the adverb "empirically." "Empirical" refers to the use of working hypotheses that are testable using observation or experiment. In this sense of the word, scientific statements are subject to and derived from our experiences or observations. Empirical data are data that are produced by experiment or observation.
Either way people who get their jollies pointing out others spelling mistakes I hold in contempt.

Purry Cat

Most disappointed to see Eddie Keher there sucking up to him, I have to say...

catbear

Don't worry Kdfw, at least you didn't say this:
"In an interview with Kathy Sheridan in Saturday's Irish Times Bertie (for the umpteenth time) pulled the by now familiar FF fib of trying to blame everything on Lehmans.
He told Kathy that the influence of Lehman's collapse was huge only ended up saying "Lehman's TESTICLES were everywhere""

kdfw

t63m wrote: »

Well aren't you very clever. But unfortunately wrong in fact again The spelling is correct. Try looking up the spelling in a scientific dictionary.-

The word empirical denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment.[1] A central concept in science and the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses. It is usually differentiated from the philosophic usage of empiricism by the use of the adjective "empirical" or the adverb "empirically." "Empirical" refers to the use of working hypotheses that are testable using observation or experiment. In this sense of the word, scientific statements are subject to and derived from our experiences or observations. Empirical data are data that are produced by experiment or observation.
Either way people who get their jollies pointing out others spelling mistakes I hold in contempt.

I suggest that before you next jump on your intellectual high horse you should try the following

(1) Use a spell checker.
(2) Make sure your sentences are contextually correct.
(3) Refrain from using needless flowery English as it may catch you out and/or make you sound like a wannabe toff.
(4) Hold your hand up and admit if you get something wrong.

Finally take a chill pill and stop blaming Bertie for the hand that life has dealt you.

kdfw

catbear wrote: »

Don't worry Kdfw, at least you didn't say this:
"In an interview with Kathy Sheridan in Saturday's Irish Times Bertie (for the umpteenth time) pulled the by now familiar FF fib of trying to blame everything on Lehmans.
He told Kathy that the influence of Lehman's collapse was huge only ended up saying "Lehman's TESTICLES were everywhere""

Good one !!

jiggajt

kdfw wrote: »

Finally take a chill pill and stop blaming Bertie for the hand that life has dealt you.

Being rational about it and not wanting to outright demonise the chap but one thing has got us to 400000 unemployed and thats SPECULATION and there is only one man to blame for this. When developers started buying sites in a bog in offaly for 2 million euros we knew things had gone to far with the property boom but Bertie was too busy swimming in Fois Gras and champagne in the FF tent in the Galway races to realise it.

kdfw

jiggajt wrote: »

Being rational about it and not wanting to outright demonise the chap but one thing has got us to 400000 unemployed and thats SPECULATION and there is only one man to blame for this. When developers started buying sites in a bog in offaly for 2 million euros we knew things had gone to far with the property boom but Bertie was too busy swimming in Fois Gras and champagne in the FF tent in the Galway races to realise it.

I agree with you about speculation and the contribution it has made to the downturn, but I would not agree with you that this is all down to speculation and one man. I also wouldn't agree that 400,000 unemployed are all related to the property bubble as most developed countries in the world with no property bubbles are also in recession.

t63m

kdfw wrote: »

I suggest that before you next jump on your intellectual high horse you should try the following

(1) Use a spell checker.
(2) Make sure your sentences are contextually correct.
(3) Refrain from using needless flowery English as it may catch you out and/or make you sound like a wannabe toff.
(4) Hold your hand up and admit if you get something wrong.

Finally take a chill pill and stop blaming Bertie for the hand that life has dealt you.

It must be wonderful to have such a magical insight into the life of a thread contributor. The fact that you have had to resort to a personal offensive attack on me is a clear indication of your character.

jiggajt

Yes but the speculation was driven by a combination of favourable tax breaks afforded to developers, ridiculous re-zoning by the FF government and by the attitude that the good times "will never end." Bertie was at the helm throughout and as such the ultimate responsibility lies with him and history will judge him that way and no ammount of "poor aul me" documentaries will change that.

Also i would say the vast majority of the unemployed in this country were involved directly or indirectly in the building trade.

catbear

kdfw wrote: »

I suggest that before you next jump on your intellectual high horse you should try the following

(1) Use a spell checker.
(2) Make sure your sentences are contextually correct.
(3) Refrain from using needless flowery English as it may catch you out and/or make you sound like a wannabe toff.
(4) Hold your hand up and admit if you get something wrong.

Finally take a chill pill and stop blaming Bertie for the hand that life has dealt you.

I use the word empirical a lot, why say "I'll believe it when I see it" when instead I can say "empirically"?
However if you prefer wafflers, then Bertram is the man for one. I believe it was Pat Rabitte who said of him "trying to get an answer out of you is like trying to play handball against a haw-stack".

Enough of this bladder, this country is in serious trouble. Rather than the correction happening suddenly, like it did in Iceland, it's happening over a longer period of thanks to the ECB buying Irish government bonds through our banks.

The people who engineered this crisis are still with us but none have been held accountable.
I believe Ahern is a total fool, a smarter man would keep his mouth shut rather than vying with Jordan in the Christmas book sales. Pensioners may love him and queue to buy his book, but they're not in over their heads in debt. I know a lot of people who only ever had an X-factor type interest in politics who now say they would love to lynch him. These are the same people who used to say "he's one of us" etc.....
Ahern should be very afraid of those who feel most betrayed.
There may be a need for copious (another intellectual word) amounts of chill pills after the Dec. 9 budget.

Finally Kdfw, what do you fear from intellectualism, insight, self awareness or awareness of everything around you?

Before you answer, perhaps it's worth thinking about.

kdfw

t63m wrote: »

It must be wonderful to have such a magical insight into the life of a thread contributor. The fact that you have had to resort to a personal offensive attack on me is a clear indication of your character.

I apologise. I just found some of your earlier posts towards me a bit condescending and personal also.

t63m

kdfw wrote: »

I apologise. I just found some of your earlier posts towards me a bit condescending and personal also.

Your apology for the personal comments is accepted. The qualification you added as a rider at the end is however unwarranted. A study of the thread will show that at no stage was I condescending or personal in my posts. I now consider the matter closed.

kdfw

t63m wrote: »

Your apology for the personal comments is accepted. The qualification you added as a rider at the end is however unwarranted. A study of the thread will show that at no stage was I condescending or personal in my posts. I now consider the matter closed.

OK man, take care.