Who is the biggest Gombeen of them all?

Citizen_Cutback

Since the turn of the Millennium the Celtic Tiger has come and gone but the Gombeen Men who rode the Tiger are still to be seen out and about although the Gombeen-fest that was the Fianna Fail tent at the Galway Races is no more.

Wikipedia defines the Gombeen Man as follows:

A Gombeen Man is a pejorative Hiberno-English term used in Ireland for a shady, small-time "wheeler-dealer" or businessman who is always looking to make a quick profit, often at someone else's expense or through the acceptance of bribes. Its origin is the Irish word "gaimbín", meaning monetary interest. The term referred originally to a money-lender and became associated with those shopkeepers and merchants who exploited the starving during the Irish Famine by selling much-needed food and goods on credit at ruinous interest rates.

I wonder who is considered to be the biggest Gombeen of them all?

The_Honeybadger

That definition refers to a small time crook or gangster, if that was the only problem we had then we'd be fine. Our particular breed of gombeen has cost us many thousands of millions, nothing small time about that. If you are asking who is most to blame for our current mess my own personal opinion is our former leader Bertie Ahern

Citizen_Cutback

mickeyk wrote: »

That definition refers to a small time crook or gangster, if that was the only problem we had then we'd be fine. Our particular breed of gombeen has cost us many thousands of millions, nothing small time about that. If you are asking who is most to blame for our current mess my own personal opinion is our former leader Bertie Ahern

But of course you are correct but wasn't it a feature of the Celtic Tiger that the small time hoods got very big very fast?

I second Bertie!

ei.sdraob

the "im feeling lucky" button brought me to this

A Gombeen Man is a pejorative Hiberno-English term used in Ireland for a shady, small-time "wheeler-dealer" or businessman who is always looking to make a quick profit, often at someone else's expense or through the acceptance of bribes. Its origin is the Irish word "gaimbín", meaning monetary interest.

image search found this

This is very late, and it is a topic that has done the rounds - or had the runs - on practically every other blog in the country a couple of times by now... so YOU SAW IT LAST ON GOMBEEN NATION! But just for the record: here's the famous pic that appeared in Dublin's National Gallery recently, of our illustrious leader perched with his pants down, no doubt contemplating how many segments of loo roll to use in order to reduce the national debt .

The same picture, by the way, this day prompted our wonderful police force to call at the Offices of Today FM, to investigate emails sent to that broadcaster by Conor Casby, the artist responsible for the excellent work. OK, the subject is not the most promising source material, and Mona Lisa need not worry about eviction from the loo - sorry, the Louvre - any time soon. But What an enigmatic smile! What light and composition!

After RTE news had reported the mysterious appearance of the painting in Dublin's art gallery on Monday evening's news (usually it's disappearances that get all the attention), they were forced to issue an apology at the end of last night's news in case "any offence" had been caused to the subject or his family. This apparently followed a complaint by Cowen's office, who it seems were quite po-faced about the matter.

If this had happened in any other country - apart from Stalinist Russia or Hitler's Germany perhaps - it would have been ignored or laughed off by those in authority. But not in Ireland.

What exactly is RTE apologising for? Reporting the news... lightweight as it may be?

Dannyboy83

Bertie was anything but a gombeen man.


Snake, Thief, Liar, Slime, Narcissist, Psychopath, Dysfunctional, Manipulative, Dishonest, Schizoid, Paranoid.

When I think of Bertie, usually the image conjures up an array of the above words.
He was too skilled, too dishonest and too ruthless to be just a gombeen man.

Sleepy

Healy Rae springs to mind...

bamboozle

what about Michael Lowry