Corruption: US politician gets 14 years in prison. Ireland?

Dionysus

Former US governor jailed for 14 years

Rod Blagojevich jailed for 14 years

Blagojevich must serve at least 12 of these 14 years.


Any chance of a criminal investigation into political corruption even starting in this country? A good start could be on your man in the cupboard, in particular why did a property developer give him a house? Was the developer just feeling flaithiúil? What, for that matter, did he give his friends who raised all that other money for him? In Ireland, he receives a pension of €150k per annum. If the state cannot get him for corruption, they'll definitely get him for negligence. Remember Al Capone was got for his tax returns, not his murders.

For that matter, in May 2009 Frank Dunlop was sent to prison for two years because he effectively became a supergrass and admitted to bribing public figures. Why have none of those named public figures been imprisoned?

policarp

I would partly blame the press and media for not publishing
stories that even the dogs on the street know and as such
force the powers that be to take action. . .

orourkeda

Please somebody show me some evidence of crime of this nature in this country.

Anything?

If that exists then we have grounds on which to base some form of prosecution. Which begs the simple and obvious question, If evidence does exist why haven't we seen legal proceedings

How many other criminal prosecution oF this nature have been secured in the U.S?

lawhec

Corruption: US politician gets 14 years in prison. Ireland?

Topping the poll the next time they stand for election?

orourkeda

lawhec wrote: »

Topping the poll the next time they stand for election?

Michael Lowry - A list as long as your arm

Willie O'Dea - Libel

Bertie Ahern

Charles Haughey - Gun Running amongst other

Beverley Cooper Flynn - Tax Scam

Liam Lawlor

Jim McDaid - Drink Driving


Off the top of my head. Take a bow irish Electorate

Doc Ruby

Great thread but has anyone any particular inspirations as to what exactly we are to replace them with?

orourkeda

Dionysus wrote: »

Former US governor jailed for 14 years

Rod Blagojevich jailed for 14 years

Blagojevich must serve at least 12 of these 14 years.


Any chance of a criminal investigation into political corruption even starting in this country? A good start could be on your man in the cupboard, in particular why did a property developer give him a house? Was the developer just feeling flaithiúil? What, for that matter, did he give his friends who raised all that other money for him? In Ireland, he receives a pension of €150k per annum. If the state cannot get him for corruption, they'll definitely get him for negligence. Remember Al Capone was got for his tax returns, not his murders.

For that matter, in May 2009 Frank Dunlop was sent to prison for two years because he effectively became a supergrass and admitted to bribing public figures. Why have none of those named public figures been imprisoned?

We all have our suspicions.

The difficulty lies in providing the evidence to support and prove these suspicions. Until such time as this has been provided to the requisite standard then there are no convictions that people are seeking.

zero_hope

Ireland is a catholic country and in general Catholics are more willing to accept corruption than Lutherans. In Catholicism you could pay money to the church to have your sins forgiven. As long as Ireland remains Catholic corruption will be rife.

orourkeda

zero_hope wrote: »

Ireland is a catholic country and in general Catholics are more willing to accept corruption than Lutherans. In Catholicism you could pay money to the church to have your sins forgiven. As long as Ireland remains Catholic corruption will be rife.

You have got to be bullsh1tting?

Are you seriously suggesting that the Catholic church have now corrupted the criminal justice system too other than the cover up of the cases involving the priests?

zero_hope

orourkeda wrote: »

You have got to be bullsh1tting?

Are you seriously suggesting that the Catholic church have now corrupted the criminal justice system too other than the cover up of the cases involving the priests?

Look at countries like Spain, Italy and the whole of South America, piss poor corrupt countries that all happen to be Catholic. Now I'm not Lutheran or Catholic but it seems that Catholics on average accept more corruption and are more corrupt.

orourkeda

zero_hope wrote: »

Look at countries like Spain, Italy and the whole of South America, piss poor corrupt countries that all happen to be Catholic. Now I'm not Lutheran or Catholic but it seems that Catholics on average accept more corruption and are more corrupt.

Corruption transcends religious persuasion to my eyes and one bears little relationship to the other

Noreen1

zero_hope wrote: »

Ireland is a catholic country and in general Catholics are more willing to accept corruption than Lutherans. In Catholicism you could pay money to the church to have your sins forgiven. As long as Ireland remains Catholic corruption will be rife.

How's that?
Confession does not have a fee. It if did, it would be "Simony".

Iang87

Can we not just kill one? wait did i say kill, i mean give a nice pension to so they can slip off the public scene and live comfortably

Chuck Stone

I don't even like thinking about it because it makes me feel so powerless.

Those scum get legally binding pensions and entitlements and we get broken promises and the bill for their mistakes.

How many workers on the average industrial wage does it take to pay these incompetent fucker's pensions? Thousands?

Sea Sharp

zero_hope wrote: »

orourkeda wrote: »

You have got to be bullsh1tting?

Are you seriously suggesting that the Catholic church have now corrupted the criminal justice system too other than the cover up of the cases involving the priests?

Look at countries like Spain, Italy and the whole of South America, piss poor corrupt countries that all happen to be Catholic. Now I'm not Lutheran or Catholic but it seems that Catholics on average accept more corruption and are more corrupt.

there's a bit of a correlation there all right, but catholicism is a symptom not a cause.

lawhec

zero_hope wrote: »

Look at countries like Spain, Italy and the whole of South America, piss poor corrupt countries that all happen to be Catholic. Now I'm not Lutheran or Catholic but it seems that Catholics on average accept more corruption and are more corrupt.

All countries have corruption to some extent, Ireland's just has it corruption rise to the surface more quickly. The only part of the Western world where political corruption is almost unheard of is in Scandinavia, with Canada and Australia also having reasonably clean sheets.

I'd put corruption in Irish politics more down to cute hoorism and parochialism more than religion.

orourkeda

Sea Sharp wrote: »

there's a bit of a correlation there all right, but catholicism is a symptom not a cause.

Corruption isnt exclusive to any particular group necessarily.

ilovesleep

Thanks op for creating this thread. I wanted to create a similiar thread here for the past fortnight or so.

If you remember me posting on boards before the elections in Feb, the one and only element that I want to see and it's something that I feel very passionate about is accountabilty for what went on here in this country. I feel that if we were to see accountabilty we'll be able to take the pain of austerity more easily. There is a lot of bitterness on boards and others forums towards certain groups of people eg public sector vs private sector, unemployed, single mothers, and I can see the reasoning behind their arguements but I feel that bitterness is directed at the wrong sources. We'll all be paying dearly for the mistakes of the past except for the very group of people that led us down sh1ts creek - the very people who created the mess.

FF built this country on a hidden policy of greed for their own gains and that of their developer mates. Banks fuelled this country with cheap credit and between them all created a pyramid property scheme. The financial regulator was asleep at the wheel with no oversight as to how the banks were behaving. Many people led a life a cheap, easy credit from the banks but this unfortunately led to many taking out a mortgage that was overpriced with a paypack that was also overvalued.

The sh1t hit the fan and the nation was sold a story that the banks would have collapse overnight which led to a blanket bank guarantee which was disasterous. We were well and truly on the way for trouble by then but the bank guarantee is what eventually ruinned Ireland. The reality is that they were brewing up something long before the guarantee was issued.
We had FF in power, and due to incompetence allowed expeniture to continue as it were, probably hoping for a recovery and we now have a deficit that has spiralled out of control.

God only knows what went on under their tables and there hasn't even been so much as an enquiry into matters. Allowed to walk off free into the sunset while we pick up the pieces.

Noreen1

+1. With big fat pensions, too!

RichieC

Probably Obama house cleaning prior to the election next year.

policarp

Sean Fitzpatrick in for questioning in Bray.
Where do you want to play the next round of golf?

Dionysus

policarp wrote: »

Sean Fitzpatrick in for questioning in Bray.

"Arrested by appointment", mind you - I hope Deco in Ballyer could also have a right to be "arrested by appointment"....

It's possible, but hard, to be too cynical about the timing of these public "arrests". Remember that senior gardaí are made more senior by politicians, and politicians frequently like people to be distracted.