Which Taoiseach would you go for a few pints with?

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Never a Taoiseach obviously but I've always heard that Brian Lenihan Sr was a great pintman.

A good fella to organise a lock in apparently.

He should have been President (Ted)! But for that stupid Proportional Representation and that muppet from Castlebar, Brian would have been our great President, even while ill. People underestimated him. A fine Foreign Affairs Minister

Deleted User wrote: »

The idea of the self-hating, imperial war-glorifying Redmondite Paddy that is Lord John Bruton being in any way stimulating company beggars belief. I mean, for fúck sake - it's John Bruton we're talking about. He's just ugh - a tumescent bundle of moral hypocrisy - using violence for the political aims of the British Empire/state is noble and should be honoured but using violence for the political aim of Irish independence is morally wrong and such people should be excoriated. He has spent the greater part of his adult life enveloped in cultural cringe shame preaching this to us all - consistently shrivelling up when challenged about how ahistorical and hypocritical he is. He's also on a massive pension since the age of 34 in 1982. Last year alone that pension was €140,000. In one year. Add super parasite on our taxes to the list.

Intellectually, too, John Bruton is a dullard - as Ronan Fanning's fantastic destruction of Bruton's "history" of John Redmond showed. Still a big thick ultra-conservative Blueshirt farmer from Meath, elected by likeminded sorts and the peasant cheerleaders for the local hunt. Thickness personified. The guy seethes anti-Irishness. And don't get me started about that infamous speech to Charles Saxe-Coburg Gotha back in Dublin Castle in 1995 where the English prince was apparently somebody John Bruton "aspired to be".

Kenny and Cowen would be more stimulating company if only because both of them could talk to me in the Irish and that opens up a world all the time. Cowen, although a bit rightwing for my liking, would easily be the most stimulating company intellectually (at least until the drink took him). And I love a good song!

The idea that such a man would even consider entering a public house to have a drink with us mere Nationalist mortals , with land nothing like the size of his estate would be unthinkable.

Remember, this is a man, whose government actually was excellent, despite the low expectations. Bar the North though, Johnny Baby messed that up. This is a man who by using actual facts, riddled the aggressive Bertie Aherne during the Prime Time Leaders Debate.

Alas, it was that personality (even on that show - I was only about 12 and thought he was a moron the way he snared and mocked Bertie, even if he was correct). Dermott Morgan had a great impersonation of him, doubt it took him long to figure it out. Remarkable though, personalities can win and loose elections - look at Bertie sure. We all knew by 1992 that intellectual is not what he was - but sure, we hate that kind of stuff

Add to the fact that Burton's politics were dis-testable , that might have softened if he had Bertie's personal skills.

€140,000 a year pension is peanuts. Have you a large house in Meath, two in America, one in Brussels, one in London , one in.. (I personally am not saying Johnny Baby has that amount of houses) ? Hmmm? You should try it sometime!

To be fair, Johnny Baby got lampooned by the Irish public over his gushing. Even Prince Charles was embarrassed. At least Enda was more dignified with Queen Elizabeth II came over. Better than he crying over Riverdance when Obama came over.

Castlebar12 wrote: »

Get over it, you got a fine president out of it anyways.

Sure she was only a woman:P (as your pal from Castlebar would say)

Didn't she left early to take up some other money making job?