John Bruton RIP

Isn't it absolutely wonderful that people on a discussion programme will listen to one another, though? Where would you get it but in Ireland!

of latter-day Conor Cruise O'Brien maybe - Cruiser was a TD and Minister decades before he became a Unionist commentator!

The time between the Downing Street Declaration and the GFA was critical, and that happened under his leadership - albeit Spring in Foreign Affairs was probably more important. If things hadn't been advanced in those three years, there would have been no GFA in 1998, it would have taken years more.

Decommissioning, essential to the GFA, started under the Rainbow (and Major, for that matter) governments.

John Bruton, traditional old conservative Fine Gael before they got hijacked by the leftwing. A nice man, good politician and had the best interests of Ireland at heart, a patriot. The same cannot be said for Marxist Fine Gael today however.

A special on the day of his death? isn't that a little precipitate or was it a review of his legacy on the news, which hopefully didn'tleave the presenter with brown on their nose.

I'd expect the hagiography to be aired fairly soon nonetheless.

Most politicians are affable on a personal level, it goes with the territory and gets them votes.

It has nothing to do their politics or with whether they care about you, their constituents or the country.

On the death of a politician, if you hear commentators talking about what a nice guy they were, or how many babies they kissed, you can be sure that the pol did nothing of value during their career, or even left things worse than they found them.

Leadership is more about doing what is not popular but is in the national interest. A rare thing in Irish politics.

Unfortunately the voters wanted populism so they kicked responsible government out in 1997 and put in Fianna Fáil.

And look how many lives populism eventually destroyed in 2010. All the lives destroyed to this day.

There is a lesson here too for those thinking of voting Sinn Féin. When you vote against stability in favour of populism the price comes due inevitably.

"You can only spend other people's money until it runs out"

John Bruton head and shoulders above all the current shower of party leaders.

A decent man with solid convictions and a formidable intellect. RIP.

So it's "Irelands Call" for the National Anthem. 😀

I think in any United Ireland, the tricolour and anthem will remain.

90% of the population will insist on it.

When partition happened in 1921, there was still a huge population of Unionists in the South of Ireland. Mostly in Leinster. They were insisting on similar things then, but never got them. The Majority decided then and will decide again when there is a United Ireland.

But this is slightly misleading as prior to the crash I didn't hear many of the opposition shouting stop or calling for prudence. If Fianna Fowl had put the national interest first what would the response of the public and opposition have been to such prudence.

Tayto would cause another partition considering there's a licensor in NI that produces a quite different product.