RTÉ to broadcast feature-length documentary on the life of Denis O'Brien

It brought the whole timeline together for me nicely. Do feel a bit sorry for what happened to Sam Smyth.

Getting the mobile phone license was like a printing press for money. That phone license was worth billions. That's why I never want to argue against TD and Ministers pay. If they are paid enough to make it easier for them to behave corrupt you'll get a higher percentage who won't. The decisions they make affect everyone, and can have ramifications for decades, or generations. They are the biggest and most important CEO's in the country and have to be treated like so. Regardless of your political party of choice.

Hopefully they play as the Christmas Day film every year going forward as a reminder to the country.

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

realitykeeper wrote: »

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

That's a generalization and deflection. Does this same jealousy and thinking apply to say the Collison Brothers for example? They are now billionaires and I can't recall any instances of begrudgery towards their success, if anything it's respect and admiration. The difference between them and a Denis O'Brien type is that they became incredibly wealthy without the need for underhanded, shady and corrupt business dealings and transactions and the ire directed towards O'Brien in particular is that he thinks he can take people for fools and he isn't particularly shy about using his wealth to shut people up with litigation. Nobody likes a plutocrat after all. People aren't fools. He can say that he never handed one red cent to Lowry and that in itself is a true statement. He never physically handed over any money, cheques or cents or otherwise. So he and Lowry can continue to trot out that bull**** and continue to delude themselves that people haven't copped on to the reality of it all.

The Moriarty Tribunal showed that reality which was through a series of clandestine transactions with little transparency between corrupt intermediaries that Lowry was the ultimate beneficiary from these transactions of up to a million euro for which the ordering customer so to speak was O'Brien. So essentially, the one individual who would decide who would get that lucrative contract was gifted with a million euro by the person who, shock horror, eventually got the contract. It bears repeating. People are no fools.

realitykeeper wrote: »

The problem for Dennis O`Brien is, in a word, jealousy. The Irish cannot bare to see one of their own doing well. It is as if they see such people as rising above their station. This "How dare they!" type thinking is pervasive. The difference in the treatment of a foreign vulture fund and a wealthy Irish national illustrates this quite well.

Are you delusional? He has directly benefitted from corruption. The reason he is so rich and powerful is because of this corruption. It's quite simple really and this has been proven in court. That's what people have a problem with.

valoren wrote: »

That's a generalization and deflection. Does this same jealousy and thinking apply to say the Collison Brothers for example? They are now billionaires and I can't recall any instances of begrudgery towards their success, if anything it's respect and admiration. The difference between them and a Denis O'Brien type is that they became incredibly wealthy without the need for underhanded, shady and corrupt business dealings and transactions and the ire directed towards O'Brien in particular is that he thinks he can take people for fools and he isn't particularly shy about using his wealth to shut people up with litigation. Nobody likes a plutocrat after all. People aren't fools. He can say that he never handed one red cent to Lowry and that in itself is a true statement. He never physically handed over any money, cheques or cents or otherwise. So he and Lowry can continue to trot out that bull**** and continue to delude themselves that people haven't copped on to the reality of it all.

The Moriarty Tribunal showed that reality which was through a series of clandestine transactions with little transparency between corrupt intermediaries that Lowry was the ultimate beneficiary from these transactions of up to a million euro for which the ordering customer so to speak was O'Brien. So essentially, the one individual who would decide who would get that lucrative contract was gifted with a million euro by the person who, shock horror, eventually got the contract. It bears repeating. People are no fools.

Dennis O`Brien cannot be blamed if Ireland is corrupt. Lets say for the sake of argument that he paid Michael Lowry. Do you think he wanted to do that in order for the contract to go to himself as the best bidder? Hardly. Likewise, I refrained from building my own house back in those days because politicians are corrupt and they would want a backhander. Also, I suspect other politicians had corrupt reasons of their own to see some outsider get the contract. Also, imagine if all those billions going to the Norwegians just because we are jealous of other Irish people.

You mentioned the Collison brothers. Well they are too young to have had much of a history and their enterprise did not involve high profile state contracts with political shenanigans on all sides.

As for the Moriarty tribunal! That is a byword for corruption in itself. If a crime had been committed, they would have brought charges and let the regular courts handle it. The very fact that they used a tribunal proves Denis O`Brien`s complete innocence in these matters. Dennis O`Brien is absolutely right to bring legal action against those who slander him and the wonderful thing is that the European court of justice is there as the final arbiter.

DOB bribed a government minister. He takes his share of the blame there.



Or in a proper democratic country, he would.

Even if Michael D does go for a second term, he was never a legitimate President as far as I am concerned, not after that farce on RTE. When are they going to open the TV licence revenue to the competition, that`s what I would like to know.