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Sunday, September 15, 2002
07:39 p.m.
Ireland - Bertie (and his Bowl) are cracked!
The past decade has seen Irish politics take an amazing lurch into greyness. Only the never-ending tribunals (Flood and Moriarty), picking over the era of corrupt Fenian Haughey and his hangers-on, have broken the monotony. And none have been more monotonous than 'Taoiseach' Bertie Ahern.
The failure of the first Nice referendum - a bolshie enough act on the part of the Plain People - went nowhere.
Even the abortion referendum earlier this year seemed scripted by Peter Mandelson: the fire-breathing fanatics seem to have been replaced by angsting social workers! And not a single condemnation to eternal damnation, that I heard.
Now, at last, the wheels of the donkey-cart seem in serious danger of coming off. The Bertie Bowl - that positively Gaullist example of 'Grand Projet' megalomania - is off.
The stadium was to be the centrepiece of Ireland's contribution to the 2008 European Cup (football (soccer)). This despite the fact that there is a perfectly good stadium at Croke Park already.
But Croke Park is controlled by the Gaelic Athletic Association (always referred to as the 'GAA') - a Fenian organisation whose sectarianism puts the Rev Ian Paisley somewhat in the shade. Only sports not played by Englishmen can therefore be played at Croke Park.
(The UK has released the IRA terrorists - but, as far as the bog-trotters at the GAA are concerned, the 'War of Independence' is still going on. More Catholic that the Pope? Or thicker than shit?)
The fickle finger of fate, however, has, done its work. The Progressive Democrats (PDs) - partners of Ahern's Fenians - have un-decreed Bertie's pleasure-dome (here, here and here) (the Harney worm having finally turned). The economy is not going so well. And shortly the Bowl-less Bertie will have another Nice Referendum to win (as early as next month, apparently).
Another rejection of the Nice Treaty - not unlikely, in the current political climate, perhaps - would surely be too much humiliation for him to continue. Except that, as a once-loyal bag-carrier for Charlie Haughey, he no doubt enjoys an unusually high humiliation threshold!
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