Where Have All The Bad Boys Gone?

[stewiegriffin]

That's what being a politician is all about in the country, particularly in the west. Noel Treacy is a complete natural when it comes to it as well. Met him at several funerals, he still doesn't know my name, but he knows who my family are and will always ask how is so-and-so, how his Mrs X since passed away, etc. Totally clued in to the people who he has to engage with every day.

George Lee could not bring himself to do something like that, and it's learning to deal with ordinary people in ordinary situations as a politician that he was unable to grasp. You can't impose your economic vision unless you have the common touch, and until you've communicated it effectively.....

Comical So he(Noel Treacy) dosnt know you from an egg and yet you are seduced by his sincerity ! you total tool !

[Pauli]

That's what being a politician is all about in the country, particularly in the west. Noel Treacy is a complete natural when it comes to it as well. Met him at several funerals, he still doesn't know my name, but he knows who my family are and will always ask how is so-and-so, how his Mrs X since passed away, etc. Totally clued in to the people who he has to engage with every day.

George Lee could not bring himself to do something like that, and it's learning to deal with ordinary people in ordinary situations as a politician that he was unable to grasp. You can't impose your economic vision unless you have the common touch, and until you've communicated it effectively.....

It is a massive problem with Irish politics. We expect national legislators to turn up to funerals, change nappies (figuratively speaking) in "clinics" and generally be available to every ridiculous so-called need and then we wonder why the Dail sits one of the least number of days of any parliament in Europe. This is partly down to the system we have of electing TDs, which pits members of the same party against each other in constituencies necessitating the need, in the minds of the TDs, for such time-wasting clinics and is partly down to the ridiculous expectations of a politically immature electorate who don't seem to know what a national legislator actually is or should be.

[darkhorse]

Queuing in the post office the other week, who was in front of me but Pee Flynn, ex T.D., Minister, E.U. Commissioner. I was fed up waiting for the line to move along, especially as I was in the bloody wheelchair and when one is in a wheelchair, one is subjected to either pitying looks, quick furtive glances in my leg area, being spoken to IN A VERY LOUD AND SLOW VOICE by people who seem to think that the loss of motion means also the loss of hearing and I.Q., so having worked in the Dáil for 25 years, I thought I'd say hello and see how he was doing.

"Howya Padraigh", says I, giving his very nice Parka jacket a little tug. He spun round and finally located me at his knees. "Well, hello there", he said with a lovely smile. "You are looking sooo well. Tell me, how are things going now?" I was quite startled as I thought for a brief moment that he recognised me, then I thought, "God sake woman, he' a politician. He has no idea who you are."

"You're looking great", says I, and he is. Much better looking now than he used to look. Heavier build, no slimy looking hair dragged over. Tall man. Very tall, mind you everyone looks tall when you are sitting down.

Now I know the history of Mr. Flynn, and his daughter, and his in-laws and none of it makes pretty reading, but I have to tell you, that man spoke to me at length, and was so good that never once did he let it slip that he did not know me from Adam. After all, I had changed a lot in the intervening years and the wheelchair is a new affect. He told me his age, 71, where he was living now. Where he was born, a mile and a half from where I was living, (gasp) etc., etc. He had me convinced (almost) by the end of the conversation that he knew me as well as he knew the back of his hand, although we all know that Pee Flynn never let his left hand know what his right hand was doing.

We exchanged telephone numbers and he went to collect his....pension?? But you know what? I kinda felt sorry for the man. Does that make sense. There was this once well known politician, always in the hub of everything that was going on, and down, and now he was alone, in a queue, in a post office, in a small town in Mayo.

It made me think of all the other "yesterday" men. The ones who were followed by hordes of media people, who were courted by the powerful and the rich. Who had so much influence over so many lives. How do they feel when it is all over? When the "darkness" beckons?

I am an avid hater of FF. I despise them. I do. And yet I left that man, waving to me as if I was a long lost friend, feeling sorry for him. Why?

I think you just experienced a different reaction of seeing someone in a wheelchair - blind them with kind words, fake sincerity, exchange phone numbers and bye bye. Only a true professional could pull this one off with any credibility. I hope you are not expecting him to phone soon.

[Stroke]

Comical So he(Noel Treacy) dosnt know you from an egg and yet you are seduced by his sincerity ! you total tool !

Less of the personal abuse please. I only admire his political nous, and have never voter for him in my life.....

[Dodgy Bertie=Shady Mayor]

A fascinating vignette which neatly sums up why FF has been in power for so long - the ultimate exponents of insincerity and faux personal interest in their mark, while simultaneously projecting themselves as decent, run of the mill financially under-resourced citizens. Looking back over FF's cast of dodgy Taoisigh and Ministers through the years, and in particular the current ragbag, one is left with the the inevitable conclusion that had they not vacuously floated to the top in Irish politics they would have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams as self-obsessed thespians and/or as inventive con artists.
All the world's a stage and all the electorate merely suckers!!!

[staunch ff]

Queuing in the post office the other week, who was in front of me but Pee Flynn, ex T.D., Minister, E.U. Commissioner. I was fed up waiting for the line to move along, especially as I was in the bloody wheelchair and when one is in a wheelchair, one is subjected to either pitying looks, quick furtive glances in my leg area, being spoken to IN A VERY LOUD AND SLOW VOICE by people who seem to think that the loss of motion means also the loss of hearing and I.Q., so having worked in the Dáil for 25 years, I thought I'd say hello and see how he was doing.

"Howya Padraigh", says I, giving his very nice Parka jacket a little tug. He spun round and finally located me at his knees. "Well, hello there", he said with a lovely smile. "You are looking sooo well. Tell me, how are things going now?" I was quite startled as I thought for a brief moment that he recognised me, then I thought, "God sake woman, he' a politician. He has no idea who you are."

"You're looking great", says I, and he is. Much better looking now than he used to look. Heavier build, no slimy looking hair dragged over. Tall man. Very tall, mind you everyone looks tall when you are sitting down.

Now I know the history of Mr. Flynn, and his daughter, and his in-laws and none of it makes pretty reading, but I have to tell you, that man spoke to me at length, and was so good that never once did he let it slip that he did not know me from Adam. After all, I had changed a lot in the intervening years and the wheelchair is a new affect. He told me his age, 71, where he was living now. Where he was born, a mile and a half from where I was living, (gasp) etc., etc. He had me convinced (almost) by the end of the conversation that he knew me as well as he knew the back of his hand, although we all know that Pee Flynn never let his left hand know what his right hand was doing.

We exchanged telephone numbers and he went to collect his....pension?? But you know what? I kinda felt sorry for the man. Does that make sense. There was this once well known politician, always in the hub of everything that was going on, and down, and now he was alone, in a queue, in a post office, in a small town in Mayo.

It made me think of all the other "yesterday" men. The ones who were followed by hordes of media people, who were courted by the powerful and the rich. Who had so much influence over so many lives. How do they feel when it is all over? When the "darkness" beckons?

I am an avid hater of FF. I despise them. I do. And yet I left that man, waving to me as if I was a long lost friend, feeling sorry for him. Why?

Do you hate FF as much as your own failed politics ? I was in a local shop recently buying a newspaperand commented on headline to the shop owner who I know well. Jokingly I said I am staunch ff and behind this voice said that anyone who votes FF is either getting something out of it or is as thick as two planks. I turned around to see a middleaged man and asked him who he voted for. Mind your own business he said. I then told him I never got anything out of FF so this means I am as thick as two planks. He stared at me with this look of defiance and I knew then he was a Blueshirt. I would like to say I put this creep in his place but long experience of people filled with irrational hatred of FF tells me it is not worth the effort

[Dodgy Bertie=Shady Mayor]

Do you hate FF as much as your own failed politics ? I was in a local shop recently buying a newspaperand commented on headline to the shop owner who I know well. Jokingly I said I am staunch ff and behind this voice said that anyone who votes FF is either getting something out of it or is as thick as two planks. I turned around to see a middleaged man and asked him who he voted for. Mind your own business he said. I then told him I never got anything out of FF so this means I am as thick as two planks. He stared at me with this look of defiance and I knew then he was a Blueshirt. I would like to say I put this creep in his place but long experience of people filled with irrational hatred of FF tells me it is not worth the effort

"Irrational hatred" aside, how did you deduce that the middleaged man with the look of defiance, and who seemingly is none too pleased with FF, is automatically a Blueshirt? Surely there's a possibility he could be a dillusioned Green, or a former PD, or a Labour supporter? Or one of the 70% - 75% of the electorate who don't believe the current government is doing a proper job? Or even a former FF supporter who's just lost his job, or his life savings, or his pension and/or is about to lose his negative equity house?

[staunch ff]

"Irrational hatred" aside, how did you deduce that the middleaged man with the look of defiance, and who seemingly is none too pleased with FF, is automatically a Blueshirt? Surely there's a possibility he could be a dillusioned Green, or a former PD, or a Labour supporter? Or one of the 70% - 75% of the electorate who don't believe the current government is doing a proper job? Or even a former FF supporter who's just lost his job, or his life savings, or his pension and/or is about to lose his negative equity house?

When you knock on doors for a long number of years for FF and you meet only two people who admit they vote FG that tells a story. When you meet people who want to have a go a FF and you ask them who they vote for most will be honest and say they never voted FF or vote a particular way. Some Blueshirts will be devious and engage you but never admit they vote FG, the rest have what they think is a blank look but is really a look of disdain or hatred

[darkhorse]

Do you hate FF as much as your own failed politics ? I was in a local shop recently buying a newspaperand commented on headline to the shop owner who I know well. Jokingly I said I am staunch ff and behind this voice said that anyone who votes FF is either getting something out of it or is as thick as two planks. I turned around to see a middleaged man and asked him who he voted for. Mind your own business he said. I then told him I never got anything out of FF so this means I am as thick as two planks. He stared at me with this look of defiance and I knew then he was a Blueshirt. I would like to say I put this creep in his place but long experience of people filled with irrational hatred of FF tells me it is not worth the effort

You are not seriously going to stand over everything Pee Flynn has said and done over the years? I would have thought that even staunch ff'ers would dissasociate themselves from him....

[myksav]

It is a massive problem with Irish politics. We expect national legislators to turn up to funerals, change nappies (figuratively speaking) in "clinics" and generally be available to every ridiculous so-called need and then we wonder why the Dail sits one of the least number of days of any parliament in Europe. This is partly down to the system we have of electing TDs, which pits members of the same party against each other in constituencies necessitating the need, in the minds of the TDs, for such time-wasting clinics and is partly down to the ridiculous expectations of a politically immature electorate who don't seem to know what a national legislator actually is or should be.

Agreed. I do not expect a politician to fix potholes, that's the job of the County Councils/City Corporations, I expect a politician elected to the Dáil to work for the entire State not my stretch of road.
Yeah, I know, a totally naive idea for Irish politics but no matter what politico gets elected in my area the potholes haven't been fixed anyway (but that's the Councils fault).

This is probably the reason the country is in such an economic mess, the politicians were too busy getting potholes fixed and not sorting out the nations economic problems.