No party gifts for Taoiseach’s birthday

BRIAN COWEN turned 51 yesterday but there didn’t seem a whole lot to celebrate.

Ned O’Keeffe certainly wasn’t in the birthday mood. Once a loyal backbencher, the Co Cork man’s idea of a gift was to go on national radio urging the Taoiseach to quit and accusing him of making a mess of both the party and the country.

Then there was that unpleasant Anglo business raising its unwelcome head again. A new book featuring extensive interviews with Seán FitzPatrick revealed two more occasions in which the former Anglo boss was in contact with Mr Cowen in 2008 — the year everything went belly-up at the bank.