Bertie sinking in his own quicksand

WHEN the Taoiseach asks us to read each and every detail of his evidence to the Mahon Tribunal, he shows that he does not live in the same world as the rest of us.

We have neither the mental skills, the inclination nor, ironically, in affluent FF Ireland, the time. We hire legal and media professionals to pre-digest — just as we hired him to run our country.

The learned tribunal judges will write what they will write months or years from now.

Be that as it may, we are witnessing right now a man sinking deeper and deeper into a quicksand of his own making. This is not tragic high drama; it is low farce.

Commonsense drives us to one of two probable conclusions.

Either Mr Ahern is trying, very unsuccessfully, to divert attention from something or someone or he simply conducts his own financial affairs in a more than slightly fuzzy manner.

But this is not about a randomly-selected private individual’s personal matters. It is about the default thought processes of the chief executive of our Republic and the value system predominant in his (our) Government. And, as Moriarty pointed out, euphemistically but succinctly, there are problems with his understanding of the ground rules which apply to the rest of us in this Republic.

This is about all of us. None of us is perfect and without sin. Yet it is about turning a blind eye, cutting corners and bending the rules.

It is about the standards we expect — or tolerate — in a constitutional Republic which aspires to the rule of law and appropriate practice so that all its children may be cherished equally.

It is about the responsibility of free citizens won for us by long years of hard work and bitter sacrifice.

Maurice O’Connell

19 Forge Park

Oakpark

Tralee

Co Kerry