Bertie sending ADC to Katy’s funeral just smacks of ‘celebrity culturism’

THE decision by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to send his aide de camp (ADC) to Katy French’s funeral last Monday was a remarkable, ill conceived and most probably wrong.

I’m not alone in thinking that. I put the question to listeners to The Last Word last Tuesday and the reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly hostile.

Earlier that day we had put a question to the Government Information Services about the number of funerals Ahern has attended this year, the number he had sent his ADC to and the criteria used to select funerals that would be so honoured. No answers were forthcoming to the first two questions, but we were told that no protocols existed and that decisions were made on a “case-by-case” basis.