Bertie’s legacy no match for Puff the magic dragon

AS the eulogies poured in for Bertie Ahern from everybody and anybody who ever received a free lunch from him, I was struck by the similarities with the fire-breathing dragon in my garden shed.

I believe there is such a creature of Teutonic mythology sitting beside my lawnmower simply because I want to. You can’t see Puff, though, because he’s invisible. He can fly so there are no footprints to indicate he has been in or out.

While there is no evidence to prove his existence, I’m still entitled to believe he’s there. How does this compare with Bertie’s great legacy? Well, like the dragon, lots of people believe in Bertie’s saintly reputation. Sometimes all you need is the collective faith of many believers for something to be real.

However, like Puff, there is a distinct lack of verifiable data to back up the suggestion of many of Bertie’s colleagues and political commentators that he was a great politician. Not one of his free-lunchers has yet pointed to a single decision he made that led to a direct increase in our wellbeing.

He played a part in the Northern Ireland peace deal, but this was a process that culminated in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement after years of hard work by leaders on both sides in the North, as well as here and in Britain.

Bertie only came to power in 1997, so if he is said to have delivered peace in our land then it was only in the final signing off on the agreement.

Another personal triumph of Bertie’s: the economy? Even if he did father the Celtic Tiger, as some dragon-believers claim, then this is cancelled out by the slow death of the big cat over the past year. As far as can be seen, though, there is no evidence to suggest Bertie was responsible for the economic turnaround in the 1990s. Therefore, like Puff, who may not exist, since Bertie’s much glorified legacy cannot be proven, then it may as well not exist either.

Obviously, there is evidence that the country has changed during his time in office and that “Ireland is at peace” — but there is nothing at all to suggest he was directly responsible for any of this. Others are free to believe in the ‘Great Bertie’ narrative if they so choose, but please don’t expect the people who paid for those free lunches to believe in such a myth.

Kieran Sullivan

Georgestown

Kilmacthomas

Co Waterford