Bertie not in the same league as his party founder on the world stage

BERTIE AHERN’S address to the United Nations this week attracted little international attention, which was hardly surprising.

Politicians making promises are not usually very inspiring, and this was all the more apparent in his case because he was only promising to increase our overseas development aid in seven years’ time.

It is not as if the UN does not have serious problems now. The United States and Britain trampled on the UN charter in going to war in Iraq, and the UN itself has been discredited and demoralised by a massive scam that involved the secretary general’s son.