Bertiespeak (moment #253)…
From Beano, who has the detail of this exchange between the Taoiseach and a FG TD from Ulster…
Advertise
-
Books
-
Total Politics: Top 20 NI Blogs…
Fair play to Iain, he managed to get over 2,200 people voting in his poll for the top Northern Irish blogs this year… We (just, I imagine) retained our top spot, with Splintered coming straight in at number 2, no doubt his pet subject du jour will have garnered him a lot of fans… I’ve [...] read our review »
-
The Irish political journalist’s problem with partial disclosure…
The nod and wink politics of Ireland’s last two or three decades as practised par excellence by Bertie, Albert and Charlie is ultimately what has the Republic in the stew it’s in. Don’t get me wrong, the effective monitoring of those exercising of power does not demand full disclosure of everything all the time. But [...] read our review »
-
The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman) – an insight into a newspaper that’s maybe not so fictional
‘news’ is often a polite way of saying ‘editor’s whim’ Given the shift from print to online and e-ink, maybe Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists was a suitable first first book for me to finish reading on the Kindle. Considering the economic pressures on the newspaper industry, his novel perhaps captures the spirit and soul of [...] read our review »
-
To be honest I don’t see the Bertiespeak.
FG TD says that there isn’t decent broadband in Cavan and Bertie says he is talking about the Republic of Ireland (as a whole) and not Cavan.
As Bob Geldof would say, Is that it?
“says he is talking about the Republic of Ireland (as a whole)”
That’s a VERY generous assumption to make. Southerners in general and Bertie especially isn’t prone to calling the state of which he is in charge “the Republic of Ireland” unless he’s trying to distinguish it from Northern Ireland, certainly not twice in quick succession, and I’m sure he would have just said “Ireland” or “Ireland as a whole” if that’s what he had meant.
or even “the country as a whole”. All of these would be more natural.
It’s hard to imagine Bertie waving away concerns specific to Dublin with similar syntax, but George’s interpretation is quite possible.
Quite a lively discussion of this at Damien Mulley’s site, as well:
http://www.mulley.net/2008/02/09/video-of-bertie-ahern-not-knowing-where-cavan-is/
That’s why it struck me as Bertiespeak… multiple interpretations possible… Also, is the TD for Cavan Monaghan no supposed to consider a national problem in light of his own constitutents?
Tardy broadband roll out is surely one of the worst failures in FF’s otherwise decent performance in government.
beano,
Bertie said:
“We are talking about the Republic of Ireland, let’s not get down to…(interruption from the floor from the FG TD Seymour Crawford I think)..We will talk about Cavan another day.”
Hardly a Bertiespeak in my view but if you see it as meaning that Bertie thought Cavan was over the border, fair enough but seeing as Bertie was saying that the Oireachtas could talk about County Cavan another day, I doubt it.
I still think it was a mistake George. On the second occasion where Bertie refers to the Republic of Ireland he does seem to emphasise the word Republic.
Perhaps Seymour is wishing for a (re)united Ulster.
Broadband would be provided.
Keep up the good work Bertie, a bit of education down there wouldn’t go a miss.