Summary: <br> <a rel="noreferrer noopener external" href="https://twitter.com/dafyddiwan" target="_blank" data-wpel-link="external">Dafydd Iwan</a> is the former president of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party.<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="https://blog.hereshow.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Dafydd-Iwan-scaled.jpg" data-wpel-link="internal"></a><br> <br> <br> *****<br> <br> <br> <br> Bertie Ahern, we are told, had been readmitted, to Fianna Fáil. It might be better to use the term rehabilitated. <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/video/politics/2023/02/09/former-taoiseach-bertie-ahern-receives-a-standing-ovation-at-fianna-fail-event/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">Fianna Fáil activists gave him a standing ovation</a> at an event recently, it was to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, obviously chosen to focus attention on the one positive part of his time as Taoiseach.<br> <br> <br> <br> It’s worth remembering that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17500449" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">he resigned from Fianna Fáil more than 10 years ago</a>, ahead of a motion to expel him for lying to the Moriarty Tribunal.<br> <br> <br> <br> It’s the little things that trip you up, as his predecessor said. He had already brazened out the ludicrous lie that when he was finance minister, he didn’t have a single bank account himself. The fact that he was going through a messy separation from his wife at the time, who would have been entitled to look at any accounts to determine appropriate support and child support payments, is not irrelevant. That’s also a good explanation as to why he owned his house under a false name.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> When he was shown to have wads of cash in a safe that could not be explained by any other legitimate means, his only explanation for where the money came from was that he won it on the horses. Seriously, he said that with a straight face.<br> <br> <br> <br> Nobody believed him, of course, it was all obvious lies, but when the Moriarty Report said unambiguously that he was a liar, it was impossible to even pretend to believe him, he was an embarrassment to the party who had to pretend to be horrified by all this, hence the move to expel him, and him jumping before he was pushed.<br> <br> <br> <br> Anyone who has any doubts about why Ahern was pushed to the fore like this, rejoining Fianna Fáil, big events with party loyalists to celebrate him, even <a href="https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/absolutely-farcical-dcu-faces-backlash-over-honorary-doctorate-for-bertie-ahern-42338381.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">DCU giving him an honorary doctorate to the disgust</a> of many of its students and graduates, of course without the slightest pressure from anyone, if you have any doubts about why this is happening then you haven’t been paying attention, and you should note that the Áras will become vacant in two years’ time, at most.<br> <br> <br> <br> I don’t like Ahern trying to cheat his ex-wife, I don’t like his dodgy financial dealings, and I am at best amused that the dying embers of Fianna Fáil, which, let’s remember Ahern destroyed as an electoral force, I’m at best amused that the dying embers of Fianna Fáil are willing to dredge up memories of their previous incompetence and corruption to go along with their current incompetence and corruption. But don’t let me stop them from doing whatever self-harm they feel like.<br> <br> <br> <br> I don’t like any of that, but that is not the best reason to think that Ahern should be grateful to spend his retirement in well-paid anonymity, and not bother us with this nonsense.<br> <br> <br> <br> That type of corruption, the things that everyone mentioned are bad, don’t get me wrong, but they aren’t the real problem. Even at the top end, if Ahern stole ten or twenty million, like Haughey,
