Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Throwback Thursday: Politics edition

From befriending Tom Cruise to stealing each other’s outfits, our politicians have done it all.

APPARENTLY THERE’S SOMETHING happening tomorrow and our politicians are too busy to post their own Throwback Thursday snaps. Like a knight in shining armour, we’ve strode in and done it for them.

You’re welcome, one and all.

1. Enda Kenny

A little known fact about our Taoiseach: he had a brief stint as a tour guide in 2002. Before he reached the highest position in the Irish government, Enda Kenny would helpfully point out landmarks in the capital to passersby, such as the River Liffey.

addtext_com_MDY0NTE3Njg2OTY Gareth Chaney / Photocall Ireland Gareth Chaney / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

2. Noonan & Co.

MINISTER FOR HEALTH MICHAEL NOONAN Michael Noonan Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Labour leader Ruairi Quinn Ruairi Quinn Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland! Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland! / Photocall Ireland!

In 1995, Ministers made a ‘go bald or go home’ pact.

ALAN SHATTER DIVORCE REFERENDUM IN IRELAND 1995 RELIGIOUS ISSUES Alan Shatter Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Oh.

3. Tom Cruise

TOM CRUISE IN IRELAND 1995 HOLLYWOOD FILM STARS Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Following his addition to the Labour ticket in 1995, the Mission Impossible actor denied he was a token celebrity candidate, insisting he would “keep it real”.

4. Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan

Mary Mitchell O’Connor was raging when Ming stole her look back in 2011*. Such behaviour is considered a major Dáil no-no.

addtext_com_MDYzNzM5Njg0MTE Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

*This was actually for charity so fair play all round.

5. Jackie Healy Rae

JACKIE HEALY RAE FIANNA FAIL ARD FHEIS 2003 SMOKERS CIGARETTES CONTROLS IN PUBLIC PLACES ANTI BAN ON SMOKING HEALTH ISSUES LUNG CANCER ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE IN THE WORKPLACE Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

This is an actual thing that happened in 2003. As far as we’re aware, ‘Micky’s Butt Squad’ has since disbanded.

6. Mary McAleese

addtext_com_MDQzMzIzNjU1OTc

Try as they might, they just couldn’t figure out his new phone.

7. Matt Carthy

SHINN FEIN YOUTH NATIONAL ORGANISER MATT CARTHY PORTRAIT UPRIGHT Graham Hughes / Photocall Ireland Graham Hughes / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

The young whippersnapper engaging in the popular 1999 game: ‘Drink from the imaginary glass’. Crazy kid.

8. Bonus Bertie material: A look back through laughter

Fianna Fáil gatherings were a barrel of laughs in the ’80s.

RAY BURKE WITH BERTIE AHERN Ray Burke and Bertie Ahern (1984) Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Bertie didn’t have the heart to tell Tony stand up just wasn’t for him.

Tony Blair Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern (1998) Joey Cleary / Photocall Ireland Joey Cleary / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Prince Philip had better luck with what was sure to have been an entirely appropriate remark.

Prince Philip British Royal Visits to Ireland Prince Philip, Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney (1998) Kate Horgan / Photocall Ireland Kate Horgan / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

This is just a caption competition waiting to happen…

So Enda, did you like our picks?

Enda Kenny Fine Gael conference at City West, Dublin (2003) Photocall Ireland Photocall Ireland

Great.

Read: From banning Galway people entering Meath to using Grindr: The evolution of election literature

Read: Fine Gael bottled water, giant floating heads and other strange sights from Election 2014

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
8 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Niallers
    Favourite Niallers
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:28 PM

    I’d imagine Cinema attendance will decline.

    92
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Beachmaster
    Favourite Beachmaster
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:17 PM

    There must be some way to link this to both Trump and Brexit

    75
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Leamy
    Favourite John Leamy
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:45 PM

    I blame Irish Water

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rochelle
    Favourite Rochelle
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:48 PM

    They’re all examples of average folk suffering due to toxic nationalism?

    36
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel R
    Favourite Daniel R
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:53 PM

    More likely an overreaching state suffering from insecurity

    39
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Poole Hyde
    Favourite Poole Hyde
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:36 PM

    Tis a bit much. Here you just get a dig in the ribs and told to stand up.

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Hugh Mannatee
    Favourite Hugh Mannatee
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 3:46 PM

    It’s a bugger really. You know that once the song is finished the bar is closed but you can’t run up fir a swift last pint out of respect. It’s a mixture of pride, obligation and acceptance. It’s like Pavlov’s dog in reverse. As soon as the first line starts my tongue goes dry.

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Driscoll
    Favourite John O'Driscoll
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 3:51 PM

    Do that to me and find yer nuts rising up through yer chest in reply.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jay Finn
    Favourite Jay Finn
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 3:11 PM

    Nationalism and patriotism, just like religion. Anything that says ‘us over here’ are different from ‘those over there.’ Humanity is obsessed with being one thing or another. Indian, Irish, catholic, Christian, Hindu, black, white, man, woman.
    Jaysus lads, we’re all human.

    41
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Driscoll
    Favourite John O'Driscoll
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 3:18 PM

    Just like all wood is wood and oak, ash, mahogany etc all a superfluous exercise in naming the same thing. Good luck making a camán out of Mexican pine or yellow deal…

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jimbo Jones
    Favourite Jimbo Jones
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 5:03 PM

    “Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in.” Doug Stanhope

    24
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jay Finn
    Favourite Jay Finn
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 6:48 PM

    Doug Stanhope, Louis CK, Bill Burr, Bill Hicks, Joe Rogan: just a few comedians who use their craft to speak truths in such a clever and funny way!

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deborah Behan
    Favourite Deborah Behan
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:46 PM

    Surely the most ridiculous legislation! Whoever went to the cinema and thought you know what there’s not enough patriotism going on here? Bizarre.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel R
    Favourite Daniel R
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 4:12 PM

    “Wherever you may seek solitude, men will ferret you out and compel you to belong to their desperate company of oddfellows.” Henry David Thoreau

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 8:53 PM

    Weird all right. Maybe there’s a fine – stealth tax – it would rake in a fine amount for a government sly enough. (I’m just slipping out to copyright an old song…)

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Andre Carboni
    Favourite Andre Carboni
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:18 PM

    this is a fine example of when leftist take it too far

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Harry
    Favourite Harry
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:36 PM

    I think you’ll find it’s generally the right that are overtly patriotic like this

    64
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute meatyslaps
    Favourite meatyslaps
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:54 PM

    @Harry: Andre has been posting sh*te like this on almost every single article I’ve read today.
    Best to be ignored, I think.

    35
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Neal, not Neil.
    Favourite Neal, not Neil.
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 3:00 PM

    Every frigging news item nowadays, somebody has to make it about left versus right. The world is more complicated than that.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john culhane
    Favourite john culhane
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:21 PM

    That’s mad Ted

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Driscoll
    Favourite John O'Driscoll
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:23 PM

    So what? Refusing to stand for a national anthem is free speech. Considering the lies some of those caterwauls and the implicit violence in them refusing to stand is a legitimate protest. Consider the appalling dirge that is this kip’s notional anthem, with the big lie in the middle about “No-oh more our ancient Si-re-land sha-hall shellturr de despot or de slaaaaave” when you look at shameful SHannon War&TorturePort and how the Ho’Lie Ground facilitates foreign despots dragging their slaves across it to destruction and damnation whether shackled to the floor of N379P and her Gulfscream sisters in an orange jumpsuit with sedatives up their bottles while Irish customs and Gardai allow their hats to fall down over their eyes making like three monkeys, or wearing Camo and desert combat boots to inflict and have inflicted upon them all manner of cowardice inhumanity and rapine, betraying dishonouring and disgracing Ireland’s cause and history.
    It is my absolute pleasure to never stand for that lie and to remain seated wherever I hear that caterwaul played. Why not swap it for Pink Floyd’s “Money”? That’d much better suit the values of Modren Direland. “I’m alright Jack keep yer hands offa maaah stack…”

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Beachmaster
    Favourite Beachmaster
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:26 PM

    Rant over?

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean
    Favourite Sean
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:30 PM

    U ok ? Xx

    34
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute canuckandgo
    Favourite canuckandgo
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:34 PM

    Go home John, you’re drunk.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John O'Driscoll
    Favourite John O'Driscoll
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 2:50 PM

    Sure nearly anyway. Just to observe that Yeats was correct then and now when he said “All that was sung / All that was said in Ireland was a lie, / Bred out of the contagion of the throng…” He would have been unsurprised to see the wreckage wrought by Irish Lies were he to see this kip today and post-2008. SNN City War&Torture Port is only a symptom of a much greater national malaise.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Allen
    Favourite Nick Allen
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 3:38 PM

    @John O’Driscoll:

    Do you need us to call you a doctor?

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Adrian Connolly
    Favourite Adrian Connolly
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 5:49 PM

    What do people think of bands playing the national anthem in pubs at the end of the night . I used to always play it but don’t anymore as I felt that in places that nobody listened to it or stood for it. Over the years I have had verbal abuse over not playing it in some places. Personally I don’t really think it belongs in a pub anymore but others think different.

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Lanigan
    Favourite Paul Lanigan
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 6:43 PM

    @Adrian Connolly: I refuse to stand when played in a pub. Too sinister

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jay Finn
    Favourite Jay Finn
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 7:02 PM

    Hated it as a young fella, and when I played in bands in pubs we often got dogs abuse for not playing it as well. Don’t think it’s a thing anymore though. Thankfully.

    3
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Chris Finn
    Favourite Chris Finn
    Report
    Dec 14th 2016, 12:33 AM

    Yeah, the national anthem being played on a plastic fdcking backing track at 4 in the morning after about ten pints was never the spirit of what the national anthem was to be used for. To anyone giving you abuse for that is pathetic, laughable, small minded, cringe and a proper embarrassment to their family and country and needs to be schooled on the spirit of a national anthem.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rockclimber55
    Favourite Rockclimber55
    Report
    Dec 14th 2016, 2:41 AM

    Don’t stop believing is the national anthem in coppers

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Wodanaz von Mises
    Favourite Wodanaz von Mises
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 4:16 PM

    Aaah yes…the mandatory statist pledge. Still around in some countries that forced ritual. All hail the holy nylon rectangle and jingle that accompanies it…or else.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ciarán Farrelly
    Favourite Ciarán Farrelly
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 7:14 PM

    Cue Father Billy O’Dwyer, a.k.a. “Spinmaster” playing Ghost Town lol.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Terry Cahill
    Favourite Terry Cahill
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 5:59 PM

    Same would apply in a few countries .. disrespect the Anthem , go to jail ! Thailand is pretty bad on stuff like that, say a bad word against any member of the Royal family , 15 years !!! They have all been in mourning since October over the king’s death, wearing black or black ribbons , afraid not to , whether or not they are genuinely sad , and yes , you stand BEFORE the movie starts for images of the king and the playing of the anthem and it would be a brave person that would refuse to do so !

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Wayne Scales
    Favourite Wayne Scales
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 10:07 PM

    Maybe they should just play India”s Call

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Darren Tully
    Favourite Darren Tully
    Report
    Dec 13th 2016, 5:13 PM
    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.