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IF NOTHING ELSE, the Aidan Gillen-fronted drama about Charlie Haughey that’s been playing out on our screens for the last two weekends certainly has the nation talking.
Relatives of certain politicians portrayed in the show have been taking issue with how their family members were portrayed by the writers — while at least one well-known commentator remarked that Haughey himself was often even more irascible in-real life than in Gillen’s portrayal.
Quite a few viewers, obviously, didn’t have the pleasure of living through the events covered in the drama —- as evidenced by this surprising poll finding during the week that 23 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds would like to see ‘a character like’ Haughey in power today.
So… If you happen to have only a hazy memory of how it all came apart for the former Fianna Fáil leader, perhaps don’t read any further.
If you’re still with us, however — this is the infamous appearance by former justice minister Sean Doherty that led, finally, to Haughey’s undoing back in 1992…
To give some context… Viewers of the drama will have noted how Doherty was given the boot by Haughey in 1982 over phone tapping revelations.
Charlie — as ever, the great survivor — denied all knowledge of what had been going on, and went on to lead Fianna Fáil in opposition until it returned to power, with him as Taoiseach, in 1987.
The scandal just wouldn’t go away, however. And Haughey could no longer survive, after Doherty — in the wilderness for over a decade — made the above appearance on Shay Healy’s Nighthawks show, telling the presenter “I do feel let down by the fact that people knew what I was doing”.
Doherty later said that transcripts of secret recordings were “handed to him [Haughey] directly”.
Haughey insisted that the claims were “absolutely false”. But with the Progressive Democrats threatening to pull out of coalition, Haughey fell on his sword, resigning as Taoiseach and, after 13 years, stepping down as leader of his party.
For his part, Shay Healy has admitted he had no idea he’d been handed a scoop by the former justice minister.
“When the show was over and we were standing at the bar having a drink, Doherty leaned into my ear and said ‘In case you didn’t notice, I said something tonight that I’ve never said before’,” the broadcaster wrote in his ‘On the Road‘ memoir.
Healy’s been airing a few more recollections about the time on social media in recent days…
“Years later I was at a reception in a restaurant in Malahide and I spotted Charlie on the far side of the room,” he wrote on Facebook.
“I’d never met him and for a moment I flirted with the notion that I’d go over and say hello.
“I let discretion be the better part of valour and abandoned the idea.
I could just imagine him swiveling those hooded eyes on me and hear that rasping voice saying “Healy..you fool.. you have unhorsed me.”
Includes reporting from Hugh O’Connell.
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40% of people who live in the USA are suffering from a chronic illness of one sort or another. Think on that. That’s nearly half of the population of the USA. Pesticides, unlabled GMO foods, food riven with additives, growth hormones, ammonia, have a huge bearing on that figure of 40%. When Monsanto can place its people in the Supreme Court, and on the board of the FDA there will never be any chance of that number of 40% decreasing. The number will only rise.
@Dave Doyle: Sedentary lifestyles and too much calorie-laden, salty processed food is the cause of those problems.
Glyphosate is used just as widely in Europe as it is in the US, so there’s very little basis for your above post wrt. pesticides.
@Dave Doyle: Likely nothing to do with Monsanto or Glyphosate but to do with the adulteration of the food chain with sulphite preservatives & sulphite colorants.
Sulphur dioxide & sulphites are the only one of 14 allergens that can be legally HIDDEN in food if the levels are below 10mg/kg or 10ml/l. Imagine if same rules applied to peanuts.
The sulphites are driving chronic inflammation which we suspect is exacerbating a newly defined disease called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome that may already be an epidemic in developed nations even Ireland. The disease is an immune disease likely triggered by environmental factors such as smog, diesel exhaust, of gassing polyurethane plastics and other household chemicals we assume are safe WD40, 3 in 1 oil, deodorant propellants….very long list.
Once the genie is out of the bottle, Mast Cells within the immune system start to misidentify threats and one threat it mis-identifies are sulphites in food which are now ubiquitous. Sulphites are used to cheat on shelf life and cheat on colour.
Acute exposure by thousands of personnel to vast amounts of known sensitizer chemicals at the Air Corps at Baldonnel has left a medical trail that will be very valuable to any scientist looking to get to the bottom of this problem. Young men suffered MCAS symptoms in late teens/early 20s when the measured profile of the illness in the USA is confined 80% to middle aged women.
Monsanto is a convenient bogie man but the answer is likely simpler and happening every time we eat breakfast, dinner and tea as well as nibbles and a glass of wine.
@Chemical Brothers: A well researched, reasonable and balanced response but you’re dealing with Journal prejudice where everybody goes off pushing their own little barrow.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the primary agency of the European Union for risk assessments regarding food safety.
In October 2015, EFSA concluded that ‘glyphosate is unlikely to pose a hazard to humans and the evidence does not support classification with regard to its carcinogenic potential’.
@James Brady: Study after study has shown that is does cancer -Common weed killer glyphosate increases cancer risk by 41%, study says https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/14/health/us-glyphosate-cancer-study-scli-intl/index.html
Weedkiller glyphosate a ‘substantial’ cancer factor
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47633086
2 recent cases in US have been win by people who sued and win.
Have you ever wondered why cancer is skyrocketing why bees are dying etc
@GO GREEN: Jury Rules Against Bayer in California Glyphosate and Cancer Trial https://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/jury-rules-against-bayer-in-california-glyphosate-and-cancer-trial
@James Brady: that conlusion only came after the heavyweight German corporations got involved. The WHO has been compromised for a good few years now.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: actually, the WHO considers that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic”, inline with findings from the IARC. It’s the EFSA, completely unrelated to the WHO, that is compromised.
“The plaintiff’s assumed technical knowledge does not excuse the lack of information on the product and its harmful effects – a farmer is not a chemist.”
French judges appear to show sense. The State Claims Agency has managed to successfully argue in an Irish Court that military aircraft mechanics in the Irish Air Corps with ZERO medical training were able to diagnose themselves with chemical injure thus starting the statute clock.
SCA have argued that an Air Corps technician going to an doctor asking did chemicals harm me and doctor saying maybe or maybe not means the technician had “knowledge” that the chemicals had harmed him.
Like I said the French judge appears to have displayed common sense against a formidable corporate foe.
have your say