Gary Murphy
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
I think a little bit of both, Danny.
It's important because Berthier Hearn is a former Taoiseach.
Taoiseach for close to 11 years, between 1997 and 2008.
So any time former Taoiseach make interjections in public debates is probably noteworthy in itself.
And to the opposite point, I mean, Berthier Hearn is very much yesterday's man in Fianna Fáil, as I think the Taoiseach made clear today when he said Berthier Hearn didn't speak for Fianna Fáil.
Remember, Berthier Hearn hasn't
Stood for an election since 2007.
And Fianna Fáil haven't had a TD in Dublin Central since he resigned.
His brother ran
In the 2009 by-election, Maurice Ahern came, I think, fifth, getting a very poor vote.
Dublin Centre has been a bit of a wasteland for Fianna Fáil since.
So in that context, you can see why Micheál Martin probably didn't want Berkeley Ahern running as the Fianna Fáil candidate for president, although it didn't work out with Jim Gavin either.
And I suspect that this will probably dissipate over the next few days.
But it does go to the idea of whether politicians are speaking straight up when they're talking to people on the doors or whether they're sort of.
Speaking slightly, Jane is faced, as I think Bertie O'Hearn himself rather admitted today, as Louise has just told us when he clarified his remarks.
Yeah, I mean, I was a bit surprised given how experienced Bertie Ahern is that he sort of...
I fell into whether it was a trap might be a bit too much to say, but like,
he could simply have said that there was a problem with illegal immigration and that legal immigration is appropriate, which is kind of what he, I think, tried to say, but he kind of mucked it up.
But it's made it very difficult, I think, for John Stevens, because the constituency is as one, you just kind of divide a constituency between those who have strong sort of anti-immigrant views and those who might have an opposing viewpoint.
And this comes, of course, in the wake of