Brought the country from its knees?
He followed the Troikaās blueprint.
Right down to a fire sale of NAMA assets which resulted in a massive loss to the Irish taxpayer.
A right prick in my opinion.
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Whatever blueprint was followed it needed someone with balls at the top. Financially the country was in an excellent position when he left compared to the shit he had to sort when he became Minister. The Mick Mackey of Irish politics my friend
Christ.
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No, Iād have him on a par with Mick Mackey, but below Christ
Noonan was an absolute cunt and utterly incompetent in any ministry or position he ever assumed.
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His policies have created the landlord state we live in ffs.
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Thatās a load of waffle.
Look at the facts, he oversaw so many scandals. He was an incompetent cunt.
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He followed the policies laid out by FF/EU - and the dimwits hail him as some kind of messiah. Heās utter cunt - I hope he dies roaring in pain.
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He did what he was told. Big fish were looked after as per usual.
Yes - and funding to every badly needed service was cut. Heās one of the most rotten bastards in recent Irish history.
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You have to look at the facts. The country was in a much better position financially when he left, unemployment was down. Given a brief and delivered on it
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Iām a worse fool for engaging.
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Noonan is a bond holder in a German bank. Thatās all you need to know about him.
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Noonan is the reason we can borrow money at negative interest rates to pay lads to hide under the bed.
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You have to look at the facts.
Bridget McCole
Grace
Tax evasion
NAMA selling off valuable assets to private interest for a song
Noonan is a heinous individual.
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Donagh OāMalley
Prior to his introduction of free secondary school and free bus travel to school, one third of Irish children didnāt go to second level, by age 15 only 50% were still in school and by age 16 only a third were still in school. Hard to believe thatās only just over 50 years ago.
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Is it possible to admire a section of a politicians life and work without just focusing on the negative? I donāt think there is a politician out there in Ireland who doesnāt have some backage or an element you dislike about them personally from lived in experience? I imagine a fundamental political orthodoxy makes it difficult, but most people are centre left, centre or centre right in truth and most Western leaders since WWII have been like that.
I just admit that my nomination of the Australian Labor Partyās Paul Keating comes from afar and from a lack of lived experience. But as a politician I canāt but help admire him. He had a vision, he had guts and he had an ambition that was actually admirable. The 4 hour interview and subsequent book with the ABC journalist Kerry OāBrien is remarkable in my view. Itās all on YouTube btw;
In Irish terms, as a young West Brit, I never had time for Eamonn DeValera. His inward focus on culture (including his own cowardice in avoiding his favourite sport of rugby due to trying not to annoy the Celtic crusaders), lack of economic interest and lazy taking on of protectionism, lack of pragmatism and anti British approach infuriated me. The continued divorce from the North over his lifetime and emigration over his life underlined that to me. But when growing up Iāve come to a greater appreciation of his leadership style. The Emergency and Irish neutrality during WWII was not only the right decision (and I am against Irish neutrality long term), but was very well managed. He position Ireland as an Independent country diplomatically. I donāt admire him overall and would never have voted for him, but he had good points.
WT Cosgrave is similarly underserved in Ireland due to Civil War politics. As a leader, he took the weapon out of it and he handed it off peacefully, that canāt be overlooked. Sean Lemass is another who Iād admire a lot.
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Cosgrave was the best leader we had
The Irish are well regarded as pace keeping troops. That should be the height of our military activity.