Bertie snubs North in Seanad
Remember the good old days in the Seanad with the likes of Bríd Rodgers, Seamus Mallon, John Robb, Maurice Hayes and Senator Gordon Wilson? Proof of Bertie Ahern's cynical attitude to the North was self-evident recently when he chose not one Northerner to sit in the Upper House.
Yet, Eoghan Harris, who vigorously defended a beleaguered Taoiseach on the 'Late Late Show', received a coveted berththe. As one Dublin Sunday newspaper put it: "The Taoiseach's shock decision to include the firebrand 'Sunday Independent' columnist in his list of nominees to the Seanad is the culmination of a long and winding political journey that has seen Harris variously embrace republicanism, Marxism, unionism, Democratic Left, Fine Gael, the UUP, and finally Bertie Ahern over the past four decades of what has been an extraordinary career."
He also appointed John Ellis who was previously a Senator when he set up Stanlow Trading Ltd. in 1985 with his brothers.
It ceased trading in 1987 and was wound up in 1993 with debts of more than 300,000 owed mostly to 80 farmers in the north-west. Joseph Walshe unsuccessfully sued John Ellis in the Circuit Court and the judge awarded legal costs against him. The wealthy Sligo-Leitrim TD sent the sheriff to Walshe's house and, subsequently, took him to the District Court to recover his costs. "There's no way Bertie Ahern doesn't know what went on," said Walshe.
"My case is bad, but it's nothing compared to the Nallys' case." During the 2002 General Election campaign, Mary Nally, a widow with 11 children, approached Bertie Ahern while he was canvassing in Sligo and handed him a letter recounting her family's dealings with John Ellis. She asked him to read the letter, which detailed how she and her late husband, John, had been left owed 14,600 by Stanlow Trading. After the election, she received an acknowledgment of her letter. That was the last she heard. "They don't really care about families like us," said her son, David Nally. "I don't expect anything else from them. Bertie put him up as a candidate at every election to be a TD. He's kept him there all these years after what he did to us. Our whole family was affected badly by it. None of us children went to college. Only four of us finished school. My mother never had a holiday in her life. There was always stress in our house."
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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