Letters

Bertie Ahern walks out of interview

‘I agreed to meet you on the Good Friday Agreement, we’ve done that, so I’m finished,’ Ahern says, before removing his microphone and walking off camera.

Tue Apr 24 2018 - 00:10

Sir, – There are two extraordinary aspects to the interview of Bertie Ahern and his walkout on German television ("Bertie Ahern walks out of interview when asked about Mahon tribunal", News, April 23rd).

The first is that Mr Ahern considers that he can ignore the findings of the Mahon tribunal by saying that the Mahon tribunal has its opinion and he has his opinion.

In other words, although he is an ex-taoiseach, he doesn’t accept the verdict of a State-run tribunal.

The second extraordinary aspect is that, when questioned about the findings of the Mahon tribunal, he said, “I’ve dealt comprehensively with that”, as if he expects that the findings of the Mahon tribunal can be forgotten by the public because he sees himself as having “dealt” with it.

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Unfortunately for Mr Ahern, I don’t think that the public has yet forgotten the verdict of the Mahon tribunal, and it will continue to influence the public perception of him for some time to come. – Yours, etc,

MARY MORRISSEY,

Castletownbere,

Co Cork.

Sir, – I am no fan of Bertie Ahern, but I thought his walkout during an interview last week was the perfect example to set for all politicians when confronted by an interviewer who thinks he or she can ask anything they like, no matter how irrelevant to the supposed subject matter of the interview. This is a staple diet of RTÉ interviews (“Can I ask you while you’re here...”) and I would urge any interviewee being harassed in this way to simply respond as Mr Ahern did. This might put some manners on the would-be Paxmans or Dimblebys on our current affairs programmes. – Yours, etc,

PEADAR O’SULLIVAN,

Carlow.

Sir, – When I read about the interview walkout by Bertie Ahern, my first thought was why it happened in a German interview rather than in an interview by an Irish journalist. Has no Irish journalist during the last 10 years ever asked him directly why a minister for finance would not have a personal bank account? – Yours, etc,

FINBAR KEARNS,

Piercestown,

Co Wexford.

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