# The death of Dr Garrett Fitzgerald -RIP



## horusd (19 May 2011)

Just heard Dr Fitzgerald died. How sad is that. One of the greatest and most decent public servants to grace the public stage. We have a lot to thank this man for, decency, honesty, forthrightness and service. May he rest in  peace.


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## Ceist Beag (19 May 2011)

+1 horusd, nicely put.


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## Mpsox (19 May 2011)

He always struck me a nice decent honest and very intelligent man (and that's not something you can say about a lot of our politicians) in a bumbly mad professor kind of way. Sad to hear that this morning.


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## thedaras (19 May 2011)

Plus 1..to all the above..


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## liaconn (19 May 2011)

He was a gentleman who had more class and integrity in his little finger than a lot of our politicians have in their whole body.

RIP


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## QED (19 May 2011)

He was one of the few politicians that you would actually ask for advice and respect his opinion.


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## Tinker Bell (19 May 2011)

liaconn said:


> He was a gentleman who had more class and integrity in his little finger than a lot of our politicians have in their whole body.
> 
> RIP


 
Presumably the same little finger that signed off on a 200K loan that was written off. A little bit of balance might be in order.


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## gianni (21 May 2011)

A gentleman to the core. An honest and committed public servant who did the state more than just _some _service.

RIP and condolences to his family


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## liaconn (21 May 2011)

Tinker Bell said:


> Presumably the same little finger that signed off on a 200K loan that was written off. A little bit of balance might be in order.


 

You could not just leave this as a nice thread paying tribute to a popular former Taoiseach? I think its been lovely to see the genuine warmth and admiration being shown compared to all the negativity in politics we have had to put up with recently.


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## Yorrick (21 May 2011)

Yes. There must be no criticsm of the dead. Typical Irish. The facts are that A.I.B. wrote off a substantial amount of money he owed.
Why ?
Do you seriously believe that it was done for the benefit of the country ?

Whats good for Lowry, Haughey etc is good for Gareth.


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## salaried (23 May 2011)

Your comparing Lowry and Haughey, with Gareth Fitzgerald, Get a grip. Fitzgerald could have made that money ten times over if he was not so committed to public life, Unlike the other two who only entered in to public life to gain profit.


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## Firefly (23 May 2011)

deleted


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## Complainer (23 May 2011)

Yorrick said:


> Yes. There must be no criticsm of the dead. Typical Irish. The facts are that A.I.B. wrote off a substantial amount of money he owed.
> Why ?
> Do you seriously believe that it was done for the benefit of the country ?
> 
> Whats good for Lowry, Haughey etc is good for Gareth.





Tinker Bell said:


> Presumably the same little finger that signed off on a 200K loan that was written off. A little bit of balance might be in order.


Shame on you both. There is a time and a place for political debate. When a family (and indeed a nation) are burying a gentleman, that is not the time or the place.


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## liaconn (23 May 2011)

I agree Complainer.  Very mean minded petty posts.


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## Betsy Og (23 May 2011)

A good man no doubt, got the send off he deserved.

Strikes me as a win win for FG - get the benefit of the good feeling towards Garrett, and at the same time he's no longer there to throw a spanner into the FG works as had happened a few times in the last couple of years.

Being an Inda fan, I'd hope he'd maintain his 'striaght & true' course (not worrying too much about election promises........) and get similar plaudits in the end.


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## Sunny (23 May 2011)

Especially when the Moriarty Tribunal actually noted that he went to great lengths to pay back the money including the selling of his family home.


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## The_Banker (23 May 2011)

Sunny said:


> Especially when the Moriarty Tribunal actually noted that he went to great lengths to pay back the money including the selling of his family home.


 
Cant say fairer than that really. 

Great man RIP


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## cork (23 May 2011)

He was a decent guy. But his government to '87 were very poor.

Doubling the National Debt and over seeing massive emigration was a legacy of this government.

He was good on the EU and NI.


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## Yorrick (23 May 2011)

cork said:


> He was a decent guy. But his government to '87 were very poor.
> 
> Doubling the National Debt and over seeing massive emigration was a legacy of this government.
> 
> He was good on the EU and NI.


 

How dare you make such comments ? Don't you know that you are not allowed comment negatively about Gareth Fitzgerald. Just pretend he was the greatest and never did anything wrong with the economy, failed to stand up to Labour etc


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## Complainer (23 May 2011)

Yorrick said:


> How dare you make such comments ? Don't you know that you are not allowed comment negatively about Gareth Fitzgerald. Just pretend he was the greatest and never did anything wrong with the economy, failed to stand up to Labour etc



He had the decency to wait until the man was buried. You didnt.


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## Sunny (23 May 2011)

Yorrick said:


> How dare you make such comments ? Don't you know that you are not allowed comment negatively about Gareth Fitzgerald. Just pretend he was the greatest and never did anything wrong with the economy, failed to stand up to Labour etc



There is a difference between negative comments and cheap shots. Making it sound like he was corrupt by comparing him to haughey and Lowry was cheap. Especially when the tribunal made no such findings.


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## Bronte (24 May 2011)

Sunny said:


> Especially when the Moriarty Tribunal actually noted that he went to great lengths to pay back the money including the selling of his family home.


 
Never knew that, I always felt he was tainted when he took the banks money.  And that Ireland was a two tier society.  Those in power get taken care of when they make mistakes but there is nothing for anybody else.  Plus ca change....

Does anyone have an article about what the Moriarty Tribunal said about him?


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## liaconn (24 May 2011)

Yorrick said:


> How dare you make such comments ? Don't you know that you are not allowed comment negatively about Gareth Fitzgerald. Just pretend he was the greatest and never did anything wrong with the economy, failed to stand up to Labour etc


 
Totally missing the point. A lot of people felt a genuine warmth and admiration for Gareth the person and it has been uplifting to see a former politician being held in such high regard given how cynical we have become in this country, with good cause. 
No one is saying he never made a mistake. Just that he was an honest and decent man and he will be missed. 
Can you not let us have one nice, feel good thread about a politician?


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## cork (24 May 2011)

He was  a very decent guy. But a lot of the analysis in the media was ott.


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## The_Banker (24 May 2011)

Did he not finish his days living in the basement of his daughters house?


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## liaconn (24 May 2011)

He sold his house and moved in with his daughter. He was often seen in Dunnes in Rathmines doing his grocery shopping. Unlike Haughey he was not living in some nouveau riche palace til his dying day, hanging on for dear life to ill gotten gains.


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## Staples (24 May 2011)

The Irish Times saw fit to publish a letter the other day in which the 200K write-off was referred to so I don't see why it should be off-limits on AAM.

Apart from anything else, you might reasonably question the wisdom of borrowing so heavily to speculate in shares. 

One thing I don't get is that his house on Palmerston Road would always have been worth a multiple of the 200k he owed AIB. So if he sold his house and repaid the loan, there should have been no need for a write-off.

But I'd agree that that doesn't make him a bad person and that to mention this in the context of Haughey's or Lowry's exploits is unfair.


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## ivuernis (24 May 2011)

The_Banker said:


> Did he not finish his days living in the basement of his daughters house?



I think so, I thought he sold the family home to pay off the bank debt he owed after buying GPA stock, the remainder was then written off. Wasn't that the conclusion of the tribunal, that he attempted and did pay off as much as he could at the time.


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## Sunny (24 May 2011)

Staples said:


> The Irish Times saw fit to publish a letter the other day in which the 200K write-off was referred to so I don't see why it should be off-limits on AAM.
> 
> Apart from anything else, you might reasonably question the wisdom of borrowing so heavily to speculate in shares.
> 
> One thing I don't get is that his house on Palmerston Road would always have been worth a multiple of the 200k he owed AIB. So if he sold his house and repaid the loan, there should have been no need for a write-off.


 
Nobody is saying it is off limits. Simply pointing out that comparing him to Haughey and Lowry is cheap. 

The Tribunal conclusion

_In summary it would appear that in compromising his indebtedness with the Bank, Dr. Fitzgerald disposed of his only substantial asset, namely, his family home at Palmerston Road, a property which would now be worth a considerable sum of money. As in Mr. Haughey’s case, there was a substantial discounting or forbearance shown in Dr. Fitzgerald’s case. However in contrast with Mr. Haughey’s case, Dr. Fitzgerald’s case involved the effective exhaustion of his assets in order to achieve a settlement whereas Mr. Haughey’s assets were retained virtually intact._


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## cork (24 May 2011)

Staples said:


> The Irish Times saw fit to publish a letter the other day in which the 200K write-off was referred to so I don't see why it should be off-limits on AAM.
> 
> Apart from anything else, you might reasonably question the wisdom of borrowing so heavily to speculate in shares.



The shares were a gamble. The media went on about his head for figures but failed to mention his punt on the shares.

The loan w/off is something that many now in negative equity can only dream of.

The media also failed to mention the many tousands who left this country under the time he was Taoiseach.

It has to be noted that it was CJH with the help of Alan Dukes who got the public finances back under control.

That said Garret was a Good European who made a contribution to NI.

He was a very knowledgeable and decent man.


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## Yorrick (24 May 2011)

He also loved puppies


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## Sunny (24 May 2011)

Yorrick said:


> He also loved puppies



Why don't you just start your own thread outlining why you think he was the devil incarnate instead of hijacking one where people simply wanted to pay their respects. I am sure you laughed at your own puppies joke but the man was buried two days ago so I don't find it particulary funny. I don't care what he did or didn't do. I am still willing to wager he did a lot more for this country than you ever did despite whatever mistakes he made. For you to imply that he was corrupt shows an ignorance of historical fact that says more about you than him.


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## Yorrick (24 May 2011)

Sunny please tell me how many people who were not leaders of political parties had their loans written off by those frriendly people in AIB.  

Liaconn "Can you not let us have one nice, feel good thread about a politician? "

That naievity has us where we are .


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