Bradley Bytes
Move along folks, nothing to see here
Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley
Fianna Fáil’s slick new election candidate in Knocknacarra, David Burke, never tires in telling us, through his press statements, that he’s a chartered accountant.
“David Burke, a Chartered Accountant and Management Consultant” is how he’s described in all press releases.
David never elaborates on where he’s a chartered accountant, or whose accounts he’s looking after.
Well, if you worked as an accountant in Fianna Fáil headquarters in Dublin, you wouldn’t exactly be shouting it from the roof-tops now would you?
But not only is he an accountant for Fianna Fáil, according to his profile on social networking site, Linkedin, he’s “Finance Director at Fianna Fáil”.
Apparently he wasn’t involved in the party’s accounts during the Charlie Haughey era of Charvet shirts extravagance and lavish spending. Nor was he in situ as the party’s “Finance Director” during the days of Bertie Ahern, when a lot of cash and sterling that was won on the horses was sloshing around.
But even still, it’s best for him to keep stum about it, to avoid any confusion or association with the party’s, ahem, colourful accounting past.
Helping hand
Previously we’ve told you about Derek Nolan, the Labour Party TD, favouring certain candidates over others (yes, we are referring to John McDonagh who is Derek’s favourite while sitting City Councillor Colette Connolly is the black sheep).
We highlighted that Derek allows his facilities to bolster the campaign of John over Colette. That hasn’t shamed him into stopping, or say, lending his support more discretely. Not a bit of it – ‘tis more brazen he’s getting!
Not a week goes by now and media organisations are bombarded with press statements from John that originate in the Derek camp. It’s a dangerous tactic – running three Comrade candidates (John, Colette and Billy Cameron) in the pursuit of holding two Labour seats could backfire.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.