That was quick. The Real Bertie Ahern Office.

• Kidney confirmed as Ireland coach. Quality photoshop.
• Boards.ie - as ever, the questions that really matter: Ok I was just thinking, at what distance away would a person be that you would stop holding a door open, like in a shopping centre etc… Its happened to me so many times that you look back and think I’ll hold the door open for this person and they take AGES to get to the door and your left feeling like a bit of a tool just waiting. At what point is it acceptable to just say feck it and not hold the door open
• Dáil elects Cowen as State’s 12th Taoiseach. Is there gonna be a Gordon Brown style backlash? How can he live up to the standards set before him? I hope he’s closed all his bank accounts at the very least.
• A short video to highlight the fact that the Irish government and E.U. want to ban all vitamin supplements.:
  

Dats Life: Bertie’s Farewell Song - Gift Grub:

And a brief Bertie quip on Bremner, Bird & Fortune:

BA: Can I steal your line Arnold?
Arnold: I’m detective John Kimble!
BA: Ah go on…You know, the famous one.
Arnold: ‘I’ll be back’
BA: YEAH!
Arnold: No.
BA: Ah go on.
Arnold: No. Here’s how it works, money goes in. Favors go out. The people lose. We need to send a message. Game over.

[RTE.ie] End of an Era: Bertie Ahern.

Arnold Schwarzenegger sound board. (The money quote is on the right, click Money in, favors out…)

Damien Mulley, Irish blogging hero, has created takeendawithyou.com. Quite right too. My ridiculous contribution:

See? Actually, the analogy doesn’t really work does it? Or does it? Whatever… Enda is still a tit.

Found at Maman Poulet.

This post is being updated throughout the day…

Video of Bertie’s resignation speech is here.

I miss him all ready.

1. A huge number of the legendary curry chips photoshops of Bertie are now even more relevant [like the above].
2. Politics.ie has over 200 comments already. We all know that PoliticsDotBertDotieGate is the real reason he’s going.
3. The full Bertie resignation speech is now up on RTE.IE but Shane Hegarty’s scathing version is more fun.
4. The Ciarán Cuffe reaction is very detailed and impressive. Oh wait.
5. The Wikipedia edits are now complete.
6. Damien Mulley has the first few reaction youtube’s up.
7. Views from the Emerald Isle believes it may have been his advice that was partly responsible for Bertie’s departure.
8. Irish dictator resigns. Huh?
9. Hanafin almost certain to run for FF leadership…P.ie speculation is in full swing…
10. John Gormley’s statement is up on the Green Party site.
11. The BBC.co.uk reactions page is good for a round-up of what politicians are saying.
12. Very relevant job ad up on recruitireland.com.
13. Best headline of the whole thing goes to The Chancer: Mayor Of Chancerdom Takes A Hike, Having Rode Modern Ireland (And Your Ma) Senseless
14. Leave Bertie A Loan - a musical interlude over on Nialler9.
15. Youtube: Ballybough loves Bertie

General news articles:

Ireland.com: Taoiseach to tender resignation on May 6th.
Independent.ie: Ahern to resign as Taoiseach and FF leader on May 6th
BBC.co.uk: Ahern to resign as Irish premier
Enda “pointless” Kenny has some reaction.

…Solely a personal decision…

…Recent developments have not motivated my decision…

…One truth above all else…never in all my time in public life have I ever put my personal interests a public good…

I’ve never received a corrupt payment…

So he’s leaving on:

Tuesday 6th May 2008

If you were trying to watch/listen live, I found the RTE streams [live and radio] a bit unreliable.

Was listening on newstalk .

So that’s it then…the wikipedia guys are already updating his entry.

More:

[Boards.ie] Bertie Ahern to announce his departure date!

‘Artivist’ Will St Leger placed £50,000 worth of fake ‘Bertie’ cash in the baskets of Molly Malone’s statue on the 31st March. The36-year-old street artist filled the baskets of the well-known Dublin monument with one hundred £500 bills that depict image of a JCB tipping Celtic designs into a skip and a portrait of the embattled Taoiseach. The artist says that this art intervention was in protest to the destruction of the Hill of Tara and a culture of greed.

Artivist? Really?

Found over on Captain Mulley’s flufftacular. (It’s hurting our feelings that we keep getting called Soggy Biscuit.)

Politics.ie owner and operator David Cochrane received a letter from Frank Ward & Company, solicitors representing Bertie asking for the full disclosure on a number of users who contributed to a discussion entitled Grainne Carruth and Frank Ward on the site. The post apparently contained, according to Cochrane:

…allegations about a Tribunal witness and a firm of solicitors, those comments were inaccurate, untrue and were malicious…

The full text of the letter from Frank Ward & Company is available here.

The owner moved quickly, and Politics.ie is now hosted in the United States.

One of the users who’s details have been requested by Frank Ward & Company has a post up at his blog about the issue.

IrishElection.com have a large piece up about it.

Damien Mulley has a post about it too.

So our leader, our Taoiseach, lies under oath. He may say he ‘forgot’ to the tell the tribunal about sterling. But this does not cut it. Sterling went into his personal accounts, and he never told the Tribunal. He thought they would never find out about it for lack of documentary evidence. But unfortunately for him, the evidence turned up. Now he is caught.

Required reading over at Gavin’s Blog: A Conspiracy of Silence.

For Christs sake, this isn’t all just so we can draw cartoons. It’s game over.

Also: Type fail into Google.