THE Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said he was disappointed that in a book of 3,000 quotations and 265 pages, his 22-year contribution to political life was reduced to half a page. He was launching Ireland in Quotes: A History of the 20th Century (O'Brien Press) by The Irish Times Beijing-based Asia correspondent Conor O'Clery in Dublin on Tuesday. He read one accolade from a former colleague, however. He started to quote from Charlie Haughey, October 1991, but trailed off before he finished - "He's the cleverest, the most cunning, the best of the lot."
It wasn't only the Taoiseach who wanted to know the secret of the author's time management. What with gadding round the Far East from Japan to East Timor it is surprising O'Clery had time to produce a book. A novel with exotic locations maybe, but a modern history, hardly. O'Clery says he has read every edition of The Irish Times since the 1960s and spent three weeks over last New Year and four weeks this summer shut up in the National Library. For the earlier period he relied on contemporary history and has a house full of books to prove it. The Internet keeps him up to date. How could he do it? "Once you start you have to finish and the end of the century was looming."
The Taoiseach told the guests including Chief Whip, Seamus Brennan, Deputy Austin Currie and Senator Maurice Hayes that the book was a true classic and he hoped he would have a larger role in the sequel.
Ireland in Quotes is arranged in chronological order, starting in 1900 with John Ingram and Hannah Sheehy Skeffington and ending with Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern at Stormont last July 1st. In between, there is a lot of drama and some humour. John Charles McQuaid rails against Trinity and contraception (a curse on the country) and on the Second Vatican Council had this to say in 1965 "You may have been worried by much talk of changes to come. Allow me to reassure you. No change will worry the tranquillity of your Christian lives." Quotes from Ian Paisley, John Hume, Eamon de Valera, Gerry Adams, Charlie Haughey and Mary Robinson abound.
And there are a few funnies - "Left wing political queers from Trinity College and Telifis Eireann" - Minister for Justice, Micheal O Morain, on the Labour Party, 1981; "I have met many men of many countries and have been governor of a lunatic asylum, but I have never met anybody like him before" - Lord Granard on Dev 1934; "G'way, ye wife-swapping sodomites" - Una Bean Mhic Mhathuna to pro-divorce campaigners, 1995; "Shooting is a popular sport in the countryside . . . the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it is not confined to any one class" - Northern Ireland Tourist Board advert, 1969.