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AFTER MONTHS OF speculation, Enda Kenny announced he was stepping down as Fine Gael leader on 17 May 2017.
He stayed on as Taoiseach for another four weeks, until Leo Varadkar succeeded him after beating Simon Coveney to become the new leader of Fine Gael and the country.
In the weeks surrounding his departure from office, Kenny received a number of emails and letters about his record – they were mostly positive.
The correspondence was released to TheJournal.ie under a Freedom of Information request.
In one email, a person wrote: “On behalf of myself and my family and particularly my daughter who is 7 years old and a big fan, who shed a tear this evening when she heard you were stepping down (because she thinks you’re so nice and kind not like Donald Trump who she thinks looks mean!) I would like to say thank you for your years of hard work and effort on behalf of the Irish people.
“I have not always agreed with your policies but I have always felt your heart was in the right place and your intentions honourable. I wish you the best of luck in the next phase of your life.”
Another person wrote: “You have been a Taoiseach to be proud of. You raised the country up when it was in the depths of despair.
I hope this parting is not as painful to you as it’s to me and all your faithful supporters. Thank you for all your Trojan work for the country. You will be such a loss to national life.
In another email, a person said they and their family had been Fianna Fáil supporters for decades but “broke with that tradition two general elections ago and voted for you to lead us out of the sorry mess our country was in at the time”.
“You and your ministers have brought our little country from a state of chaos and hopelessness to the country we are today with your courage and your unwavering desire to do the right thing for the right reasons.”
A woman living in Chicago emailed Kenny to ”commend” him for “two brave actions: your denunciation of church claims of immunity from the horrendous crimes of child abuse; and your speaking truth to [US President Donald] Trump over the issue of immigration”.
“My grandparents were immigrants from Ballinrobe and Swinford, so I’m an honorary granddaughter of Mayo. I’ve been proud of your courage,” she added.
Another person who was sorry to see Kenny leave wrote: “I am sad today that you have taken the decision to resign as party leader and very soon will no longer be the leader of the country.
The saying ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone’ I think will most certainly apply here.
The person commended Kenny’s “fantastic” experience at European and international leave, writing:”There have and always will been problems at home but you have steered the way through and I think it’s a huge mistake that you will not be leading and steering the country through the Brexit process.”
‘Good riddance’
Not all of the emails and letters were positive. One negative email stated: “Thank God you’re finally off … back to the bog you came from. Good riddance.
“You’ll only be remembered for all your lies, tall tales, complete arrogance and utter failure to lead this tiny country. Nice to know we forced you out in the end!”
Another person who wasn’t a fan of Kenny wrote: “Thank god you are gone. You have always looked after yourself, not the citizens of Ireland except the rich.
“Shame on you, you and your government have ripped off the new poor and the OAPs,” the person wrote, adding that Kenny should “hand back all your pensions”.
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I wish Enda Kenny well. He wasn’t perfect, but he put in a massive effort and left our country in a better state.
It is easy to denigrate, criticise, and belittle others. It is much harder to fix problems than offer opinions.
Happy Christmas.
@Paul Cuddihy: Hi Paul what did Kenny government do or Kenny himself do to turn things around?
@Paul Cuddihy: Are we now as a country , heavily in debt , a debt we will probably never escape from unless we renege on it .
This is a burden that future generations will hold , was there no other way ?
We have been sold down the river , by the likes of weak minded people like Enda .
@Ken Hayden: So of the 214 billion debt and remembering that most of Anglo debt has yet to be added – what would a strong minded leader done differently?
@lavbeer: Lavbeer , I was away at the time , so am not up with the numbers , did we have a 214 billion debt to start with , or did Ireland end up with that .
I’d love to know how this number was arrived at , it’s a lot of houses , especially when they were sold off for a lot less than this amount .
@Declan Byrne: what did you do Declan? No need to belittle Kenny just because you can’t comprehend what the government does,
@Paul Cuddihy: ah, the old “you were never in that position, belittleing the opinion” argument! I’d say he filled a space for a few years, when there were no other takers. Our politicians are a poor bunch in general anyways going by recent history, ie: state bankrupcy, part of the PIIGS in the EU, imf bailout, quadrupling the national debt.
@Paul Cuddihy: he executed the FF/troika programme, making amendments to dump the burden more on those with the least. He introduced a series of regressive budgets meanwhile denigrating two pint man and paddy…great man.
@Paul Cuddihy: yeah he was really super. Great man for Germany & France – useless on health, the homeless crisis, Garda corruption etc. Feathered his nest brilliantly. A gombeen politician for gombeen people.
@lavbeer: Like I said , I’d love to hear about it .
@Declan Byrne: u must’ve been asleep for the past 7 years
@Paul Cuddihy: he’s a second rate teacher and a good for nothing pension collector. The back of my hand to him.
@Paul Cuddihy: your a disgrace to humanity.
@frank murphy: They have concrete bollards at the top of Grafton st , is that enough .
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: Hi Shawn I worked my arse off and paid my taxes that is what I did. I didn’t be little Enda but I did genuinely ask what did the man do to turn things around ?
@frank murphy: a legend in his own mind
@Declan Byrne: shinner ya ?
@Misanthrope: our national debt went up about 40 billion (net) from saving the banks. Thats about half of the deposit liabilities of one of our banks. Genuine question, what if we let any one of them fail? Its shite we had to burden the cost but it was the least worst scenario
@Paul P O’Sullivan: we could have let Anglo collapse without any consequence to the taxpayer. That was the largest part of the bailout, 30$billion or so.
A lot of messages from those who have no clue what Enda did to those with nothing. Nothing to be proud of Enda as you collect your unearned pension……
Kenny sacrificed the working classes,the vulnerable in society,to protect bankers,corporations etc.hope to never see the likes of him again.
@@mdmak33: No wonder we only have 60 army rangers left , imagine being given the job of protecting that flake .
@@mdmak33: we have leo, he is even worse
Anybody congratulating kenny obviously has no clue about irish politics. To name just a few scandals unded his watch…record numbers of homeless and patients on trollies, record waiting lists in hospitals and garda whistleblower scandal. Then theres the apple tax saga and paying off non protected bond holders and allowing our coastal waters to be raped of all natural resources whilst he retires with x million in a golden handshake and how many pensions is it??
Ahh bless, his minions sent in sycophantic thank you notes
Someone please tell me this is a windup.
@itzme: it’s a windup
You cant keep everyone happy as Taoiseach . I am no Kenny fan however he was one of our better leaders . Very low bar to be one of our better Leaders.
@Declan Byrne: better then Bertie ,Cowen,Haughey,?
Can everyone remember what enda kenny was faced with when he came to office. Record unemployment and the countrys markets at junk bond status. He left us in a far better position than he found us
@Peter O’Donovan: No he left some people in a far better position, the majority were inflicted with more hardship which a lot of people are still suffering under Leo. He was an out and out chancer .
@Peter O’Donovan: he did f**k you numpty. The people of Ireland did all the heavy lifting – internationally things turned around for some & Kenny just held on – placating his paymasters until he was done. An abject failure of a man & a politician but clowns such as yourself just blow hot air – no substance to your comment at all. Fact.
@Setrakian:
No substance to your comment either you d**khead. Put your real name on there. What was the unemployment level when he got in and when he left?
@Peter O’Donovan: This is my real name , Ken Hayden .
How much debt is this country saddled with ?
Please tell me , how much money do we owe to the troika .
Come on , tell me .
@Peter O’Donovan: homelessness
@Peter O’Donovan: he tied a mountain of debt around the necks of our children and grandchildren. Himself and old baldy. They will curse him.
Never took a hard decision in his life and retired an abject failure on multiple pensions.
“My seven year old daughter shed a tear”
…..At Enda leaving….Tell her to cop onto herself…Santa’s coming. Jesus.
And I shed tears of joy when you were gone..
I lost all respect for kenny when he let that little french upstart pat him on the head like a puppy dog ,i would have planted him one there and then and took the consequences ,he never had balls just like the two that fought to replace him .
And I thought Leo’s pr machine was solely for his own ego.
@Trevor Beale: So true it don’t matter who’s in power or how good they are people will still ridicule them.
So even with an article on Enda , you couldn’t leave Trump out .
8000 thousand children in emergency shelters , people struggling to survive pay rents , success ?
Useless’ as the saying goes
Those who can’t do ‘ Teach
Vomit
even my 7 year old shed a tear ,ha ha ha ha,
The guy was totally out to lunch, having imaginary meetings and conversations with ministers and lads with a pint in each hand.
Worst Taoiseach ever.
Thank goodness he’s gone; not that his follow-up is any better. The States has their moron, we have ours.
Wasn’t our greatest Taoiseach but after Cowen anyone was an improvement. Much more of a manager than a leader but lead when he needed to and got the conditions right to get us out of the shitter. Ultimately we’re seeing the problems of a lost decade now though and how a medium sized city with no infrastructure and massive population growth can’t sustain itself in the boom if the infrastructure isn’t there. My Christmas wish to Leo is metro North, Dart Underground and expansion and regulations to say new developments must be high rise to curb the rental hell.
@Darren Bates: the Metro north has been given the go ahead,Murphy has said higher buildings on the way ,as they delivered on full employment fast growth LUAS north side and joined up ,childrens hospital ,maternity hospital on the way,we are entering a golden era for Ireland if we don’t screw it up ,like putting FF/SF into power and watch it all go down the toilet bowl
Plenty of trolls on this as per usual…
Honestly, I liked Enda… not here for a political debate or to justify my position.. I’m not affiliated to any political party but I just liked the guy.. he wasn’t perfect but he dedicated his life to public work which isn’t easy… yes he was paid for it but it is a hard job for which he was elected… yes he messed up numerous times but I get the feeling that his intentions were always good! I just liked him
As for the trolls, it’s easy to throw barbs from behind a keyboard.. he is at the end of the day an Irish citizen like everyone else, no need to make it personal
No fan of F.G. or F.F. when Kenny became Taoiseach with the support of the so called Labour party the writing was on the wall for the workers and ordinary Irish people. F.F.facilitated the gangesterism of the banks and developers. Kenny supported by so called Labour party endorsed their gangesterism through austerity measures, cut backs to social services, while at the same time Noonan, Nama sold this country to vulture fund companies. Kenny,s legacy… thousands homeless, Thousands in Hotel and B&B.s. accommodation , a crumbling health service scandal after scandal. His successor no better. Ironically the party that brought this country to it’s knees now keep the Thathreite Blueshirts in power. That’s Kennys legacy.
No one is totally useless, he can always be used as a horrible example.
Ruined the country and rode off into the sunset with his huge pensions just like the many parasitic leeches before him.
A brilliant Taoiseach, the best we’ve had in the last 20 years. Reduced national debt, unemployment from 14.7% to near full, increased business and credit ratings, public expenditure, increased exports leading to an export lead economy. The naysayers, begruders and ignorant will sit in their chairs and type how he did nothing only look after himself. To them I wish a happy Christmas and an enlightening new year
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