Bertiespeak or Bertie-speak is a way of speaking the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

as spoken by former

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008, Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, Tánaiste a ...

. Ahern's use of Bertiespeak has been credited as playing an integral part in the

Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political developm ...

and former

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

was noted on at least one occasion to have allowed Ahern to use Bertiespeak when confronted with a tricky question posed by a journalist. On another occasion when Unionists on a visit to

Government Buildings Government Buildings ( ga, Tithe an Rialtais) is a large Edwardian building enclosing a quadrangle on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland, in which several key offices of the Government of Ireland are located. Among the offices of State located in ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

made a complaint Ahern was said to have "drowned" them "in a torrent of Bertie-speak", according to

Deaglán De Bréadún Deaglán de Bréadún, Irish journalist and author. Education De Bréadún was educated at Synge Street CBS and University College, Dublin. Work An award-winning journalist who worked for many years with The Irish Times where he held a range of ...

. References to Bertiespeak appeared regularly in the Irish media during Ahern's administration.

Will Hanafin William Hanafin is an Irish journalist, researcher, television producer and radio presenter from Youghal, County Cork. Hanafin was a print journalist with the '' Irish Examiner'' before working as a researcher on '' The Late Late Show''. He spen ...

's ''De Little Book of Bertie'', published in 2001, features numerous examples of Bertiespeak.

Description

Bertiespeak has been described by witnesses as being constructed of sentences which are "coherent and logical" when taken individually but are "calculated to bemuse and mystify" when said consecutively, with one observer remarking: "You would want to be

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

to understand it". Pat Leahy, writing in ''

The Sunday Business Post The ''Business Post'' (formerly ''The Sunday Business Post'') is a Sunday newspaper distributed nationally in Ireland and an online publication. It is focused mainly on business and financial issues in Ireland. Founding to Irish financial crisi ...

'' in 2002, suggested in relation to Ahern's speech, "one is seldom in doubt about what he means, but there is sometimes confusion over just what he is actually saying" before citing one example from a press conference during which Ahern said "neutrality is not and never has been anything but absolutely clear". ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' book reviewer Edward King described Bertiespeak as being "characterised by a combination of

malapropism A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance. An example is the statement attributed to ...

s, grammatical infelicities and general confusion" and said the following was the most famous example of Bertiespeak:

Examples of use

One example of Bertie-speak noticed by the Irish media (''

Sunday Tribune The ''Sunday Tribune'' was an Irish Sunday broadsheet newspaper published by Tribune Newspapers plc. It was edited in its final years by Nóirín Hegarty, who changed both the tone and the physical format of the newspaper from broadsheet to tab ...

'') occurred in 2003 while Ahern was addressing

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...

and referred to "the road map", the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

peace plan, as "the road crash" on several occasions. Another famous example is his call for people not to "upset the apple tart". Political opponents too have recognised Bertiespeak. Then Labour Party TD

Derek McDowell Derek McDowell (born 11 September 1958) is a former Irish Labour Party (Ireland), Labour Party politician. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1992 to 2002, and member of the 22nd Seanad Éireann from 2002 to 2007. McDowell was an unsuccessful cand ...

, speaking at the Select Committee on Finance and the Public Service on 19 April 2000, is recorded as having registered his confusion at some of Ahern's points: Speaking of media opposition to his

Stadium Ireland Stadium Ireland (commonly referred as the "Bertie Bowl") was the name of a proposed government built sports stadium in Abbotstown, Dublin, Ireland. Its nickname was due to its close association with the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. The stadium wou ...

proposal in 2002, Ahern complained: "I’ll not have it whinged to death in the press".

Book

''De Little Book of Bertie'', written by

and published by Merlin Publishing in October 2001, was the first book dedicated to Bertiespeak. As part of his research Hanafin browsed newspapers and watched television programmes which featured Ahern. Hanafin's personal favourite is: "People should stop throwing white elephants and red herrings at each other".

References

{{Reflist Bertie Ahern Forms of English

Description

Examples of use

Book

See also

References