The shepherd’s hook, binned, given the heave-ho, on yer bike mate – whichever way you would like to coin it, Richard Bruton is out of the game. But not for very long, one imagines.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, long-time chum of Richard B, fired the party’s deputy leader on Monday after his new nemesis had made it clear that he wanted to be the new boss of the party.
To celebrate Enda Kenny’s former right-hand man’s current headline-grabbing status, here are five facts about Richard Bruton TD.
1. Richard Bruton is master of philosophy.
Technically speaking he is. A Master of Philosophy in Economics to be exact. He began his education trail in Belvedere College, then at Clongowes Wood, before heading for UCD and finally on to Oxford, if you don’t mind, where he picked up his MPhil. Talk about the silver spoon.
2. Richard Bruton worked in a tobacco factory before launching his career in politics.
After university, he had a stint at the Economic and Social Research Institute (a think tank base for eager young minds) but he took a step down for his next position. For two years Dick worked at PJ Carroll’s tobacco factory before he went into his final private sector job Cement-Roadstone Holdings plc.
3. Richard Bruton likes even numbers.
We’ve put this one at number three just to annoy him. Bruton has four children, two boys and two girls. He has held two ministerial roles, Minister of State at the Department of Industry and Commerce (23 September 1986 to 1987) and Minister for Enterprise and Employment (15 December 1994 to 26 June 1997). The list goes on but we don’t want to bore you.
4. Richard Bruton was on a winning University Boat Race team.*
While at Oxford, he fell in with the wrong crowd – the rowers. A hooligan-type of people who use oars to better each other once a year. In 1969 he was a vital member of the winning Oxford crew over their rivals Cambridge in the famous boat race. He rowed like a trooper on that particular day and it is understood that it was the proudest moment of his life to date. It was also the first time he got drunk – he had two bottles of Babysham which went straight to his head.
5. Richard Bruton is a Rod Stewart fan.
Our Dick is a Rod Stewart groupie. He’s got taste. Dick went along to the O2 in May to sing-along with the crooner but according to his blog on the official Richard Bruton website he was left slightly disappointed.
“Perhaps it would have been nicer to hear a few more encores. Some of his wonderful covers such as those of ‘Ruby Tuesday’ from the Stones or of the Australian song on the futility of war ‘And The Band Sang Waltzing Matilda’ would have crowned the night.â€
* By the way, fact 4 is untrue. JOE likes to invent at least one fantasy fact. So really, it isn’t a fact at all, although he did genuinely go to Oxford.
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