THE triumph of the liberal agenda over the chieftains and robber barons of the Haughey era is complete.

In spite of Beverley Flynn's 'class act' on the steps of the Supreme Court, the great Flynn dynasty which once ruled Mayo and Europe is in pieces.

Seven years ago Beverley Cooper-Flynn (as she was known then) was a successful bank employee and a talented politician who could have expected to enjoy ministerial office.

Today she is a ruined woman. The worst of criminals might have some chance to experience a form of redemption. That has been denied to Beverley Flynn. Her status as a woman of no repute and a political outlaw is set in stone.

No company will ever employ her again. In politics, the most she can hope for is a sort of half-life as the female equivalent of Michael Lowry. The independent career woman who was once a role model for the progressive female Fianna Fail politician has evolved into a political Blanche du Bois.

She is dependent on the charity of the Mayo electorate, her builder boyfriend, RTE and the legal profession and if the thin levels of charity which characterise the latter are any indication, then all she can expect is a bankruptcy court, the loss of her seat, the tender embrace of Justice Mahon and the Inspectors Report into NIB.

It might appear to be a heavy sentence. However, for some it still wasn't enough. The reason for this is simple.

Beverley Flynn was the last politician standing who was guilty of an intimate connection to the show-band loving, cream-suited world of the economy of the pig, the potato, the church and the chieftain.

Though she portrayed the image of a modern career woman, her personality and politics was formed by that era. And the problem with being trapped between two cultures is that you can disappear into a chasm.

Ironically, had Beverley forfeited her pride, indulged in a post-Orlando, Ben Dunne-style press conference and wept copiously as she adopted the guise of a victim of the culture of the time, she would have escaped Scot free.

Her refusal and that infamous "a Flynn will always support a Flynn" stance meant Beverley became a legitimate target of the new regime of tribunalistas.

In the aftermath of the judgement, some of the "brazen political hussy" anger was because Beverley had not accepted her status of guilty. However, no-one stopped to ask what she was guilty of.

Of course, she is arrogant. Yes, she facilitated tax evasion.

Ultimately her gravest sin was that she was not one of that powerful unelected cabal of thought police who dominate the media, the law library and politics and whose weapon of choice is the tribunal.

Beverley is an enemy of the new elite and the tribunalista is only satisfied with annihilation.

In spite of Beverley's defiance, it was still a triumphant week for the tribunalistas. It may appear that the great 'Get Bertie' project has failed. However, in another more subtle way, it has been a success.

One of Bertie Ahern's more impressive traits was a certain humanity. Last week, as the Irish Times celebrated the ending of Fianna Fail's love affair with luxuries such as due process in submitting to the new ethicists, Bertie may have lost more than he gained.

Those unreformed Mayo councillors are not an aberration. Instead they represent the electorate's growing disenchantment with an arid school of political ethics which is dominated by a small elite, costs billions, doesn't create a single job and is utterly irrelevant to the experience of their lives.

They suspect the price Flynn is paying for a minor, youthful role in an entire society's revolution against punitive levels of taxation is too high. They suspect that Beverley's enemies are no friends of theirs and that our new clergy of tribunalistas, Equality Authorities, Human Rights/Race Commissions will be as oppressive a regime as their predecessors.

Up to last week Bertie was still one of them. Not any more. Now he has joined the 'other'.

Perhaps we should not have been too surprised about the treatment of Flynn. Earlier that week due process had already taken a beating. It wasn't exactly a hard decision. Brian Curtin is the sort of soft target tribunalistas love to hunt. He is an unprepossessing, portly junior judge who has a messy personal life.

As the taoiseach basked in the new mantle of decisive interventionism, once again the polit-bureau of tribunalistas celebrated and, once again, nobody stopped to ask just how impressive a figure will Ahern cut if Mr Justice Curtin is actually innocent.

Using the majesty of the constitution to sack a judge who is not guilty would certainly provide us with some interesting precedents.

But as elections loom, the government is not in the mood to be troubled by facts. A scapegoat, any dusty old scapegoat, will do and it's all to the good that Mr Justice Curtin does not "photograph well".

However, even as we dance on Judge Curtin's grave, we should consider one point. What works for a rogue judge will be just as effective when they come for us.

Fortunately, some groups are still safe. Last week when Mr Justice Feargus Flood appeared on the Marian Finucane radio show, he might have expected to face a hard-hitting critique about the status of his tribunal which is regarded as an embarrassment by the Dail and the law library.

So did Marian ask about the ineptitude which allowed a tribunal which was supposed to resolve serious concerns about corruption as a matter of urgency to be dragged by the nose by Mr Gogarty into a morass of irrelevancy?

What do you think? Instead the judge was allowed to reminisce about his days with Paddy Kavanagh. As Marian interjected with sighs of "Gosh!", all that was missing was a throaty "Aren't you a wonderful little fellow". Public service broadcasting at its best.

In spite of all the back-slapping, last week told us a great deal about Ireland and very little of it was good. We now live in a society where accountability is only applied to those who are not one of us.

We have a legal system which offers the defeated the sole option of bankruptcy, a school of ethics which cannot rise above the cowardice of scapegoating the weak while politics has been reduced to a series of thoughtless displays of moral braggadocio.

Beverley Flynn and Brian Curtin represent the least of our worries.

- John Drennan