LITTLE IVOR Callely was all on his own as he faced a jury of his peers during yesterday’s Seanad Committee on Members’ Interests. A line of empty seats on one side of him, a line of empty seats on the other and a long line of headline-hungry Senators facing him.
But it’s the way Senator Callely wanted it to be. Before the meeting, he could be seen in discussion with a group of people who accompanied him, one of them a legal eagle. But when proceedings resumed, Ivor chose to sit on his own, although he would have been well within his rights to bring in advisers.
The former TD for Dublin North Central tried to convince his interrogators that after “the trauma” of losing his seat he became a permanent resident of West Cork. He always got “a very warm welcome there”. Perhaps this is something to do with the gulf stream. By contrast, Clontarf can get a bit chilly and people who live there also have an annoying habit of ringing up Joe Duffy to report regular sightings in the area of their former TD.
Sadly for him, Ivor repeated to the committee that he was unable to go into precise details of his living arrangements for private and personal reasons. The committee said they could meet in camera, if he wished.
Ivor declined the invitation.
But he appealed to Fianna Fáil colleague Denis O’Donovan – Denis lost the party whip on Thursday after he abstained on the controversial stag hunting vote – to back up his case. Denis is from Bantry.
“We happened to bump into each other in the butcher’s shop,” Callely reminded him hopefully, with a beseeching look.
O’Donovan kept his head down and said nothing. Numbers in the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party continue to drop. Whips are being removed from members these days faster than at a police raid on a Cynthia Payne party.
But back to Ivor. A colleague recalls the day, many years ago, when he was a junior minister in a hurry and she had occasion to interview him.
Pride of place in the room was a large portrait of the man himself looking very statesmanlike and wearing an impressive gold chain of office.
“Gosh Ivor, I never realised you were lord mayor of Dublin. When was that?” she asked, standing back to better admire this work of art.
“Oh no,” replied Ivor. “That’s when I was chairman of the Eastern Health Board.” But there’s a vaguely unsettling aspect to this whole Callely circus.
Soon after details emerged of his Wast Cork “commute” and the enormous expenses filed on foot of it, some seasoned docket-fillers in Leinster House were quietly saying Ivor the Driver has the detail and documentation to prove his case – technically, if nothing else.
Yet the book is being thrown at him. Indeed, flung with great force by his own party. Will the same fate await other transgressors? And what happened to the unswerving Cowenesque loyalty that has been so apparent when the conduct of others in the party, far more senior than Ivor, has been called into question?
Technicalities and/or due process have always provided enough cause to back an errant colleague to the hilt on the plinth, and beyond.
Maybe the reason Callely’s fate is sealed is not because he tried to pull a fast one with his travel expenses (hardly a first) or because he broke the cardinal rule and got caught, but because he is both unpopular in the party and an electoral liability, and therefore expendable.
Honour satisfied all round.
HSE’s heroic chief
Dr Susan O’Reilly, the new cancer czar appointed by the Government to replace Tom Keane, has one skill which could prove useful in the HSE — she’s a dab hand at firefighting.
Last March, Dr O’Reilly rescued a 94-year-old woman from a burning house in Vancouver, earning praise from local firefighters for her “extremely heroic” actions. O’Reilly, along with guests staying with her for the Winter Olympics, rushed to the aid of her next door neighbours when their house went on fire.
“We didn’t feel heroic at the time, but we did the best we could,” Dr O’Reilly, then a cancer specialist at the British Columbia Cancer Institute told the Province newspaper, describing what happened after smoke was seen billowing from an upstairs window.
They ran outside and “met a very distressed and disoriented young man, who was burned, staggering out of the house”. One of the guests, a nurse, treated him until the ambulance arrived while another ran for help.
“I could see my 94-year-old neighbour through the window. She was fully dressed on the main floor and had just smelled smoke, but didn’t realise it was her house that was on fire.
“So I grabbed her arm and escorted her out,” said O’Reilly. “And then I ran back in to look for the stairwell but I was having difficulty finding it.” As the fire spread, “the small house was starting to fill with smoke so Donald McLennan came in behind me and we split up and searched . . . I found the stairwell first and started up it, but there were burning pieces of wood cascading down and the upstairs was a maelstrom of smoke and flame.” She knew the woman’s granddaughter and husband lived upstairs. “I was hoping if there was somebody trapped up there, they would hear a voice and use it to find their way out of the smoke. I couldn’t get up the stairs. More beams kept crashing down. Douglas and Donald were both with me then. We realised we had to get out of the house.”
However, her elderly neighbour went back into the house to look for her granddaughter, who tragically died in the fire. O’Reilly had to go back into the house and bring her out a second time.
Vancouver fire department captain, Gabe Roder, said Dr O’Reilly and her visitors “were extremely heroic” and did their best to reach the trapped woman.
“Unfortunately, the heat and smoke were far too intense and they were unable to get to her,” said Roder. “All four of them were heroes.” “It happened very, very fast,” said Dr O’Reilly. “We didn’t feel particularly heroic, but we felt we were sensible and did what any sensible people would do under the circumstances.” God only knows what she’ll make of the HSE.
Uncivil Seanad row
The Civil Partnership Bill has been proving a divisive topic in the Seanad. It led to a big falling out recently between Labhrás Ó Murchú and David Norris.
Here’s Norris last week: “Will the Leader ask his colleague Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú to withdraw the disgraceful remarks he made about 10 days ago in the House in which he compared the granting of civil and human rights to gay people in this country to the imposition of the penal laws?
“That was a most atrocious, grotesque and deliberate perversion of the truth. I say this with some authority. There was a Roman Catholic bishop in my family during the penal period and my mother’s family suffered considerably. It is an outrage that anybody should attempt to use that analogy.” He continued, referring to protesters from the right-wing group Cóir: “Yesterday, an attempt was made to interview me about Bloomsday outside the gates to this House. A group of the stormtroopers barged into the photograph and attempted to shout me down. I nearly lost my eye due to one of their placards.” Senator Rónán Mullen didn’t help matters. “I have also heard that Senator Norris blew the protesters yesterday a kiss, which was a more appropriate way to deal with objectors rather than losing one’s head in the Seanad and pretending to be upset when one is not upset at all.” Norris protested his innocence. “I did not blow them a kiss on Bloomsday,” he told us. “I did that three weeks ago.” On Wednesday, it was Labhrás’s turn to be annoyed.
“Without warning during a recess yesterday, I was subjected to unruly verbal abuse and name- calling because of a view I expressed in this House. My colleagues around me were shocked by what they heard. I do not take issue with the personal offence, but the fact that inherent in it can be intimidation intended to prevent us from expressing our views on some subject in the future.” Cathaoirleach Pat Moylan said he gathered the incident took place in the precincts of the House rather than in the chamber, but he would investigate.
The pair made their peace (of sorts) on Thursday. “If my tone was inappropriate and hectoring, I unreservedly apologise to Senator Ó Murchú, but I do not retract a single word. I would not be so presumptuous as to suggest I am Rosa Parks, but I will not be sent to the back of a bus by anyone.” Labhrás was most gracious. “I very definitely accept the apology from Senator Norris. I also accept that in future we will confine our debate to the Chamber.” The mild-mannered Cathaoirleach was overjoyed.
“I am happy that the Senators have put to bed their differences,” he smiled, whereupon everyone, bar Labhrás, cracked up amid roars of “kiss and make up” from squealing Senators.
Cork’s Jerry Buttimer was next to speak. Butsy is seldom lost for words. “I don’t know how I’ll follow that.”
Debate fit for queen
What excitement in the Seanad at the prospect of a visit from Queen Elizabeth and the rest. And how prescient of the jarveys in Killarney to fit their ponies with nappies before Her Majesty descends upon the Kingdom. For make no mistake, Kerry expects.
“I trust the visit will afford her the opportunity to experience the beauty and heritage of Ireland. That will, of course, involve a visit to the lakes of Killarney,” declared Fine Gael’s Paul Coghlan.
“It should be noted that Queen Elizabeth’s great great grandmother, Queen Victoria, visited Killarney in 1861 and was warmly welcomed in Killarney House and Muckross House. Queen Elizabeth’s itinerary, as well as including the capital city of course, should include Killarney and the southwest.”
Fianna Fáil’s Paschal Mooney put in a request. “Those of us in Co Leitrim and the northwest are living in the least spoiled and the most beautiful part of Ireland. The queen visited Co Kerry in 1861 and it should give the rest of the country some chance 150 years later.” Furthermore, he said his wife comes from west Cork, which is even more beautiful than Killarney.
“I don’t mind whether the queen goes to Co Leitrim or to Co Kerry as long as she starts off in Co Meath” said Labour’s Dominic Hannigan, before inviting the queen to Bellewstown Races.
She should visit Galway, insisted the Green’s Niall O’Brolcháin. Tipperary and Coolmore Stud, said John Hanafin.
His sister, Mary Hanafin, got involved at a meeting of the tourism committee. She suggested the queen could go on a “corgis go-free holiday” and as she is over 66 she would qualify for the golden trekkers free rail travel. FG’s Olivia Mitchell thought it a great idea, except that the corgis wouldn’t spend any money. Only a year and a half of this to go . . .
Kenny’s rallying call
Enda Kenny was in tub-thumping mode as he preached to the party faithful at the selection convention in Carlow this week.
FG has only one seat out of five in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency, by contrast with Kenny’s home base of Mayo where, apart from the leader himself, the party has two other TDs, John O’Mahony and the redoubtable Michael Ring.
Kenny attributed this success to the intense competition between the three Fine Gael TDs for Mayo and said: “If the dog does his natural duty on the street corner, either O’Mahony is on the radio about it, or Ring has the bloody thing cleaned up before I get there myself.”
All frills Rabbitte
And now, news of the bright young things. You know – those social butterflies who frequent Krystle nightclub and get their pictures in the newspapers a lot. The Glendas and Rosannas and Rabbittes of this world.
Oh, that Pat Rabbitte. He can’t pass a red carpet without putting on a pout. There he was last Friday night, in his element in Krystle with the rest of the false tan brigade, not so much Sex and the City as Sex and the socialist as he made the runway his own at a high-class fashion show.
The thing about Pat is that he can talk about anything and sound like he understands it. As in “handmade in 100 per cent silk with built in corsets and cups”. Of course, he hadn’t a clue.
But the crowd loved him and the models thought he was divine.
This was the former Labour leader’s first time in the popular club and he was there to help his niece, Nadia Gaughran, launch her Coutureonline.ie designer clothes shop.
Populist Pat (Eamon Gilmore has them all under orders in this regard) gamely agreed to MC a fashion show featuring the designer special occasion dresses sourced in Paris by Nadia for her online store. She has also opened fitting rooms in Exchequer Street for customers who prefer to try before they buy.
As for Pat, he didn’t stick around for the after show reception in the penthouse. However, we hear he’s been boring his political colleagues all week with his views on built-in corsets.