Oh, you mean that Sean South....!

limerick | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Friday November 24, 2006 11:55

by Jimmy Woulfe - Irish Examiner 16 November 2006

O’Dea pulls out of launch for IRA man’s biography

DEFENCE MINISTER Willie O’Dea was at the centre of another embarrassing gaffe last night after it was claimed he was forced to pull out of the launch of the biography of the famed Limerick IRA man Sean South of Garryowen.

The minister, who is also from Limerick, withdrew from the event claiming he did not realise who the book was about when he agreed to do the launch. The biography by Des Fogerty is entitled Sean South of Garryowen.

Another gaffe for accident prone minister

Mr O’Dea rejected claims by the family that he came under pressure from his own officials to pull out.

Sean South, whose death inspired a famous rebel ballad, was shot dead along with another IRA man, Fergal O’Hanlon, during an attack on the RUC barracks in Brookeborough, in January 1957.

Mr O’Dea said: “I thought the book I was to launch was about somebody else.”

However, Owen South, a well-known photographer and nephew of Sean South, challenged the minister’s version of events.

“The publisher got a call from the Department of Defence saying the minister would not be attending the launch at Peter Clohessy’s bar next Saturday night,” he said.

“It was the department and not the minister who contacted us to say he would not be turning up. For the minister to say he did not know at the outset who the book was about is rubbish. He knew all along the book was about Sean South. Obviously there was pressure from his own department or somewhere not to turn up.”

Mr O’Dea said that when he accepted the invitation to launch the book, he did not realise it was about Sean South.

“I did not realise it was about Sean South until the other day and I did not think it would be appropriate for the Minister for Defence to launch a book about Sean South,” he said.

Mr O’Dea denied he was warned by officials in the Department of Defence not to do the launch.

“It was my own decision. To be honest I assumed the book was about somebody else as I did a book launch some time ago about the city fishermen.

“I only realised the book was on Sean South when my diary was being checked and somebody got in touch with my office. I don’t think it appropriate for me to be launching a book on Sean South.

“We are trying to bring peace in the North,” he said.

Mr O’Dea said his decision to withdraw from launching the book was no slight on the South family.

“Ger South (brother of Sean South) and Owen South (nephew) are people I know very well. They are fine decent people. If I had realised at the beginning, I would not have agreed to launch the book in the first place,” he said.

“I regret any inconvenience by initially accepting the invitation. I did not take the time to find out what the book was about. It was a genuine mistake and it would have been worse if I went in and did it.”

Last year, Mr O’Dea was heavily criticised after posing with a gun following gangland shootings that left three men dead.

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GAFFE Pone minister - not for the first time, or the second....

by Gerard Collins - The Grass Roots

Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:40

"If I had known my remarks were being taped and directly transmitted to the Minister of State, Deputy Molloy and others, I would, of course, have moderated my tone and been less offensive and insulting."

Willie O'Dea explains why two-faced is best. One face for the plebs, and relatives of Sean South, the other for his PD pals in government.

The Irish Times December 7, 2000

O'Dea says he supports taxi deregulation policy

By MARIE O'HALLORAN and COLMAN CASSIDY

The Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, fully supported Government policy on taxi deregulation, he told the Dail yesterday. He apologised to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Progressive Democrats for any embarrassment his pro-taxi-driver stand had caused.

"Whatever my private views on this issue I fully support Government policy - I want to be unequivocal about that," Mr O'Dea said, responding to a Fine Gael motion calling for his removal from office.

He realised, "having studied Mr Justice Murphy's judgment in full" that legal constraints prevented the Minister of State, Mr Molloy, "from having one regime for taxis in one area and a different regime in another".

He denied he had "said one thing privately in Limerick and something else publicly in Dublin". One could also speak publicly in Limerick, he said: "I cannot understand how addressing a meeting of 400 people in Limerick can be said to be speaking privately."

Neither could he understand how an interview with local radio in Limerick could be said to be private - or an interview with the Limerick Leader.

With regard to his reported remark that he had not known his Limerick speech was being taped, "All I said is that if I had known my remarks were being taped and directly transmitted to the Minister of State, Deputy Molloy and others, I would, of course, have moderated my tone and been less offensive and insulting".

He challenged Mrs Nora Owen of Fine Gael to repeat "outside the House" her accusation that he had condoned or encouraged illegality. He had taken pains in his speech in Limerick to say he did not condone illegality.

"That section of my speech did not appear in the tape publicised by RTE and if I were a person of cynical disposition - which I'm not, even at this stage - I would say the reason RTE omitted this section from its broadcast version is that it would have taken much good out of the story."

He said one of the first TDs to address a meeting of taxi drivers at the Mont Clare, on Tuesday, November 28th, was Mr Michael Noonan, of Fine Gael, who was reported in The Irish Times as saying Limerick was "different from Dublin" - and a separate case would have to be made for Limerick.

He had not detected any attempt by the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, to seek Mr Noonan's resignation, Mr O'Dea said.

Neither was there "one word" in the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn's speech about Mr Michael D. Higgins's statement "contradicting Labour Party policy on deregulation".

Ms Olivia Mitchell, the Fine Gael spokeswoman on traffic, who proposed the motion, welcomed the Minister's presence in the House "as he entertained us highly". The motion was defeated by 80 votes to 66."Keep the pressure on," he urged them, while claiming deregulation was not the answer to what was a Dublin-based problem.

He added: "It is obvious to people who work and live in Dublin that there is a need for more taxis - but this is a nationwide deregulation and there is no need for more in Limerick."

Defence minsister and Sunday Independent columnist, O'Dea takes aim

O'Dea discourages the carrying of guns in his native city of Limerick

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Oh, you mean that Sean South....!

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