Willie O'Dea, laughing stock

Amazotheamazing

O’Dea denies offering to fight in pub row

By Jimmy Woulfe, Paul O’Brien and Donal Hickey
DEFENCE Minister Willie O’Dea verbally abused two people during a pub row over Shannon Airport and offered to fight one of them, it was claimed last night.

John Fahey, chief executive of the Meet Limerick/Shannon conferencing promotion group, and Geraldine Morrissey, spokeswoman for Aer Lingus workers at the airport, are demanding an apology from the minister over the remarks they say he made.

However, Mr O’Dea claimed last night it was he who had been abused and denied he offered to fight. The row happened after Mr O’Dea called to South’s pub in Limerick last Saturday night with Tánaiste Brian Cowen. Mr Fahey, a prominent hotelier in the mid-west, was there with his wife and Ms Morrissey.

“Mr O’Dea was there with the Tánaiste,” said Mr Fahey. “Then they both left together. As they did, a number of people said, ‘What about Shannon, what about Shannon?’”

A short time later, Mr O’Dea returned. Mr Fahey said when Mr O’Dea approached their group, Ms Morrissey challenged him over not being present in the Dáil for a vote on the Shannon issue.

“She asked him why he did not take part in the Dáil debate,” Mr Fahey said. “He said he was the minister for defence and I said, ‘You did not defend the interests of Shannon very well’. At that, he turned around and said, ‘Who is that big p***k?’ and asked me out saying he would like to hit me. I told him, if he was any bigger I might. He then turned to Geraldine Morrissey and said, ‘I don’t give a f**k about you’.”

Ms Morrissey said she was stunned at Mr O’Dea’s behaviour. However, Mr O’Dea insisted the allegations were “rubbish”. He said he returned to the pub to collect his wife only to be “roundly abused”.

People asked him to explain himself on Shannon. When he tried to speak, Mr Fahey interrupted him only for Ms Morrissey to say, “Let him make his petty point”. Mr O’Dea admitted telling Ms Morrissey to “get lost”, but denied using stronger language or challenging anybody to a fight.

The allegations against Mr O’Dea came on a bad day for Fianna Fáil. One of its councillors resigned from the party pending the outcome of a Garda investigation into an allegation that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy, a claim the councillor has denied.

In the Dáil, the Taoiseach was challenged to investigate a claim that a minister had admitted taking cocaine. There was bad news on the policy front too, as the Government’s record on health and crime came under attack.

Killinaskully ministers - The great vaudeville Cabinet act

THOUGH fans of slapstick may be entertained the rest of us should again ask ourselves what have we done to deserve them.


Our diminutive but ever-grandstanding Defence Minister Willie O’Dea, suffering a dose of Saturday night fever in a Limerick bar, challenged a constituent to “step outside” when asked about his Dáil absence for a vote on Shannon Airport.

Showing the coolness under pressure more appropriate to a member of Cabinet, the constituent, former president of Garryowen Rugby Football Club and tourism professional John Fahey, suggested he’d gladly take up the challenge if the minister was “a bit taller”.

Goliath sparing David might be a pretty way to describe the vaudeville but in reality it’s more like a patient and fatherly sergeant major saving a battlefield greenhorn from a fatal blunder.

Another Cabinet member — Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuív — has admitted that he cannot make head nor tail of the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Speaking on Newstalk he said: “I gave them some money... I can’t get them to tell me whether the buildings are finished... they can’t provide invoices for me...”

At least Mr Ó Cuív expressed anger with the way the HSE operates but if he’s unhappy why won’t he try to get it changed?

Did he ever wonder how Joe Public fares with the HSE when he, a member of Cabinet, cannot get a straight answer?

What has he done to improve matters?

Has he led the charge, or joined it, for the reform promised when the benchmarking process was initiated?

Unless he adds his weight to such a campaign for reform he will allow a process designed to improve the lot of every citizen — benchmarking — degenerate into nothing more than an on-tap gold rush for the 20% of our workforce employed by the State.

Maybe he’s too busy getting county development plans and signs on bohereens translated into Irish.

Mr Ó Cuív’s frustration is widely shared and that frustration only deepens when Health Minister Mary Harney, referring to an issue in the health service, shrugs like a duck shaking water off its back, saying that it’s a matter for the HSE.

Along with undermining the Dáil as a working forum and the emasculation of the Freedom of Information Act, the imposition of a buffer of bureaucracy between our elected representatives and the services they were elected to administer is one of the legacies this government can be least proud of.

If Mr Ó Cuív’s frustration has its roots in bureaucracy then Mr O’Dea’s situation is deeply rooted in buffoonery.

In a scene that will no doubt inspire at least one episode of Killinaskully, Mr O’Dea, a consistent poll topper, told a second constituent, who asked a perfectly valid question, that “I don’t give a f**k about you”.

If it wasn’t so serious, so demeaning and undermining for the country and our business aspirations, so utterly bizarre, it would be funny.

However, anyone who has followed Mr O’Dea’s performance on Shannon will realise it was made up almost entirely of man-of-straw posturing and the kind of hold-me-back declarations so favoured by aging corner backs exposed by a more fleet-footed opponent.

The sum total of his Shannon protest was a supine absence from a Dáil vote. Maybe Mr O’Dea will put his skills as a writer, so evident and emotional when eulogising his boss in a Sunday newspaper, at the disposal of the Killinaskully producers.

A Killinaskully biopic special maybe, more Gone West than The West Wing though.

Ministers Ó Cuív and O’Dea are unlikely to be the only ministers in the spotlight today.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin will have to add the greatly anticipated Amgen project in east Cork to the list of pre-election promises confirmed as fairy tales.

Amgen yesterday confirmed the rumours that have circulated for months that the huge, flagship project has been shelved. These rumours were scoffed at before the election. Indeed those who suggested that Amgen was delaying an inevitable announcement until after polling were denounced as political opportunists and cynics.

Those people are now certainly entitled to be cynical — the politicians who refuted the rumours have done their credibility and the credibility of the process they are involved in no credit.

Hundreds of millions of euro have already been spent on this project, and it is an indication of the great and growing challenges facing our economy that the investors have decided it should be axed even before a light is turned on at the plant.

The default statement from Mr Martin — “I am deeply disappointed... our immediate priority must be to offer every possible support to the 79 existing Amgen staff... job creation agencies will work... to find alternative jobs...” — is undoubtedly sincere but whether it sufficiently counterbalances the pre-election Amgen euphoria and assurances is debatable.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has his own unending troubles and it may be just slightly premature to label him a lame duck leader, but it is certainly time to measure him for the lame duck suit.

With ministers like these he may be glad to leave it all behind him.

SuperWoody101

Amazotheamazing wrote:

O’Dea denies offering to fight in pub row

Mod Edit: No need to repost whole article!

The guy cant even go out for a drink!

blah

The people voted for these guys, and they got what they deserved.

As Kent Brockman said: "I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Democracy just doesn't work"

dodgyme

feck me I was in souths on sat night when Cowen came in. He was sitting in the seat next to me. O Dea wasnt in at that stage.

talkingclock

i shoould go to that place more often. better entertainment then cinema!

Liam Byrne

SuperWoody101 wrote:

The guy cant even go out for a drink!

He should have thought of that before he came out (supposedly) in support of Shannon and then did a complete u-turn when it came to the crunch....

Unfortunately, incidents like this (and Bertie's "personal" circumstances) generally provoke the "politicians have private lives too" ethos that we respect in Ireland.

But when someone pretends to support and represent you and then shafts you when it comes to the crunch then they deserve all the abuse that they get.

It is, of course, partially the public's fault for electing idiots, but O'Dea's u-turn was AFTER the election, and the only recourse we have until the next election is to let them know that they're a useless, self-centred shower of w**kers..... :mad:

bazz26

Our man Willie at it again. Good thing he wasn't carrying this with him at the time.

Owen

dodgyme wrote:

feck me I was in souths on sat night when Cowen came in. He was sitting in the 17 seats next to me. .

Fixed that for you.

StarryBud

He was elected with two quotas in the last election.

Ergo, the people of Limerick deserve the shame they get by electing this cretin.

ninty9er

The core Fianna Fáil vote in Limerick East is estimated at 9,000-11,000. When you take into account that overall there were just over 24,000 1st preferences cast for Fianna Fáil, you have to ask yourself where it all happens, and the answer is that Fianna Fáil is the party doing the most on the ground. Jan, for example would be screwed without O'Dea, whereas Power would get the FF vote that Willie currently gets and the core Willie vote would probably not bother voting at all!!

XJR

He got a huge vote - poll topper how bizarre !

Still look at the shower the country voted in last time - is everyone thick or something ?

jbkenn

ninty9er wrote:

The core Fianna Fáil vote in Limerick East is estimated at 9,000-11,000. When you take into account that overall there were just over 24,000 1st preferences cast for Fianna Fáil, you have to ask yourself where it all happens, and the answer is that Fianna Fáil is the party doing the most on the ground. Jan, for example would be screwed without O'Dea, whereas Power would get the FF vote that Willie currently gets and the core Willie vote would probably not bother voting at all!!

this, sadly, is true, if Willie O'Dea went to sleep for the next five years, he would still top the poll.

jbkenn

Lazers pew pew

People dont vote for Willie O Dea because he's aligned to Fianna Fail. They vote for him because of the good work he does for his constituents.
I think its a disgrace he gets accosted like he did whilst out having a pint with BIFFO.
The accuser is obviously whiter than white :rolleyes:
If you act the prick then you're going to get called a prick
Take a bow Willy

Kess73

Well O'Dea came out yesterday and admitted that he had said what he had denied saying last week. Saying one thing and then saying the opposite seems to be becoming his trademark.


Says a lot about his "witnesses" to the event. I wonder will their eyewitness accounts change now that his has?

Lazers pew pew

he may not have been in the best form either as he had a family bereavment at the time
His accuser comes across as a right soft shite.If he gets offended by the word prick, then i'd advise him to wrap himself in cotton wool and never venture into the big bad world

Kess73

While the language is no worse than you would hear in any rough conversation, it is not what would should be expected from a minister in public though.


Personally I have long regarded O'Dea as a joke politician, along with many others in this country, but there is no doubt that there had to be give and take from all parties involved in that embarrassing little spat.

bazz26

Anyone notice how quiet Willie is regarding the latest round of shootings in the city?

Yet as soon as Bertie & Co comes under pressure regarding tribunals, etc the first man standing or sitting next to them in full support is our man Willie.

Lazers pew pew

bazz26 wrote: »

Anyone notice how quiet Willie is regarding the latest round of shootings in the city?

Yet as soon as Bertie & Co comes under pressure regarding tribunals, etc the first man standing or sitting next to them in full support is our man Willie.

willies always been a yes man, bertie isnt confident one bit in his abilities. it took him years to become a junior minister, then he gets the defence post. Big job that, minister of defence of a country scared of their ****e of a war.
Willies a qualified barrister, why didnt bertie give him the justice post when mcdowell got hammered at the polls???

vkid

Wonder is Willie is looking at a longer term picture. He seems buddy buddy with Cowen who is sure to be the FF leader after Bertie (who may not have too much more time left).

Lazers pew pew

vkid wrote: »

Wonder is Willie is looking at a longer term picture. He seems buddy buddy with Cowen who is sure to be the FF leader after Bertie (who may not have too much more time left).

.

yankinlk

Lazers pew pew wrote: »

People dont vote for Willie O Dea because he's aligned to Fianna Fail. They vote for him because of the good work he does for his constituents.
I think its a disgrace he gets accosted like he did whilst out having a pint with BIFFO.
The accuser is obviously whiter than white :rolleyes:
If you act the prick then you're going to get called a prick
Take a bow Willy

Here here. Im surprised you are the only one on this thread pointing this out. Yes, willie looks like a cartoon character and yes, i doubt many outside of limerick take him seriously. But willie is admired by the majority in Limerick for his great work for the people. A lot of politicians make a much better impression through the media, but i wonder if they are even recognized by many voters in their constituencies.

panda100

yankinlk wrote: »

Yes, willie looks like a cartoon character and yes, i doubt many outside of limerick take him seriously. But willie is admired by the majority in Limerick for his great work for the people. A lot of politicians make a much better impression through the media, but i wonder if they are even recognized by many voters in their constituencies.

Oh please so he knocks on a few peoples door every now and again,(even on Christmas day )! Yes he might be out and about among the people but that doesn't mean he actually works for/cares about the people.He cares about getting votes and being elected like all politicians.This became pretty evident when he completely deserted the thousands who voted for him by not even having the guts to publicly take a stance on the Shannon issue and conveniently being otherwise engaged the day of a dail vote which will cost detriment to those he supposedly represents.
Wille O'Dea is so busy walking up and down O'Connell avenue/drinking in city pubs to do a scrap of work for the people of Limerick....fact!

Lazers pew pew

panda100 wrote: »

Oh please so he knocks on a few peoples door every now and again,(even on Christmas day )! Yes he might be out and about among the people but that doesn't mean he actually works for/cares about the people.He cares about getting votes and being elected like all politicians.This became pretty evident when he completely deserted the thousands who voted for him by not even having the guts to publicly take a stance on the Shannon issue and conveniently being otherwise engaged the day of a dail vote which will cost detriment to those he supposedly represents.
Wille O'Dea is so busy walking up and down O'Connell avenue/drinking in city pubs to do a scrap of work for the people of Limerick....fact!

you put fact at the end of your post, so you must be right

bazz26

If you need a medical card or a pot hole filled outside your house go to Willie, as a Government Minister he is poor and when it comes to crunch time he falls into line. A "yes" man if there ever one.

He did the same before when Haughey closed Barrington's hospital in the 1980s. He was out marching with the public saying that the Mid West could not afford to loose a hospital. Yet days later toed the party whip and voted for it's closure saying that there was no point voting against it as it would be carried anyway. Also anyone remember how he was caught out by the taxi licence deregulation incident a few years back?

As a local politician he is good for getting things done for his constituants but as a member of Government he is poor.

yankinlk

panda100 wrote: »

Wille O'Dea is so busy walking up and down O'Connell avenue/drinking in city pubs to do a scrap of work for the people of Limerick....fact!

I suppose if he wore a che guevera t shirt you'd think differently. You must be a troll.

Anyone ive ever spoke to in Limerick has always agreed that Willie is your only man. Most people I would talk to would never vote for FF but even so would throw Willie a vote because what he has done for them, their families, or their friends.

Amazotheamazing

Then you're speaking to the people who are easily impressed yank. O'Dea has yet to deliever a big project to the city.

Lazers pew pew

i vote for him for his Mr Magoo likeness

Xennon

Then you're speaking to the people who are easily impressed yank.

<RANT>
I disagree. In a country where we are being constantly lied to, screwed, and let down by those in positions of power, when someone like O'Dea comes along and sorts out a problem for you, of course you're going to vote for him. To add to that I don't blame those that do.

However, the odd thing is that these people shouldn't have to contact a TD to get these problems sorted out.

Another observation on political Ireland is this FF vs FG phenomenon. People with the 'they should never have been voted in again' attitude really need to look at the party they believe in. If they had stronger candidates then of course they wouldn't have been voted in again.

One final item I have an issue with, is regarding the democratic system. How is it fair, that on a ballot card, you HAVE to vote for the available candidates?. I mean shouldn't there be a 'none of the above' option, which if gains the majority means the parties have to go back and find new candidates for the job. My point being that shouldn't we as voters have the power to tell these parties that we want a better candidate?.

</RANT>

Apologies for ranting on. I do that when i don't have coffee at hand

kmick

Evryone seems to forget Willie is not elected to clear up Limericks crime problems (Justice), watch out for hospitals (Health), fill in potholes (County council). or attempt to influence the actions of a Private company. He is a Minister for defence - a relatively powerless and innocous position to which he is well suited.

Lazers pew pew

I mean shouldn't there be a 'none of the above' option

there is. is called abstension

i'm 27 and havent voted a single time

panda100

Lazers pew pew wrote:

there is. is called abstension
i'm 27 and havent voted a single time.

Abstention from voting just shows laziness.The best thing to do is spoil your vote.This is a very legitimate way of showing your disregard for those on the ballot sheet and thousands do it every year. http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1047306

bazz26 wrote: »

If you need a medical card or a pot hole filled outside your house go to Willie,
.

Dont get me wrong as FF politicians go Willie O'Dea is a saint compared to the rest of them. Unlike many he took to the streets when they threatened closure of Barringtons etc....but that was a long time ago.So he fixes a few potholes and gets a few medical cards (we shouldn't have to go groveling to Willie to get these in the first place) , is that all we expect of our elected representatives?After all the taxes we pay(the 5 richest men in Ireland don't pay tax),after how hard we work is that all we deserve,a few potholes filled?
We pay these politicians huge sums to represent us.Do we not deserve them to stand up and fight for us when real serious situations arise like the shannon crisis. Why are we still giving Willie O'Dea credit when he completely deserted the workers in Shannon and the people of the Shannon region when he cowardly stayed away from the dail the day of the vote.

yankinlk wrote:

You must be a troll. .

I am not a troll. I lived on O'Connell avenue for three years with Willie O'Dea regularly knocking on my door and seeing my family and friends being sucked in by this man of the people act. I also spent the whole summer doing stalls on O'Connell street listening to the many many woes of the Limerick people. Chronically sick men and women having to leave their homes at three in the morning to drive to Ennis for life or death treatment as there is not enough dialysis machines in the regional. The impending closures of Ennis and st Johns a+e?Why? Because there building a new private hospital on the dock road and want more of our money.
Willie O'Dea seems to be a decent man in a corrupt world but as he's shown so publicly recently when push comes to shove he,like all ff politicians,he has only the big buissnesses intrests at heart and not the people.
Here are the people who pulls his strings and not us the people. http://www.sipo.gov.ie/en/DonationsDisclosed/TDsSenatorsandMEPs/DonationsdisclosedbyTDsSenatorsandMEPsfor2004/Name,882,en.htm

Sorry I forgot to add yesterday that Niall Collins and John Cregan ,my own td's in west Limerick are just as bad as willie.Thank god we have one decent politican in Dan Neville.