Bertie sending ADC to Katy’s funeral just smacks of ‘celebrity culturism’

By Matt Cooper

Friday, December 14, 2007

THE decision by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to send his aide de camp (ADC) to Katy French’s funeral last Monday was a remarkable, ill conceived and most probably wrong.

I’m not alone in thinking that. I put the question to listeners to The Last Word last Tuesday and the reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly hostile.

Earlier that day we had put a question to the Government Information Services about the number of funerals Ahern has attended this year, the number he had sent his ADC to and the criteria used to select funerals that would be so honoured. No answers were forthcoming to the first two questions, but we were told that no protocols existed and that decisions were made on a "case-by-case" basis.

While on air I also wondered as to whether Ahern had been represented at the funerals of the two young Waterford men — Kevin Doyle and John Grey — who died from what is known to have been a cocaine overdose. Suddenly an explanation was provided: the Government had offered its sympathies and condolences to the grieving families.

Family and Social Affairs Minister Martin Cullen — a local TD — had visited the Doyle family and would have attended the funeral except that he had to be at another one of a friend. Brendan Kennelly TD had been delegated by the Taoiseach to attend the Grey funeral, although it would seem unlikely the local TD would have been missing in any event. But the Taoiseach did not send his ADC, allowing a distinction to be drawn between these two cases and that of Ms French.

We don’t know as yet if Ms French’s death was caused by a cocaine overdose.

However, it is the subject of a Garda investigation and that has given rise to some informed speculation, especially as she had admitted previously to use of the illegal and highly dangerous narcotic.

There can be little good news for her family at such a difficult time, but it would be some relief for them at least if it emerged that she had died suddenly as a result of natural causes — which can happen with otherwise healthy young adults. But with such a cloud of well-founded suspicion hanging over her it was remarkable that Ahern chose to be represented at her funeral and, if he wanted to show sympathy for those suffering the consequences of illegal drug use, not at those of the other two men.

Most pointedly, Ahern was not represented at another funeral this week, the circumstances of which were far more tragic than Ms French’s fate, of a woman far more representative of modern-day Ireland. Tracy O’Brien (30) died in a car accident last weekend. She was seven months pregnant with her first child. Despite the best efforts of doctors, who attempted an emergency caesarean, the little boy died. Through no fault of his own, or hers, Tracy’s husband has been left without his wife and the child they had been expecting. This is a dreadful tragedy for all concerned and one that must touch anyone who is aware of it (although it received just a fraction of the media coverage of the cocaine-related deaths).

Tracy’s husband is David O’Brien, an army officer, a man who gives service to the State. A text message to The Last Word on Tuesday told me the Taoiseach’s ADC was not present at this funeral. I confirmed this with the Department of the Taoiseach yesterday, although I was told the Department of Defence was represented and that this covered the Government.

Ms French’s death undoubtedly was a tragedy for her and for her family and caught the attention of some of the public because of her profile as the subject of photographs in certain newspapers.

It may seem unfair and somewhat callous to write this, but she had achieved very little of any great import other than to become a favourite "photo-celeb" for some newspapers. She was also willing to be outspoken if she felt it would raise her profile.

I should add that she appeared once on my radio programme months ago as part of a discussion on the body size of models. She was informed and articulate. We looked for her the week before her death to discuss cocaine use, following her claim that she had used the drug in the past but had given up on it because of the dangers it posed. She did not return our calls to discuss what was a dangerous topic for her to answer questions about on live radio.

Using cocaine, as she admitted to doing in the past, was her own personal choice. If that choice caused her death, then she has suffered terrible consequences for her misjudgment in dabbling with a dangerous and illegal drug, but this was nobody’s fault but her own.

So just what was Bertie Ahern thinking when he authorised the deployment of his ADC to Ms French’s funeral? He has not proven that he is as taking seriously the issue of cocaine misuse. True, he called this week for gardaí to enter house parties to search for cocaine. There may well be some merit in that, although there may be legal difficulties in entering a private house to conduct searches without warrants and without reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed.

But recently Ahern failed to act when it was claimed that a minister, either senior or junior in the previous government, had admitted to using cocaine. The claim was made first last September when a book called High Society — Drug Use in Middle Class Ireland was published.

Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue refused to allow Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney to ask the Taoiseach if he would investigate the veracity of the claim. O’Donoghue made lame jokes about it instead while Ahern remained mute.

Then the claim became the subject of a TV programme on RTÉ, although the claim that a minister had made the admission was changed to a politician.

FORTUNATELY for Ahern, the author of the book and documentary-maker, Justine Delaney Wilson, could not substantiate her claim. The idea that some minister would have given an interview in Buswells Hotel in which he admitted cocaine use and claimed some of his colleagues were at it as well was dismissed as ludicrous.

What sane minister would make such a claim, knocking the consequences of any subsequent revelation? And who believes that ministers would dare risk their careers by snorting some charlie?

Actually, it is not beyond the bounds of belief. Who, for example, would have believed senior Fianna Fáil members would routinely accept brown paper bags stuffed with cash from people they hardly knew?

When you think about it, it’s not impossible to believe that some stressed minister or two has not indulged occasionally or regularly, especially if swamped by the heavy workload of attending government and party meetings, constituency clinics, Dáil sittings and funerals.

There have been claims previously of cocaine traces being found in the toilets of the exclusive member’s bar in Dáil Eireann. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of money to buy the stuff.

Nor it is impossible to believe that a minister, believing his anonymity would be protected and emboldened either by the

effects of cocaine — or more likely, alcohol — could not control his tongue particularly when telling an attractive young woman what she was hoping to hear, be it true or not. That particular story has been forgotten, overtaken by the frenzied coverage of Katy French’s death. But many won’t forget Ahern’s contribution to the celebrity culture of this country by sending his ADC to the unfortunate young woman’s funeral. And how real is his conviction to stamping out the cocaine culture?

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, December 14, 2007