All bark and no bite, McDowell admits: ‘My view is irrelevant’

“MY view is irrelevant,” Michael McDowell announced. It was an extraordinary response to being asked whether he had confidence in the Taoiseach. He might just as well have added “and my party is ridiculous”.

Swaying dangerously on a razor-wire tightrope stretched to breaking point between moral certainty and electoral obliteration, the Tánaiste visibly struggled to remain upright at a hastily gathered news conference which at times lapsed into chaos.

As the high political drama unfolded live on Newstalk radio, the Taoiseach sat in his car on the way back from Mass to St Luke’s listening to his deputy, if not actually call him a liar, then strongly suggesting that Bertie Ahern and the truth had, at times, lost contact with each other over the years.