O’Malley memoir is ‘bound to ruffle feathers’

Des O’Malley’s much-anticipated memoir detailing over three decades spent in the Dáil cauldron is bound to ruffle a few feathers, the author has admitted.

Speaking in Limerick on Monday night, the 79-year-old — who leapt to prominence in the early 1970s as the fiercely principled justice minister — said he “can’t help it” if members of Charles Haughey’s family are upset by his book.

The Limerick native was expelled from Fianna Fáil for “conduct unbecoming of a member” in 1985.

The founder of the Progressive Democrats has spent the past 18 months completing his memoir, entitled Conduct Unbecoming, which is due for release next month.

Asked if the Haughey family might have anything to say about his forthcoming memoir, Mr O’Malley quipped: “Oh, they might have, but I can’t help that.”

Mr O’Malley made his comments at the launch of a website featuring 25,000 photographs of life in Limerick during the 1970s.

Fromlimerickwithlove.ie contains images from the archives of the Limerick Leader, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year, and is the result of months of digitisation work by newspaper staff and Limerick Museum and Archives.

A ‘From Limerick With Love’ exhibition runs at the Glazed Street in Merchant’s Quay and the campus of the Limerick School of Art and Design.