O’Donoghue a victim of his own tactics

TRUE to form, John O’Donoghue’s resignation speech was petulant, bitter and deeply ungracious. There was no apology for any extravagance or excess on his part, no acknowledgement of the deep anger of the public at his behaviour. This was of no great surprise.

What did surprise me, however, was the amount of self-pity in his speech. O’Donoghue protested that he “was not afforded the basic principles of a fair hearing. Instead, the soundbite took the place of fairness”.

He continued that members of the Dáil should “accord to each other a minimum quantum of fairness and reasonableness” rather than “surf the political wave of competitive outrage”.

O’Donoghue’s time as opposition spokesman on justice comes to mind. In that role, he famously tried to spin every single crime as being the personal fault of the then Minister for Justice, Nora Owen. Every crime of note was followed almost immediately by an attack on Ms Owen in the Dáil (the Brinks Allied robbery comes to mind). O’Donoghue’s conduct then is now the stuff of legend.

Why were the concepts of fair hearing and reasonableness not to the fore of O’Donoghue’s mind at that time?

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” as the Great Man said.

O’Donoghue cannot now complain that he has fallen victim to the same tactics which he himself has used for the entire of his political career. He needs to get real.

Barry Walsh

Brooklawn

Clontarf

Dublin 3