Irish Examiner view: Reaction was far beyond ‘indignation’

Phil Hogan has criticised Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin for their behaviour during the Golfagate controversy in 2020.

In the week when gifts are on everyone’s mind, one gift keeps on giving.

Former European Commissioner Phil Hogan has criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin for their behaviour during the Golfgate controversy of August 2020, claiming the two men followed what he describes as a populist wave of indignation and did not analyse what actually happened.

The remarks make for a sharp contrast with his comments at the time, when he said he realised fully the unnecessary stress, risk, and offence caused to the people of Ireland by attending the event.

Furthermore, a populist wave of indignation doesn’t do justice to the level of disgust among the public when the story broke. 

Everyone can be excused for their reticence when it comes to revisiting the details of such a traumatic time, but indignation downplays the fury experienced and expressed by those obeying the lockdown restrictions of the time. 

People who were unable to visit loved ones in hospital or who could not attend family funerals were deeply angered by the Oireachtas Golf Society event taking place and with good reason.

Flouting restrictions at a social event for politicians and names from media and business fuelled the small but vocal anti-lockdown sector, weakened the credibility of the health services’ guidelines, and conveyed the impression of an elitist disregard for restrictions observed by the vast majority.

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This last impression is strengthened rather than weakened by the fact that Hogan’s recent comments were made in an interview with Sean O’Rourke for RTÉ: As an attendee at the event himself, O’Rourke seems a strange choice to be in the hotseat quizzing Hogan on the matter.

At the time Golfgate occurred then minister for health Simon Harris described it as a stomach punch to those who were trying to abide by strict lockdown protocols.

That visceral description is a far more accurate account of the contemporaneous reaction to the event than populist indignation, and flatly contradicts an apparent desire in some quarters to recast the matter as far less serious than it was.