HE EMERGED into freedom, blinking as the cameras flashed, like someonewho had travelled from Victorian times. His hair was long, unkempt, uncut, all over the shop, whitened from age, as if he’d spent his incarceration in a dungeon, chained to a wall. His beard wasn’t much better.
Yet here he was after 7,200 long seconds, back in the real world — handed a chance to finally get on with his life. So began Mick Wallace’s first moments of freedom after his imprisonment on Wednesday for failing to pay a fine.
The fine arose from a guilty verdict against him and his confederate Clare Daly for breaching security at Shannon Airport in July 2014. Later on that evening, Daly was subjected to an equally gruelling spell in stir, but she did her time with stoic defiance, and also emerged two hours after the key had been turned on her freedom.
The release of the Shannon Two was just one of a number of instances during the week that gave us a glimpse of modern Ireland as we head towards the centenary of the Rising to commemorate who we are. Or something like that.
There was much derision and anger heaped on the Shannon Two over the use of Garda resources to have them brought to Limerick to do their time.
Perhaps resources could have been put to better use, but on the same day a Garda Inspectorate report was published which suggested that garda resources are mismanaged to a chronic extent, what’s the big deal about four officers driving around the country for a day when hundreds are apparently sitting behind desks twiddling their thumbs?
Others grumbled that Wallace and Daly were lawmakers who were breaking the law.
Maybe so, but at least they did so on a matter of principle. Look at the huge cohort of councillors — and a clutch of TDs — who improperly filled out their declarations of interest, as exposed on the RTÉ Investigates programme. They didn’t have much regard for the law either.
Among those who considered the whole incident with distaste was Health Minister Leo Varadkar.
He was doing press on Wednesday for new legislation which will bring in unit pricing for alcohol and restrictions on advertising.
This proposed legislation follows recommendations from an expert group that reported in 2012. Now, with the Dáil on the cusp of dissolving, the Government announces the changes.
There isn’t a hope that the legislation will be passed in time, but at least Leo got some PR and the drinks industry managed to get the whole thing delayed.
Anyway, when Leo was asked about the Shannon Two, at the launch, he had this to say: “I imagine they [Wallace and Daly] will argue they did this as a form of protest and that is a decision for them.
"It does occur to me the instability that might arise from having a government that is dependent on independents for support.
"Because you might come to an agreement with some independents in order to form a government but then you might find those independents are in jail because of a protest and the government falls.”
Did you get that?
Leo Varadkar, the apparently straight- talking minister, is saying that you shouldn’t vote independent because your TD might end up in prison, triggering the collapse of government.
Not just that.
He is hinting that a vote for an independent might clog up the already overcrowded prison system. Cabinet meetings may have to be relocated to Mountjoy or moved to Cork Prison, and take place within visiting hours.
Perhaps Leo is searching for a slogan that echoes with that which informed the infancy of democracy in this State, when senior figures languished in English jails. “Put him in to get him out,” it said on the election poster.
Maybe Leo is going to drum up something like: “Don’t put them in or we’ll have to get them out.” In any event the mask has now slipped on the extent to which Fine Gael will milk the “stability or chaos” tactic in the general election. The “chaos” option is being painted as more chaotic by the day.
While Varadkar was musing on jailbirds, his boss was in Leinster House having a pot at the man who would be president. In a pose that would elicit blushes from the editorial writer of the Skibbereen Eagle, Enda Kenny said he would “unreservedly condemn” the latest outpouring from the ridiculous Donald Trump.
He was reminded by Richard Boyd Barrett that last year The Donald had been met at Shannon Airport by Michael Noonan “with a red carpet, harps and people in traditional Irish dress in what was frankly, even at the time, quite a ludicrous show of deference to this multi-billionaire”.
Word from Trump Towers in New York is that The Donald’s campaign is now on the rocks following this stab in the back from world leader Kenny.
(Before he attended the COP21 in Paris last week, where he managed to talk out of both sides of his mouth, Mr Kenny said he was off to confer with “other world leaders”.)
The smart money says The Donald will now go quietly and retreat to his Doonbeg golf course, where he will instead focus on scaling the rickety ladder of Irish politics, crowned with a new rug.
While there was enough silliness in Irish politics to go around last week, there was also something from dark side of stupid. The RTÉ investigation on Monday exposed, among others, councillor John O’Donnell in Donegal as seeking personal benefit from his public office.
O’Donnell was caught on camera indicating that he expected to be paid through an intermediary for assisting a reporter posing as a company representative.
O’Donnell is 34, was elected at the last election, and an independent. His credentials cast him as a new breed of politician at the frontline of changing times. Then he gets caught at the sleaziest end of the trade, in a manner that was supposed to be behind us.
What was interesting was his response. He issued a release to RTÉ, saying that he was a businessman and any payment he would have received would have been as a businessman.
He added: “RTÉ now proposes to reveal my business secrets, style and methods in your programme which could enable other entrepreneurs to copy them.” Far from being caught with his hand moving inexorably towards the till, Mr O’Donnell sees himself as an entrepreneur, straddling business and politics, using unique tactics which he developed himself, and now others will see how well he’s getting on and attempt to copy him.
Young, budding entrepreneurs — are you watching?
Michael Clifford
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