When Flynn met Gaybo The Late Late Show has hosted many unforgettable moments of Irish Television but few have transfixed the Mayo public as much as Padraig Flynn’s infamous interview with Gay Byrne, which took place ten years ago this Friday Michael Duffy WHEN Padraig Flynn arrived at the RTÉ studios in Montrose on the evening of January 15, 1999, to conduct an interview with Gay Byrne on the Late Late Show, it was generally presumed that he was there to discuss the crisis afflicting EU Commissioners, due to allegations of fraud.
Having discussed the issue with the eloquence and clarity of a top-class politician in the first third of the interview, it was the second third of the 25-minute discussion which caused repercussions that have lasted the decade that has since passed.
To this day, the interview, in its entirety, remains dynamite television – and anyone with broadband should log on to our website, www.mayonews.ie, this minute and sit back and enjoy the highlights. Two of the country’s most fascinating characters simply revelled in the spotlight – but surely not even they realised how damning the interview would be for the career of the Castlebar man.
Many Padraig Flynn supporters still blame Gay Byrne for asking Padraig Flynn ‘leading questions’ and backing him into corners, but Byrne was simply at his professional best during the chat – making Flynn feel at home by repeated calling him ‘Pee’ and introducing him as follows: “I think he carries his immense responsibilities [as EU Commissioner] with great dignity, great aplomb and indeed with a great sense of humour as he is always up for a laugh.”
Flynn’s appearance came at the end of a week of drama in Europe during which MEPs had failed marginally to win a vote which would have essentially meant that all EU Commissioners would be sacked, due to fraud allegations hanging over two of them.
Having dealt with that issue, Flynn went on to explain his exact role as EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, a job where he was responsible for a budget of £9,250,000,000 (pounds) – ‘a lot of money’ – and a position where he had about 750 people working for him.
Flynn went on to say he was proud of fact that the previous year’s auditor general’s report had proclaimed that ‘the Social Fund was the best managed [in the EU] and a role model for the funds’.
Flynn also showed his insatiable appetite for all things political, answering Gay’s question, ‘You love it Pee, don’t ya?’ by saying: “I love it, it’s not the sense of power, but at this level you get the opportunity of doing something substantial and leaving something behind you.”
The second third of the interview is the section that still resonates in Irish political life (see The Fall-out).
It includes the comments about Tom Gilmartin and his alleged handing over of £50,000 to Flynn; the staunch defence of his daughter Beverley over her National Irish Bank allegations, where he refers to her as a ‘Class Act’ (surely only second to the term ‘Celtic Tiger’ in terms of the number of times it has been used in the media during the last decade); the set-up question from the audience by journalist Barry O’Halloran about the Flynns’ lavish lifestyle; and finally a fascinating in-depth discussion of how Flynn came from ‘humble beginnings’ to have ‘a wonderful political career’.
In the final third of the interview, Flynn went on to question the cost of tribunals and their ultimate worth to the public, before the interview ended after a phone conversation with MEP Pat Cox about the controversies in Europe.
Overall, it’s a fascinating interview, mainly due to the fact that it confirmed Flynn to be a fascinating character. He showcased his ability as an outstanding politician, and expertly explained the complex mechanisms of the EU in a clear and succinct manner. It also showcased his charisma and personality.
But, ultimately, openly admitting that he owned three houses when house prices were rising, and personalising the Tom Gilmartin issue proved fatal, if unpremeditated errors – and brought the curtain down on Pee’s colourful political career.
The full interview can be viewed at
tinyurl.com/7gguzh
THE FALL-OUT
Flynnasty flounders in aftermath of Late Late End of career Aine Ryan BY Monday January 22, 1999, EU Commissioner for Social Affairs and former Justice and Environment Minister Padraig Flynn was a dead man walking in the shady corridors of political power.
Ironically, while he may have ultimately come out of the European Commission scandal with his integrity intact, he had discharged a series of fatal own-blows to his national political credibility during his 25-minute (on the surface) soft and fawning interview with Gay Byrne.
The under-stated front page headline in The Irish Times on Monday, January 22 was ‘Flynn unlikely to get another EU term’, while back home, The Mayo News headed with ‘Uncertainty surrounds the political future of ‘Dr’ Flynn’.
In the aftermath of The Late Late Show debacle, Padraig Flynn remained unrepentant, arguing he had ‘no regrets’ about his comments. Despite sustained media and political pressure – Mary Harney said there was ‘a cloud’ over him, some ministers felt they had little option but to support a Dáil motion for his resignation – Flynn cited legal advice for his refusal to clarify his position regarding the Gilmartin claim. Unsurprisingly, Daddy’s girl voted against a Dáil motion calling on Pee to clarify matters in relation to donations.
Still only 59 years of age, it would be another eight months before Commissioner Flynn formally stepped down – even though all 20 commissioners had resigned in March after the publication of a report which accused the commission ‘of operating in a culture of mismanagement that fostered fraud, cronyism and nepotism’.
Tribunal stage
ALMOST a decade later, on April 8 last, Padraig Flynn strode imperiously into the Mahon Tribunal in Dublin Castle and, once again, denied he had acted inappropriately regarding Gilmartin’s ‘personal political contribution’. While the intervening years had jogged his memory and forced his admission of the payment – or in Flynn parlance, ‘contribution’ – it was also now known through the tribunal’s painstaking money trail research that the cheque was first invested in a non-resident account with an address in Chiswick, London in June 1989. It was later withdrawn in two cash lots of £25,000 in October and November of that year and, allegedly, lay languishing in a safe back home in Castlebar until it was – possibly – used for election expenses.
Of course, there was also other monies – £33,000 in 1993 – invested by Beverley when she was a banker but that could have been wads brought home from Brussels wage packets.
Whether the twists of this drama are hilarious, outrageous or simply incredulous, during that same week last April, Beverley Flynn – expelled from Fianna Fáil on two occasions – was readmitted to her ‘natural home’ in a dispensation by a retiring Bertie Ahern, while Pee also opened an exhibition of his paintings in the Castlebar Linenhall Arts Centre.
Prodigal daughter
OPENING her father’s exhibition on April 3 last, Beverley Flynn referred in particular to one pastoral painting her dad had worked on over the seven weeks of her famous libel trial against RTÉ.
To hoots of laughter, she observed: “It’s a painting I have a mixed feelings about. It cost around €3 million. You could say it’s priceless.” Flynn’s charisma shone and twinkled as she engaged and laughed with the hordes of people in attendance.
Ten months earlier, she had brought a certain closure to her ‘litigious frolic’ with RTÉ over her libel claim that she was defamed by Charlie Bird in a programme about offshore investments. In June 2007, she announced she had paid RTÉ €1.24 million of an outstanding €2.4 million debt. A month earlier she was elected on the eighth count as an Independent Dáil deputy for Mayo.
When Beverley Flynn became embroiled in yet another media and public frenzy a fortnight ago over her entitlement to a €41,000 allowance for Independents, echoes of Pee Flynn’s Late Late Show performance, once again, haunted the Class Act.
In January 1999, Padraig Flynn said his daughter’s political talent would leave him standing.
“She will leave me standing, if she gets a fair chance at it,” he enthused.
So then, who can be blamed that this talented and clearly brilliant female politician now seems consigned to a career on the back benches?
Flynnasty flounders in aftermath of Late Late
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8T0Q03oJSc (Highlights)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6348534829955569321 (Full Interview)
