Defiant Dunphy writes himself a starring role in 'Bertiegate'
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Monday October 15 2007
Eamon Dunphy finds controversy the same way a lovesick doe chases a fast buck: if it doesn't come to him, he goes looking for it.
And the first two questions facing the rutting media millionaire are: did he make allegations about alleged payments to Bertie Ahern in retaliation for the Government's role in closing down his journalist friend Frank Connolly's Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI)?
Or was he contacted by the Mahon Tribunal and simply responded by swearing an affidavit on oath after being subpoenaed? Either way, the nation's most contentious commentator has been cast as doing both on the front pages of the weekend's newspapers. After starring in broadcasting and the print media, the former soccer international will be making his tribunal debut about alleged payments to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
And as the so-called 'Bertiegate' saga grips the media, the nation's number one controversialist has written himself a starring role in a sworn statement. For a start, he has vehemently denied suggestions that he gave a statement to the tribunal because of the Government's treatment of the man from the Daily Mail, Frank Connolly.
Yesterday he told the Sunday Times: 'My evidence has nothing to do with Frank Connolly. I was contacted by Donal King from the tribunal and that is why I'm giving evidence.'
However, in the transcript of an interview with tribunal lawyers, Dunphy used the word 'dastardly' to describe the Government's role in the closing down of the CPI. The dictionary definition of dastardly is 'something mean, treacherous, and cowardly'.
The issue of the CPI arose when the tribunal's lawyers asked why it had taken Dunphy 10 years to come up with his claim that developer Owen O'Callaghan had told him he had 'taken care of' Bertie Ahern.
After saying there was no personal animosity between himself and the Taoiseach, he used the word 'dastardly' to the tribunal's lawyers to describe the Government's role in the closing down of the CPI.
When asked directly why he had decided to make a statement 10 years after the alleged remarks by O'Callaghan, Dunphy told the tribunal's lawyers that the closing down of the CPI was the reason.
Dunphy told the tribunal's legal team that if the Government was prepared to 'take out a decent journalist', and he had something to contribute, then he believed he should give it to the tribunal. He also told them that 'for years' he had discussed the alleged admissions by O'Callaghan with Frank Connolly.
The close friendship between Dunphy and Connolly had a tangible expression in the Daily Mail on Thursday, in a detailed report of the soccer commentator's confidential statement to the tribunal.
However, Connolly's report in the Daily Mail didn't allude to Dunphy's motives for making it.
Nor does Connelly's report mention Dunphy's use of 'dastardly' to describe the Government's role in the closing down of the CPI in his conversation with the tribunal's lawyers.
Dunphy claimed that O'Callaghan had told him he had 'taken care of' Ahern and that 'he, Bertie Ahern, doesn't do the deal'.
This has been interpreted to mean that O'Callaghan gave money to Bertie Ahern, but that the Taoiseach did nothing in return for it. The conversation is alleged to have taken place over a boozy dinner in a Dublin restaurant 10 years ago when Dunphy was hoping to do business with O'Callaghan.
Ahern has robustly denied receiving any money from O'Callaghan, who in turn has vigorously denied paying any money to Bertie Ahern.
Dunphy was a 'consultant' on a project exploring possibilities of relocating the then Premiership club, Wimbledon to Dublin and O'Callaghan had a possible stadium site in west Dublin.
However, in his sworn statement to the tribunal, Dunphy stressed that O'Callaghan had never suggested that he (Dunphy) or his football associates would have to be involved in bribery to launch their project.
And, of course, the one question that Dunphy is certain to be asked in the tribunal is: if he was sufficiently concerned about allegations of corruption between Ahern and O'Callaghan, why did he wait 10 years before either going to the gardai or approaching the tribunal? Others will want to know why Dunphy continued his acquaintance with O'Callaghan after his suspicions were aroused by the conversation, which he says suggested there was a corrupt relationship between Bertie Ahern and Owen O'Callaghan?
And if Dunphy still sought to do business with Owen O'Callaghan after the boozy restaurant conversation where his dinner companion allegedly made such damaging suggestions regarding himself and Ahern?
Perhaps more ominous for Dunphy's friend Frank Connolly is his admission yesterday that he did know Starry O'Brien was 'not the innocent he made himself out to be' before he published a story alleging O'Brien had delivered a £50,000 bribe to Ahern.
If he did not know before he wrote the story that a High Court judge had described O'Brien as a 'perjurer' and a 'forger', then his reporting had recklessly exposed his newspaper to a libel claim.
But if he did know that O'Brien was a liar and a forger when writing a story that depended on unverified documents supplied by O'Brien, then his action would be viewed as not only reckless, but even sinister.
