Many of the most sensational political controversies have turned on events that seemed monumental at the time but rapidly diminish in importance in retrospect.
Viewed later, when the searing heat has cooled, they often turn out to be less than the sum of their parts. Shorn of the context of the here-and-now, it’s sometimes hard not to wonder, ‘What was all that about?’
The so-called Golfgate controversy caused an EU commissioner, Phil Hogan, and a senior Government minister, Dara Calleary, to fall on their swords. A newly appointed Supreme Court judge, Séamus Woulfe, had to mount a stout defence to avoid the same fate.
Questions have to be asked as to why such a prosecution was pursued in the first place. Proving that the four defendants had deliberately breached or neglected the guidelines and regulations was a very tall order indeed
Like many other defining controversies, timing was everything. It happened on the cusp of a tightening of the rules as Covid numbers increased during August 2020. With severe clampdowns on freedoms in society – the most difficult of which were the impossibly low numbers allowed at funerals – the public was understandably angry politicians had organised an event attended by 81 people that, on the face of it, breached Covid-19 regulations and rules in place at the time.
It appeared to follow that familiar political trope of “one rule for us and another rule for them”.
Public mood
There were two classes of alleged “wrong” at play in this. There was an immediate political one. Sure, many of those who attended felt very hard done by the treatment meted out to them. However, given the public mood, there was a need to exercise great caution in proceeding with such an event. Did they read the room? Politically, the answer was obviously no.
The second class of alleged ‘wrong’ was of a different order, that somehow people had acted in a criminal fashion in organising this event at the Station House Hotel in Clifden.
Questions have to be asked as to why such a prosecution was pursued in the first place. Proving that the four defendants had deliberately breached or neglected the guidelines and regulations was a very tall order indeed.
After three days of evidence, Judge Mary Fahy took less than five minutes to set out her verdict, dismissing the charges against former senator Donie Cassidy, the hoteliers John and James Sweeney and the Independent TD for Galway West Noel Grealish.
The event was a political misstep but was never remotely criminal. There was no flagrant attempt to breach the regulations. Indeed, there was evidence the organisers had moved the event to the bigger hotel to ensure compliance
In the end, it turned on a simple question: Did one event, or two separate events, take place that night in Clifden?
The 81 participants were all in one large room but it was divided by a wall-to-ceiling partition. There was evidence there were two openings in the partition, one used by waiting staff to go from one side to the other during service. The other was at the top near the rostrum where the speeches were made. The partition was pulled back a little for the speeches to allow both sides to see the speaker. Did that make it one event or two?
Separate events
Judge Fahy had no doubt whatsoever. She said the room could normally accommodate 200 people. She accepted there were two separate events taking place, one on either side of the partition.
“I’m satisfied the organisers did everything to comply – not in a court of public opinion, but in the court of law in my opinion.”
It should never have come to that. At most, the event was a political misstep but was never remotely criminal. There was no flagrant attempt to breach the regulations. Indeed, there was evidence that the organisers had moved the event from the golf clubhouse to the bigger hotel to ensure compliance. Cassidy had also sought advice from the Irish Hotel Federation as to the guidelines in play.
There will be many who will dispute the conclusion, but Thursday’s judgment has brought this 18-month saga to a conclusion. On the rain-strafed steps of the Galway courthouse, trying to hold back tears, Cassidy spoke about his bona fides and the impact Golfgate had on his life.
“I’ve been all my life a lawmaker, not a lawbreaker,” he said. “My mother used to always say, the truth always wins in the end.”
After two years, he deserved the last word.
