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Official complaint made to gardaí over Frank Feighan elbow scuffle

Gardaí say they are investigating an alleged minor assault in Roscommon Town.

scuffle 2 RTE.ie RTE.ie

INDEPENDENT BY-ELECTION CANDIDATE John McDermott has made an official complaint to gardaí over an incident in which he was manhandled by Frank Feighan TD.

The incident happened at about 4.30pm on Friday evening as Taoiseach Enda Kenny was arriving in Roscommon Town.

Frank Feighan was filmed by RTÉ News pushing into hospital campaigner McDermott as he approached the Taoiseach’s car on Main Street.

Gardaí say they do not comment on individual cases but have confirmed that they are investigating a minor assault.

McDermott said that he made the complaint to at Roscommon Garda Station yesterday evening after giving Feighan 24 hours to apologise to him directly.

Feighan issued a statement yesterday evening in which he said he regretted “if any actions of mine caused hurt to anybody”.

McDerrmott told TheJournal.ie that he has not spoken to the Feighan since the incident.

“I gave him the opportunity to apologise to me,” he said.

“I wasn’t going to go to the gardaí if he apologised to me and I gave him the opportunity to do so. I’ve made the statement and now it’s out of my hands.”

McDermott said that he spent about 20 minutes giving his statement to gardaí who told him they will examine footage of the incident.

McDermott, who is a member of the Roscommon Hospital Action Committee, says that he believes that Feighan knew it was him was standing behind him because he was asking a question of the Taoiseach.

He said he was asking the question,

“Would he tell the people in Roscommon why he reneged on promises he made in 2011 not to close the A&E unit in Roscommon Hospital?”

Attempts were made to contact Frank Feighan TD for this article.

Read: Fine Gael TD “regrets” scuffle with by-election candidate >

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126 Comments
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    Mute rathminer
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:31 PM

    Hilarious to think anybody could say ‘no’. Awards heavily influence everybody’s movie decisions. Anybody who says otherwise hasn’t thought about it enough. So there.

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    Mute Adrian De Cleir
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:38 PM

    True, they influence mine, not cause I believe an awarded movie is better but because it’s far more likely to be marketed properly.

    ALSO, lets be fair, awarded movies are rarely absolutely terrible. Whereas if a movie is really really bad it defo won’t get an award.

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    Mute Bernadette Dunne
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:47 PM

    I do not take any notice of the awards I do not watch them and I do not read about them as far as I am concerned I find them BORING I love films but I will choose my own and so far I have not seen many I do not enjoy I do not need the media or anyone else tell me what film I will enjoy…..

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    Mute Matt Crosbie
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    Jan 15th 2012, 2:02 PM

    Bernadette, 100%

    25
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    Mute Roddie Cleere
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    Jan 15th 2012, 3:02 PM

    Load of crap

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    Mute Pat Ryan
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    Jan 15th 2012, 6:10 PM

    Hahahaha! AND no. Frankly, I go to the cinema pretty often, and usually the movies up for awards I give a rats about have already been on, or I’ve already passed on seeing them. They occasionally influence my DVD rentals I will admit, but that option isn’t available in the poll.

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    Mute Barry O'Keeffe
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    Jan 15th 2012, 4:01 PM

    I use the following criteria.
    Q. Is Hulk Hogan in the Film?
    Yes! Rent it
    No! Don’t rent it!

    23
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    Mute Val Kearney
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    Jan 15th 2012, 4:12 PM

    Same principal can also be used for the following: Laurence Fishburn, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Scarlett Johannson, Megan Fox and the voice of Morgan Freeman.

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    Mute Matt Crosbie
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:10 PM

    not in the slightest

    22
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    Mute Wujashtop
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:08 PM

    Of course they influence my decision. That spent mean a film is always worth watching. The Iron Lady is shite for example…

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    Mute Wujashtop
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:08 PM

    Doesn’t

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    Mute damien o'c
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    Jan 15th 2012, 2:52 PM

    if you have a smartphone download the rotten tomatoes app. great when you’re standing in xtravision add wondering if a video is crap or not. there’s a critics rating and an audience rating and its usually fairly spot on..

    14
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    Mute Michael Sullivan
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    Jan 15th 2012, 3:49 PM

    Xtravision still exisits?!?

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    Mute Eamonn Clancy
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    Jan 15th 2012, 5:00 PM

    I just go through the latest torrents and download whatever catches my eye.

    12
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    Mute Val Kearney
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    Jan 15th 2012, 1:39 PM

    Only one I can think of in recent years has been the Hurt Locker.

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    Mute Finnian Curran
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    Jan 15th 2012, 2:18 PM

    absolutely fantastic film

    7
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    Mute Ian F.
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    Jan 15th 2012, 6:14 PM

    I was very disappointed with that film…

    7
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    Mute Ian F.
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    Jan 15th 2012, 5:12 PM

    Awards don’t influence me at all. They’re all rigged anyway and I honestly couldn’t give a crap who wins what – I watch things that are of interest to me, subject or genre wise. That whole fake red carpet and badly disguised resentment… it’s just not my thing.

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    Mute Danny D
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    Jan 15th 2012, 7:20 PM

    Overpaid actors and directors with constant need to reassurance of how talented they all are with awards and lavish parties to celebrate themselves …

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    Mute Fiachra Maolmordha Ó Raghallaigh
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    Jan 15th 2012, 4:48 PM

    Film reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic are generally what I look at. Those generally give a more balanced overview than Hollywood self-back patting.

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    Mute Laura Crowe
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    Jan 15th 2012, 4:21 PM

    Imdb is your friend in this regard.

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    Mute Paul Breen
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    Jan 15th 2012, 3:46 PM

    Of course, Oscars, Palme d’Or, Berlin Film Festival. I make sure to watch the winners of all those, and so far I’ve not been disappointed.

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    Mute Shane Brehony
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    Jan 15th 2012, 9:47 PM

    Yes as most films that are nominated for these awards , Are the ones that i choose not to go and see because most are nominated films are usually muck ie . No country for old men

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    Mute John Staunton
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    Jan 15th 2012, 2:51 PM

    as always with the journal polls there are never enough options, so my answer is:yes the awards do influence my decision because they make me aware of the movies existence so will usually check the rating and reviews on imdb.com and make up my mind if its worth a go.

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    Mute Jamie Walsh
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    Jan 15th 2012, 10:22 PM

    That’d be a reaaaaaaaallllyyy long option.

    I think they’re trying to be a bit more succinct.

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    Mute John Staunton
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    Jan 16th 2012, 12:45 AM

    lol ok you got me!

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    Mute John Staunton
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    Jan 16th 2012, 12:44 AM

    some people have said the awards go to crap movies, let just look at the last few winners. I count one bad movie out of the last 12 and thats chicago, the rest are top drawer entertainment

    2010 – “The King’s Speech”
    2009 – “The Hurt Locker”
    2008 – “Slumdog Millionaire”
    2007 – “No Country for Old Men”
    2006 – “The Departed”
    2005 – “Crash”
    2004 – “Million Dollar Baby”
    2003 – “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
    2002 – “Chicago”
    2001 – “A Beautiful Mind”
    2000 – “Gladiator”
    1999 – “American Beauty”

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    Mute Micheal Nagle
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    Jan 16th 2012, 9:50 AM

    I wonder how many of the people who said ‘No’ to this poll have seen any of the movies that John has just listed?

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    Mute Proinsias Matthews
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    Jan 15th 2012, 8:41 PM

    I probably would never of seen Crash if it hadn’t got Best Picture at the Oscars but now that I think about it that’s just about it. Lots of awards go to bad movies that mainly Americans find good but don’t agree with my taste.

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    Mute Eoin Kelly
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    Jan 16th 2012, 12:29 AM

    No but the chances of seeing some boob action does!

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    Mute Gwyn Morgan
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    Jan 16th 2012, 12:19 AM

    yes. I keep a close eye on the winners, assume that they must be schmaltzy lowest-common denominator garbage and then avoid them like the plague

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    Mute Niall O'Keeffe
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    Jan 16th 2012, 10:16 AM

    I actually don’t pay any attention to whether a film has won awards or not when deciding whether to watch it… I even tend to avoid watching trailers as I find they spoil films too much… I will, however, occasionally take a sneaky peek at a film’s rottentomatoes.com rating before deciding…

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    Mute Kerryspirit Chris
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    Jan 15th 2012, 7:53 PM

    I hit NO but i believe YES for the opposite! Against blockbusters…. ;-) And to watch things and movies a bit different of mainstream !!!! ;-)

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