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MICK WALLACE AND fellow independent TDs Shane Ross and Luke Ming Flanagan have come under fire after Wallace labelled Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor as ‘Miss Piggy’.
Wallace was recorded in conversation with his Dáil technical group colleagues during the order of business yesterday, unaware that a nearby microphone was recording what he was saying.
During an exchange with Ross and Flanagan, he is heard to say twice: ”Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit today,” with Flanagan confirming that Wallace is referring to Dún Laoghaire TD Mitchell O’Connor.
The audio has been uploaded by political blogger Suzy Byrne to YouTube with the offensive remarks to be heard from 1.10:
The full exchange is as follows:
Mick Wallace “…Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit today.”
Shane Ross: “Who’s that?”
Wallace: “Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit.”
Flanagan: “That Mary Mitchell O’Connor one. I couldn’t remember her name on Vincent Browne.”
Ross: “Was she on with you?”
Flanagan: “No she wasn’t…the one who drove off the plinth…they’d want to ban her wearing pink.” (Flanagan is referring to the incident earlier this year where Mitchell O’Connor took a wrong turn on her first day in the Dáil and drove down steps outside Leinster House)
Ross: “[Laughter]. Oh yeah, that’s right. She’s nothing sensational, she normally wears the most garish colours (trails off)…”
A number of Mitchell O’Connor’s party colleagues have heavily criticised the remarks and the behaviour of the independent TDs.
Fine Gael chief whip Paul Kehoe has indicated he is investigating the matter and that it may be referred to the Dáil Committee on Privileges and Procedure, according to the Irish Daily Mail.
Mitchell O’Connor’s party colleague, Alan Farrell tweeted last night: “Poor judgement by Mick Wallace TD. Calling a colleague a schoolyard name is beneath a parliamentarian.”
Mary Mitchell-O’Connor has told TheJournal.ie she will be responding to the matter later today.
Shane Ross and Luke Ming Flanagan could not be reached for comment this morning.
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Didn’t he sail the first leg of the journey on the Titanic to Cobh to take photos. He left a great legacy after him.
He did. Someone offered him a ticket onward to New York but his superior told him he needed to stay in Ireland.
Trench life really does look grim
Was there ever a TV documentary about him? A movie would be excellent.
The article says Nationwide have a program on tonight about him. Well worth catching it.
Seems he was a bit special alright. Go for it scriptwriters!
For those out there interested in such things – I also recommend the work of a Limerick-based German called Franz S. Haselbeck who worked the same time period. Not just interesting historical subjects but fine quality shots in their own right.
I love his story
A remarkable and brave man through keeping a photographic record of life and death in the trenches, but why is his photographs only coming to light now in documenting Irishmen in the war…..
They gave their today so that the flag could fly over Africa for another 50 years rather than the German eagle getting a piece.
So that tens of thousands could be beat, starved and shot every year by British and French men rather than Germans.
Lovely old war, it was.
Oddly enough if you go to Namibia,formerly South West Africa and a German possesion,Togo or the Cameroon.You will find plenty of German speaking natives who are all very proud of their ancestors serving the Kaiser.German is still the second langauge of Namibia and those who do, all have German citizenship too.Parts of it look like a German town was transplanted to Africa,and they brew a very good beer as well.Seeing as the Germans got in late for the old empire building game they didnt get too much experiance of beating burning and massacaring the natives like the old hands Britan and France.In fact the Germans got their asses handed to them by the Hereoes a few times in gureilla warfare out there.But by and large in their former colonies the Germans are still well liked and welcomed.Wonder how many other former imperialistic powers can claim that one?Ironicly I suppose Ireland might fit in there somplace?
There were black officers in the German African division, over seeing native Germans.
Plucky little Belgium was a genocidal state, to a degree that even shocked the British and French, themselves notorious for abusing and killing the natives.
This was an imperial spat, that is all it was. Dying for chandeliers in palaces and to keep blacks in chains.
John the colonial powers of France and Britain change the world . The industrial revolution transform many countries into economic powers . The benefits that came from it for many countries where enormous . The railways , modern medicine , education where all spread across the world . In 1840 it was estimated that 40 percent of the British army was made up of Irish men . They equally play a part in the creation of the British empire . They where there at Waterloo to defeat napoleon and bring the French empire to an end . They took part in the expansion of the British empire and they where there to defend its breakup in ww1.
There was a pretty nasty period of German rule in South West Africa around 1908 when they took fairly brutal measures against the locals that were up there with King Leopold’s running of the Congo.
I don’t think that’s forgotten in Namibia.
I have to agree with most of what you say here, but people who fought for what they believed in still deserve to be remembered with dignity.
Messenger Publications recently published a collection of Father Browne’s war photographs – Father Browne’s First World War. It is widely available in bookshops and online.
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