Padraig Flynn: Death of a Political Career

I was reminded of this interview recently and thought it was a good, and reasonably entertaining example, of how a political career can be destroyed in a few short minutes by a careless display of arrogance and hubris.





From Flynn's wikipedia entry:

On 15 January 1999 Flynn made comments on a live chat show (The Late Late Show) regarding Tom Gilmartin and a donation of £50,000 to the Fianna Fáil party. On the same programme, Flynn made comments about his own lifestyle (following a question by journalist Barry O'Halloran); he boasted of having a salary of £100,000 (Punts) together with three houses, cars and housekeepers and traveled regularly, yet complained about the hassle involved. The performance which was seen as eccentric and out of touch - at a time when house prices were rising significantly. In effect, Flynn was interpreted as behaving in a manner more befitting the Irish stereotype known as the Dublin 4 mentality, complaining of the costs incurred in the pursuit of extravagance.

The show presenter, Gay Byrne, then asked Flynn if he knew of Gilmartin. Flynn responded that he knew him well. Flynn seemed to be making an attack of Gilmartin's emotional stability, based on the effect of sickness of Gilmartin's wife. This hurt Gilmartin a great deal, while also bringing the illness of his wife into the picture as the real driving force behind Gilmartin's testimony against Flynn. If it was to be interpreted as an attack of Gilmartin's credibility, then it backfired in a spectacular manner against Flynn. Also, unknown to Flynn, Gilmartin was actually watching the Late Late on Tara Television at his home in Luton. This was seen as the end of any possible return to politics in Ireland, although this was previously expected.

It's generally assumed that Flynn, normally a very polished media performer, had had a few drinks in the green room before the show and let his guard down.

Don't you love car crash TV.