Reservoir Willie
Many of you will have already seen the weird (and comical) photograph of, Minister of Defence, Willie O'Dea posing with an automatic pistol (on the cover of The Irish Times), but it's still worth a second look…
Unsurprisingly, the image has provoked outrage from lovers of storms in teacups:
Fine Gael TD Billy Timmons has criticised the minister for allowing himself to be photographed in such a pose.
He said the photographs were inappropriate at a time of escalating gangland violence and killings.
"In my view, it demonstrates a lack of judgement and also basic common sense," he said.
Speaking in the Dáil, meanwhile, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said the minister's publicity stunt was in extreme bad taste.
He said it was "an ill-judged, tasteless stunt by a minister mad on publicity and completely without any regard for the environment in which he permits that to happen".1
Given that the picture was taken during an exercise at the Curragh camp in Co. Kildare, there was some context to the 'stunt'. It's not as if he was rampaging through the halls of Dáil Éireann taking pot-shots at passing TDs.
Perhaps it was merely intended as a show of tough guy, 'zero tolerance' by an individual whose Groucho Marx-esque appearance often occasions mirth (in this neck of the woods) .
November 17, 2005
13 responses to Reservoir Willie
This reminds me of my weird dream a couple of months ago in which I attended the funeral of Willie O’Dea in a Galway pub.
Don’t think there’s a “zero tolerance” subtext as:
a) Willie’s Minister for Defence not Justice,
…and…
b) The expression on his face clearly indicates he thinks it’s all a great gas.
Egged on by a reporter perhaps – though I am not sure he thought through the whole “Wait a minute, I’m from Limerick!â€? thing.
It’s a pretty “street” pose, although I note he doesn’t mack out with his piece in a sideways gangsta style. On reflection, his grip is more “cop” a lá Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
I think I’ll change his nickname from Reservoir to Lethal Willie.
I’m not sure if it undermines or supports his comments, but Deppity Timmins is an ex-Army officer. I offer the info as an aside.
can someone tidy up my grammar (he’s thinks) as it makes me luck dumb? I also spelt proliferation, profliferation at one point yesterday.
Exchange on the floor of the House
Mr. J. O’Keeffe (FG): Will he now be known as Willie the Kid?
Mr. O’Dea (FF): That is the worst joke I have heard this morning.
..I wonder how many he’s heard then?
Further exchange -
Mr. J. Higgins (Socialist Party): As a matter of Dáil security, did the Tánaiste require the Minister for Defence to leave his weapon at the door this morning?
(Interruptions).
An Ceann Comhairle: That does not arise on the Order of Business.
Mr. S. Power (FF): He left it besides Deputy Joe Higgins’s handcuffs (reference to Joe’s recent incarceration for refusing to bend the knee to the Man).
Mr. O’Dea (FF): Trotsky was big into weapons.
Mr. McDowell (Right Wing, I mean Progressive Democrats): Where was the ice-pick left?
Mr. J. Higgins (SP): If not, I was going to ask Deputy Ferris (Sinn Féin) to go over and disarm him.
As comebacks go, then “Trotsky was big into weapons” has to be one of the lamest I’ve ever heard. Poor, poor Willie…
Oh, and I’ll tidy up your comments C. You also spelled Reservoir wrong, but I liked the name so much I done changed the title of the post.
Did “Dream Willie” die a violent death, Jess?
Blown to bits by an old-style, anarchist bomb hurled by Mr. J. Higgins perhaps?
Perhaps the bould Willie was sending a message to anyone hoping to throw the leg over one of his daughters.
Poor Joe Higgins cannot stand up in the Dáil without the name of Trotsky being invoked by the schoolboys opposite. It’s like being transported back to the 40s. Have to say though, he doesn’t help his cause by employing the argot of 70s radicalism to denounce imperialism and anti-worker corporatists.
Re Resevoir, I prefer to characterise my misspellings as typos if you don’t mind, “sniff”.
I can imagine the level of ‘wit’ involved…
The sooner these capitalist pig-dogs die in a hail of workers’ bullets, the better!
I often taunt the cloth-capped fústar with my shiny Top Hat and monocle.
Grrr…come the time you’ll be first up them steps of the Gill O’Teen…
I’m not sure if it undermines or supports his comments, but Deppity Timmins is an ex-Army officer. I offer the info as an aside.
In the Defence Forces, someone monkeying around with a gun like that would face what may be euphemistically termed “censure”.
The form in which it would take would depend on the culprit concerned (I’ll take it that I don’t need to spell all this out).