It will still be forever known as ‘gargle-gate’.
Where do we start with this one?
Okay, back in 2010 the then Taoiseach, Brian Cowen and his fellow party members headed west to Galway for a think-tank that turned into every drink being drank in the place, allegedly.
Cowen was reportedly in top form on that famous night and stayed out until half three, singing songs from the top of his lungs and pulling off famous impersonations of other political people.
The majority of us have stayed out too late and had one too many and had to be somewhere the next morning, that is perfectly fine and normal.
However, when you’re the Taoiseach and that place you have to be the following morning is Morning Ireland, one of the biggest morning radio programmes in the country, that’s not so fine and normal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwjJFvyDA60
Clip via vent danz
Immediately after the interview, Fine Gael opposition spokesman, Simon Coveney put out a tweet suggesting that Cowen was drunk and thus began the famous “gargle-gate.”
Sadly, the background behind this piece of Irish folklore has been squashed by none other than the man who interviewed him on that famous morning, RTÉ’s outgoing Morning Ireland presenter, Cathal MacCoille.
According to the Independent, MacCoille broke his seven-year silence on the matter by insisting that Cowen was not drunk during the early-morning interview.
MacCoille presented his last Morning Ireland radio show on Friday and told the online Irish language magazine, Tuarisc, that although he wasn’t satisfied with the interview with Cowen he was certainly not drunk.
“He was evasive and things were really bad in the country. He did himself no favours, he was evading questions about the economic crisis which was coming,” the RTÉ presenter said.
MacCoille was present in the hotel the night of the think-tank but said that people prefer rumour to the truth.
Sure, as the man says, ‘don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story’.
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