Brian Cowen's RTE interview

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• published: 11 Mar 2011
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IT WAS the Morning Ireland after the night before. The Taoiseach sounded dog rough. Wheezy. Groggy. Muzzy. A bit slow. Around the breakfast tables of the nation, butter knives hovered above toast and and tea-cups paused mid-air as people listened, then mused: "God, but Biffo sounds like he had a right skinful last night." Whereupon all hell broke loose and the roof caved in on Brian Cowen and Fianna Fáil. So began an extraordinary day in Irish politics and media. Here's your simple guide to Gargle-gate: Was The Taoiseach out way past his bedtime drinking pints? Yes. How do we know? Because we were there. Should he have left the pub before half three in the morning? Yes. Did he belt out a song for a cheering crowd and do a few funny impersonations? Yes. Was he any good? Yes, actually. He was a hoot. Did he look drunk? No. Did anyone whisper to him that it was time to go? Not that we saw. Has he only himself to blame? Yes. Is he utterly mortified now? Yes. Does that matter? No. The genie is out of the bottle now. By the end of an incredible day yesterday, a sore head was the least of Brian Cowen's problems. He was a humiliated man with a badly damaged reputation, a laughing stock in the international press and an embarrassment to his appalled colleagues who had to rally to his defence. In the Ardilaun Hotel, party handlers and the Taoiseach's closest allies wandered about, stunned, whispering into their mobile phones. The skies have opened over Fianna Fáil and the party is sinking. The Taoiseach took his demoralised troops to Galway in an effort to put some steel in their souls, but in his accident-prone fashion, he managed to insert it between their shoulder blades instead. The politicians should have been returning to their constituencies yesterday afternoon with a clearer outlook and a bit more pep in their step. But if they were fragile before they arrived, they were shattered when they left. All because their boss sounded hungover during his interview on Morning Ireland . This led to a bizarre chain of events as the media went into overdrive and Fianna Fáil went into meltdown. Why such a frenzied reaction to this 13 minutes of airtime? Because in the media, it has often been hinted that our sociable Taoiseach is overly fond of a drop, but nobody had ever said it or written it straight out. When radio shows and the internet began buzzing and tweeting about Cowen's woeful performance, and one of those questioning his level of sobriety included an Opposition frontbench spokesman, the journalists had legitimate grounds to broach this sensitive issue. A little hoarse and a storm in a stirrup cup? Or the beginning of the end? Time will tell. *From MIRIAM LORD in the Irish Times