Oh, you mean that Sean South....!

limerick | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Friday November 24, 2006 11:55 by Jimmy Woulfe - Irish Examiner 16 November 2006

O’Dea pulls out of launch for IRA man’s biography

DEFENCE MINISTER Willie O’Dea was at the centre of another embarrassing gaffe last night after it was claimed he was forced to pull out of the launch of the biography of the famed Limerick IRA man Sean South of Garryowen.

The minister, who is also from Limerick, withdrew from the event claiming he did not realise who the book was about when he agreed to do the launch. The biography by Des Fogerty is entitled Sean South of Garryowen.

Another gaffe for accident prone minister

Mr O’Dea rejected claims by the family that he came under pressure from his own officials to pull out.

Sean South, whose death inspired a famous rebel ballad, was shot dead along with another IRA man, Fergal O’Hanlon, during an attack on the RUC barracks in Brookeborough, in January 1957.

Mr O’Dea said: “I thought the book I was to launch was about somebody else.”

However, Owen South, a well-known photographer and nephew of Sean South, challenged the minister’s version of events.

“The publisher got a call from the Department of Defence saying the minister would not be attending the launch at Peter Clohessy’s bar next Saturday night,” he said.

“It was the department and not the minister who contacted us to say he would not be turning up. For the minister to say he did not know at the outset who the book was about is rubbish. He knew all along the book was about Sean South. Obviously there was pressure from his own department or somewhere not to turn up.”

Mr O’Dea said that when he accepted the invitation to launch the book, he did not realise it was about Sean South.

“I did not realise it was about Sean South until the other day and I did not think it would be appropriate for the Minister for Defence to launch a book about Sean South,” he said.

Mr O’Dea denied he was warned by officials in the Department of Defence not to do the launch.

“It was my own decision. To be honest I assumed the book was about somebody else as I did a book launch some time ago about the city fishermen.

“I only realised the book was on Sean South when my diary was being checked and somebody got in touch with my office. I don’t think it appropriate for me to be launching a book on Sean South.

“We are trying to bring peace in the North,” he said.

Mr O’Dea said his decision to withdraw from launching the book was no slight on the South family.

“Ger South (brother of Sean South) and Owen South (nephew) are people I know very well. They are fine decent people. If I had realised at the beginning, I would not have agreed to launch the book in the first place,” he said.

“I regret any inconvenience by initially accepting the invitation. I did not take the time to find out what the book was about. It was a genuine mistake and it would have been worse if I went in and did it.”

Last year, Mr O’Dea was heavily criticised after posing with a gun following gangland shootings that left three men dead.