‘If I was there, I was there ...but I’d have to check my diary...’
THE MoS contacted soon-to-be Judge Eoin Garavan by phone to discuss his post-dated appointment to the bench.
EG: ‘You know I’m not allowed to talk. Once the appointment is made, you’re not allowed to talk. I’m allowed to work for a few more weeks but I’m not allowed to take any more cases. I have to work, otherwise I would be four months unemployed... and I have a family to feed.’ MoS: ‘Were you at an event for supporters of the Taoiseach at Lough Lannagh village the day before polling in the general election last February? EG: ‘I don’t remember that. I haven’t been involved with Fine Gael for eight years now. I stepped away from the party. I walked away from Fine Gael, I didn’t agree with some things. If I was there and I suppose I could have been, I genuinely don’t remember.’ MoS: ‘We have spoken to someone who attended the event who says you were there.
EG: ‘If someone says that, I won’t disagree with them. If I was there, I was there. I’d have to check my diary. I have a vague memory of Paddy Burke being at a thing last year but I honestly can’t say it was the same night. But I can’t remember if the Taoiseach was there. I certainly wasn’t talking to him. It wasn’t a case that I was being thanked for anything because I didn’t canvass for Fine Gael. I haven’t talked to the Taoiseach for about eight years I would say.’ Here the MoS told him about the picture of him with Enda
Kenny in the Castlebar Courthouse in 2011. He remembered details of that meeting, including what he was wearing and who he was standing beside.
EG: ‘I see what you’re getting at but I’m not a Fine Gael man. I’ve worked in Mayo, Galway and Dublin for the past 27 years as a barrister and I like
to think my record got me the job. I haven’t time for politics. I applied many years ago for this job too. That’s the way it is, you fill in the form and you wait full of hope. Nobody was more surprised than me when the announcement was made last Tuesday. I feel very lucky to be appointed.’ After the conversation, the MoS discovered that Mr Garavan had seconded Cllr Brendan Heneghan for a position on the Fine Gael ticket in the Castlebar Selection Convention for the 2014 local elections. To second someone, he would have had to be a delegate to the convention. To be a delegate to the convention, he would have to have been a member of Fine Gael. We rang and texted Mr Garavan – but received no response to the apparent discrepency. We then spoke with Mr Heneghan, a former mayor of Castlebar. BH: ‘Yes, Eoin did second me, but that’s three years ago. He might have been a member of the party but not involved.’ The MoS then asked whether Mr
Heneghan knew about the Lough Lannagh event, and if Mr Garavan was there.
BH: ‘Yes, I recall there was an event at Lough Lannagh the evening before the last election, there was something on there. I don’t remember Eoin being at it but even if he was, isn’t he entitled? What’s wrong with that?’