George Hook... and a very high profile Traveller blockade
He told of ‘terror’ of almost losing his home... but helped evict 24 children
GEORGE Hook helped to evict three women and 24 Traveller children from their halting site in Foxrock in 1984.
The Newstalk host, who has spoken extensively about his ‘terror’ when he was nearly evicted from his home due to debt, reportedly used his Mercedes to tow one of the Traveller family’s caravans.
The event, which took place before Hook became widely known, was reported in the national press at the time. Reports referred to ‘Mr George Hook, from Foxrock Park Residents Association’, driving the car which took part in the eviction.
The eviction was brought to light this week by Dún Laoghaire Green Party councillor Ossian Smyth, who says he remembers the event clearly.
‘I was 13 at the time. George lived on one side of Kill Lane and we lived on the other. There were these Travellers also living there for a time and we knew them quite well.
‘I was friends with one of the boys, I still remember his name, Michael, and my mother knew the women,’ he said.
‘The residents’ association, including George, decided they needed to be moved on. They hired a JCB to get them out and when the county sheriff came to evict them and couldn’t get them out, George offered to hitch his Mercedes to one of the caravans and tow it. And that’s what happened. It was very distressing for the people involved and to watch. I remembered it a few years ago when I heard him talking about how he himself was nearly evicted.
‘He’s an old man and I don’t want to see him lose his job [with Newstalk] but he should remember he’s a great man for the witch-hunt himself.’ The Irish Press reported at the time: ‘Three itinerant widows and their 24 children’ were evicted from their Foxrock campsite. It said: ‘There were emotional scenes as residents hired a JCB caterpillar to block Foxrock Park and lent a Mercedes and a Rover 3500 to assist the county sheriff in towing the caravans away under Garda escort.’ The article refers to the Mercedes car ‘driven by Mr George Hook of Foxrock Park Residents Association’. It stated: ‘Eventually, the three women, Mrs Connors, Mrs Margaret Cash and Mrs Mary Brien, surrounded by their children and grandchildren, ranging in age from 8 weeks to 19 years, realised they could not resist such a large force. Some damage was done to the caravans as they were left at the edge of the road on the Stillorgan dual carriageway where the families had to push them to the grass margin for safety.’
Mr Hook failed to respond to a request for comment this weekend. A spokesman said ‘he hadn’t commented on anything’ since the controversy over his rape comments blew up last week.
In an interview on RTÉ in 2013, Hook recalled his own trouble, before he was famous, in the late 1980s. ‘Remember I was bankrupt and about to be evicted and near suicide. My life was in manure because I can’t hold down a job, I can’t do anything right,’ he said.
On Friday the broadcaster was suspended by Newstalk as the row about his on-air comments about rape rumbled on. The station said, in a statement: ‘Newstalk can confirm that George Hook has been suspended from his duties.’
His comments on his show last Friday week involved the case of a 19-year-old woman who alleges she was raped by a former member of the British swimming team.
‘Is there no blame to the person who puts themselves in danger?’ he asked. Several sponsors have since pulled their advertising from his show and some groups of listeners have been urged to boycott the station owned by Denis O’Brien.
A Newstalk spokesman said he no longer spoke for Hook. ‘He’s suspended. He’s left the building.’
Yesterday, Dr Ciara Kelly, a Newstalk colleague of Hook’s, told RTÉ Radio’s Marian Finucane Show: ‘I think there are some people who probably have agendas, where they would be quite pleased to see Newstalk, or George Hook, […] or anybody else who might be the competition taken down a peg or two.’
Dr Kelly, a regular guest on Hook’s show, categorically condemned his original comments and said there were rational and reasonable concerns about his comments. She had said online that the reaction had gone beyond what was proportionate to what Hook said and had turned into terrible abuse.
‘George offered to hitch his Mercedes to caravans’ ‘He’s a great man for the witch-hunts himself’