WOULFE’S NIGHT OUT DRINKS, DINNER AND DREAD

ON WEDNESDAY, August 19, Justice Woulfe had breakfast on his own in Clifden. He was not closely involved in the Oireachtas golf event and did not know many people playing in it.

He learned that his tee-time was 1.20pm and arranged to meet one of his playing partners for tea at the golf club in Ballyconneely beforehand.

He left the hotel around midday. At that stage he was not aware of arrangements, if any, for eating after the game.

On arrival at the clubhouse in Ballyconneely, he paid a fee for the outing and was told it included dinner – this was the moment he became aware there would be a meal with the event.

At 1.20pm, he began his round with three other members of his fourball – former Senator Lorraine Higgins, former TD Gerry Reynolds, and a man named Tony Walsh, whom he had not met beforehand.

Owing to poor weather, they came in after the ninth hole. They had lunch and arranged to meet for a drink in the Station House Hotel before the dinner.

He went downstairs from his room at around 8.15pm and met one of his playing partners for a drink. They then called into dinner in the Omey Suite.

When they sat down at table five, the Lady Captain Golfer: Lorraine Higgins was in the group of the local golf club was on his left and Ms Higgins was on his right, along with the Moroccan Ambassador. All of the people he associated with at the event appeared to him to be in the same room as him. He wasn’t aware of an adjoining room and could not hear any noise coming from it. At the end of the dinner there were speeches and a prize giving. During the prize giving, at least one person who was called on to receive a prize approached the front of the room in the Omey Suite from Justice Woulfe’s left. Justice Woulfe stated that this did not give him any cause for concern. However, he later acknowledged that this person may have been dining in a second room behind the partition wall.

The next morning, he had breakfast alone and drove to Donegal.

Later that day, he was ‘absolutely dumbfounded’ to hear that Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary had resigned on account of attending the dinner.

He stated that it had seemed to him as though the media were pressing that there was a new Government rule on August 19 and that the permitted number of people at a gathering had gone from 50 to six people.

He said that if he had time to think he would have known such a change could not have happened so swiftly.

He stated that there had been ‘wholesale confusion’ in the public’s understanding of the regulations.