Senator Colm Burke ordered to pay €3,500 and censured by solicitors
News in Brief Cascade of bullshit is raining down on Roy, but this time it really isn’t his fault, writes Jerome Reilly R
A FINE GAEL senator who runs a legal practice in Cork has been found guilty of professional misconduct over his dealings with a woman who was “misled” into believing he was taking a case for her when he was not.
Senator Colm Burke was censured by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the lawyers’ regulatory body, ordered to pay €3,000 to the compensation fund and €500 towards the woman’s expenses in taking the proceedings. OY Keane and I have ‘ a bit of previous.’ My favourite footballer with my favourite club and then he pulls that walk-out stunt in Saipan.
Twelve years on, it’s still an unforgivable act of betrayal, permanently banned from conversation in the pub .
And I wrote about it in trenchant terms. The perceived treachery, the utter dismay, nay disgust, of those who had held him in such high regard ran deep.
But in those traumatic, bewildering days, egged on by Eamon Dunphy and others, Keane was not for turning.
Remember the Tommie Gorman interview: “What about the children, Roy?” Remember Roy back in Manchester vaulting a gate to avoid the media with the late lamented Triggs?
It was the childish strop that brought the country to a standstill, divided families and friends. Even now, they glare across the bar at each other as their whiskers turn grey.
And yet it is time to mount a defence of Roy Keane, time to dismiss the bullshit of the last few weeks, as absurd in its own way as the fiasco on that South Pacific island.
Keane is being goaded, poked with a stick like a cross dog in a cage. And Keane is beginning to snarl and bite back.
The latest cascade of BS occurred at a press conference last Sunday.
Examination of the transcript is illuminating. The relevant exchange came after a 35-minute press conference during which Keane had thoughtfully and intelligently answered questions .
The FAI press officer sought to wrap up the conference but there was one final question which sparked a rumpus between Keane and two reporters. Journalist 1: “Sorry, Roy, I want to ask this because it was touched upon earlier. I expect to get the stare but I’m going to ask anyway. Martin was asked before the game about the incident, he said it was a distraction and he moved on, I’m just thinking in the last six months . . . I’d like your thoughts on this. Between the Celtic link, and the Villa link, the book situation and the incident last week, has he had enough distractions?” Kea e: “I’m not going to give you any comment on that . . . why would you think I have to give you an opinion on everything? Do you think you’ve a right to sit there and ask me anything you want and get an answer. I think I’ve been more than fair with yous”. Journalist 1: “You have. My point is that Martin is being asked about distractions. Has he had enough of those distractions?” Keane: “What are you asking me for? What are you talking about? What distractions? Can I do anything about the Celtic stuff?”
‘Some might say Dunphy has more faces than the town hall clock to criticise Roy’
Journalist 1: “Yeah, the Celtic stuff, Villa . . .” Keane: “Can I do anything about them things that come up? If I get approached by a club about a job and I’m up front with the manager and the media, do you want me to, how is that a distraction? What can I do about that? You’re making out that I’m bringing all those distractions on.” Journalist 1: “So it just happens, it’s just coincidence these things happen?” Keane: “Well if a club approaches me, these things just happen, yeah, and the book. How is the book . . . do you think the book is a distraction to a group of professional people? Do me a favour.
“And people all writing incidents about the other night. Lies. And people have got pals, and talking to them. Do you think I’m going to justify all that to you? And you all sit there and think I’ve got to answer to everything? Who the hell do you think you are? I’ve got to answer to you?”
The argy bargy continues for some minutes, the journalist pressing for more answers. The exchanges become increasingly testy and then . . . Journalist 2: “Roy can I just ask about one final thing? You said you wouldn’t talk about what happened with Frank the other night.” Keane: “Frank? Do you know him?” Journalist 2: “I do know him.” Keane: “Of course you do. You know him well, yeah, you know him well. You know Mick McCarthy well don’t you?” FAI Press Officer: “Right, listen . . . Roy has given you his time, we’ll leave it there.” Journalist 2 [Continues]: “I don’t . . . I know him well.” Keane: “You know Frank well don’t you?” Journalist 2: “I know Frank yeah.” Keane: “You know Frank well. Exactly.” [gets up to leave] Journalist 2: “Do you want to say anything about the other night?” FAI Press thanks.”
Keane walks.
Officer:
“No
“Frank” is Frank Gillespie, the Boston-based publican and self-confessed Irish “superfan” involved in a “major bust-up” with Roy two weeks ago at the team hotel in Portmarnock.
The world fell in after that one. One paper headlined the incident: “Fan in explosive