I'm indulging in a little theory here. I may be totally wrong - but indulge, I must. With all the political shenanigans of the past few days, culminating in the resignation of Willie O'Dea, one more bit of speculation won't hurt anyone !!. I believe, folks, that Dan Boyle knew exactly what he was doing, the other night, when he 'Tweeted' the following..
"As regards to Minister O'Dea I don't have confidence in him. His situation is compromised. Probably be a few chapters in this story yet.." 1830 - Wed 17 Feb
However, that's not my theory, as such. I have known Dan Boyle for a long time - ever since he was a bass player in a long lost Cork band, called 'Blueprint'. Handy enough, he was, too as a bass player - but that's for another day. One thing Dan Boyle is not, is stupid. He is a very regular and careful user of both Twitter and Facebook - and he knows their value as a way to quickly get something "out there". Dan knew exactly what the implications would be, when he went for his Twitter screen. He knew that as Chairman of the Party, he would be delivering a hammer-blow to Willie O'Dea's political nether regions - and that once he hit the 'enter' key, he was starting a process that could only lead to a couple of outcomes - but was most likely to lead to Willie O'Dea being forced to resign. That 'tweet' hit the screen at 6.30pm on Wednesday, and Willie was a goner at 8.30pm on Thursday - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to link the two - especially when re was that explosive interview tape on Thursday afternoon to throw into the mix.
But again - that's not the nub of my theory.
It's this..
I don't for one minute believe that Dan Boyle acted solely off his own bat on Wednesday.
As a Senator, he obviously had no input in the Dail vote of confidence in Willie O'Dea. He must have been clenching his buttocks with embarassment watching Eamonn Ryan's decidedly half hearted speech. You could see that Eamonn, who is an extremely likeable and decent guy, would have preferred to barbeque his own wedding tackle than make that speech. As part of a Coalition, the Greens had two choices - back the motion, or walk - and they have no desire to walk. They know they are dead in the water if there's an election, and they want to stay there for as long as they can! This, however, was seriously embarrassing.
So, here's what I think happened..
Dan Boyle sees his colleagues after the Dail vote. They discuss the corner that they have been backed into, and the humiliating way in which they have been forced to back a Minister when they clearly didn't want to. Dan then turns to his colleagues and says .. " OK lads - there's more than one way to skin a cat - I have an idea .. "
The rest, as they say, is history.
Am I mad ?? Or is this scenario feasible ?? You better believe it is !!
