Journalist Aoife Moore spoke to Newstalk Daily about the 'Golfgate' scandal and believes that there are two approaches to political apologies - those of Dara Calleary and Phil Hogan. 

In August 2020, the nation was shocked to learn that members of the Oireachtas Golf Society had held a dinner in Clifden, County Galway. 

80 people were in attendance, all at a time when there were strict rules limiting the number of people who could attend weddings and even funerals. 

The story was broken by two Irish Examiner journalists, Aoife Moore and Paul Hosford, and made international headlines. 

The morning after, Mr Hosford was up early, looking after his young baby, when the story moved on in dramatic fashion. 

“I turn on the computer and next thing, Dara Calleary has resigned, statement drops in,” he recalled on Newstalk Daily. 

“Seven o’clock in the morning, gone. 

“Falling on his sword, has spoken to the Taoiseach, he’s gone - which I think he deserves an awful lot of credit for. 

“I think he could have dragged it out and tried to cling on, made the technical argument.” 

Dara Calleary in 2020. Picture by: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie.

Dara Calleary had only been a Cabinet Minister for a few days, having been made Minister for Agriculture following the resignation of Brian Cowen. 

It was one of the shortest ministerial careers in the history of the State. 

“I’ve thought about it right through the night, I assure you,” he announced. 

“I had a couple of conversations with the Taoiseach about it but my own mind was coming around that I needed to put my hand up, stand up and say, ‘I’ve messed up here and damaged the national effort to try and take on COVID.’” 

Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary has resigned from cabinet, effective immediately. #iestaff

— Paul Hosford (@PTHosford) August 21, 2020

Five years on, Deputy Calleary is back in Cabinet once again, this time as Minister for Social Protection. 

In the long run, Mr Hosford believes that the resignation has been “of benefit” to his career, demonstrating integrity and honesty. 

The Mayo TD also seemed remarkably sanguine about the affair, texting Ms Moore afterwards to say there were “no hard feelings” and that she was a “wonderful journalist”. 

“Some politicians are incredibly thin skinned but the good politicians know that they have a job to do and we have a job to do,” she said. 

“And they don’t take it personally - Dara Calleary is one of them.” 

Phil Hogan. Picture by: RTE/Rollingnews.ie.

Another attendee, European Commissioner Phil Hogan, tried to ride out the controversy. 

In a defiant interview with RTÉ, Mr Hogan apologised for attending the Golf Society dinner but insisted he had not broken any rules. 

However, after Taoiseach Micheál Martin criticised his actions as having “undermined the whole approach to public health in Ireland”, the EU trade chief announced his resignation. 

“What I always say to people now about Golfgate is there’s a great lesson in life here,” Ms Moore said. 

“In life, you can be Dara Calleary or you can be Phil Hogan; Phil Hogan half heartedly apologised. 

“What politicians never seem to learn is the drip, drip, drip of misinformation and then factual information is so much worse than just coming out and saying what you did in the first place.

“It would have been so much easier to say, ‘I didn’t check the rules before I got here and this is what happened and I’m sorry.’” 

Mr Hogan later criticised the Government for surfing a “wave of populist indignation” and later refused to rule out legal action against the European Commission in 2022. 

Main image: Dara Calleary. Picture by: Alamy.com.