The idiom I am using in the title of this article will be known to most. It refers to being in a similar situation as the items in a pickle jar, enduring the biting acetic acid of vinegar!
Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fein is currently in such an uncomfortable set of circumstances as the result of evidence given in the recent murder trial in Dublin of Gerard Hutch, 59, from the Paddocks in Clontarf, Dublin, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of David Byrne in the city during a 2016 boxing weigh-in.
She strongly denies the substance of secretly-recorded conversations between Mr Hutch and former Sinn Féin councillor, Jonathan Dowdall.
Mr Hutch’s lawyer has objected to use of the tapes because eight of the 10 hours were recorded in Northern Ireland when police bugged Dowdall’s vehicle. Mr Hutch and Dowdall were driving to Strabane in County Tyrone when the recordings were made.
The recordings reveal that Hutch and Dowdall talked of how McDonald denied any links with those involved in the murder.
Here is what is published this morning in a report on the BBC news site of the recordings of the two men’s conversation.
We have copied the report in full below.
“Dowdall then criticised Mrs McDonald for not attending the funeral of Mr Hutch’s brother, Edward, who was killed days after the shooting of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.
Dowdall said she should have attended the funeral and that she stayed away from it on purpose.
‘She didn’t attend the innocent man’s funeral. She was on the telly the night Neddy got shot and she branded everyone as scumbags, she said they’re all scumbags,’ he said.
‘She shoulda turned around and said, I know that deceased man and I know that family. It’d be different Gerard if she was a politician and it was not her area. You’s are in her area and she shoulda said that,’ he said.
‘But ya’s were good enough to use Gerard for votes, ya’s were good enough to use for money.’
Mr Hutch replied there wasn’t ‘one of them at’ the funeral.” (more…)