Gilmore 'gutless' - Gogarty

GREEN PARTY TD Paul Gogarty used his Twitter account to describe Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore as “gutless”, prompting a …

GREEN PARTY TD Paul Gogarty used his Twitter account to describe Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore as “gutless”, prompting a storm of criticism from other users of the microblogging site.

Mr Gogarty posted the first of many tweets yesterday morning in the aftermath of the revelation that the Anglo Irish Bank bailout could cost the State up to €34 billion.

“These figures really make you want to borrow Gutless Gilmore’s strategy of saying nothing and promising nothing so damned eloquently,” he wrote.

When Mr Gogarty was challenged about his statement by other users of the social networking site, he responded to a number of them in the same fashion saying: “It’s not about the next election – it’s about the next generation stupid!”

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He referred to one of his challengers as a “prat” and another as a “fool”.

He responded to others saying: “I don’t give a f*** about Gutless Gilmore”.

Mr Gogarty told The Irish Timeshe had no regrets about referring to the Labour Party leader in this way.

A Labour spokesman said the party was not concerned about the controversy. “We thought that in these circumstances Deputy Gogarty deserved a fool’s pardon,” he said.

Mary Minihan

Mary Minihan

Mary Minihan is Features Editor of The Irish Times