"I HAVE had no problem with the Revenue Commissioners. I do not have any problem with the Revenue Commissioners. I will not have any problem with the Revenue Commissioners in the future as long as my company is in business."
These were the fighting words of a former Fine Gael minister in Thurles, Co Tipperary, last night. He told a crowd of over 1,000: "Michael Lowry is down, he's not out and he is determined to bounce back."
He was ashen faced, and at times his voice broke. His stoop was familiar as he walked in the dark towards the hotel and camera lights. It was shortly after 8 p.m. when he came home, without The Car. He was entitled to one last trip with his Garda driver, but had chosen to take a lift back from Dublin instead.
"For the past week, and from one particular quarter for a sustained period over two years, you have seen media power," Mr Lowry told the meeting in the Anner Hotel ballroom, which was closed to the press. "Now you are seeing people power," he said, after the television cameras had left.
He was physically and emotionally battered, he said, and hurt badly inside. Every sentence was punctuated by loud applause and louder cheers. He was overwhelmed by the turnout.
"It's very easy to welcome home a Minister. It's not so easy to welcome home a TD under these circumstances," he said. He pledged to stand again in the constituency where he topped the poll last time out.
He had a perfectly legitimate business arrangement with his biggest customer, he said, without naming Dunnes Stores. He had not been given time to answer a series of detailed questions which would have involved divulging confidential information about another company, he said, looking his audience in the eye. He had resigned in the interests of the Government, he declared.
This Coalition had done more in two years for Tipperary than any other government in the last 30. years, he said, and the planned third level college for Thurles would go ahead. The aim must be to return Fine Gael and Labour in the next election.
In the crowd, his wife, Catherine, and their three children, received warm embraces, as did key party members, including Mr Ailbe Allen, the former party director of elections for North Tipperary, his wife, Mairead Allen, and local councillors. "This is only a temporary break in his career," Mr Noel Coonan of Templemore/Roscrea, said. Mr Lowry was a "phenomenal workaholic".
Why, he remembered a telephone call from the former minister at 2.50 a.m. about a constituency matter, "which showed the mettle of the man."
"Incidentally, why didn't you' ring earlier?" the councillor had' asked Mr Lowry before he hung up. "Because I didn't think you'd be home yet," came the reply.
