Munster Express Online

 

Minister Martin Cullen finally broke his silence last week on the extensive media scrutiny into his private life which, he said had felt like “being raped”.

 

Speaking at a defamation conference in Dublin, chaired by Mr Justice Peter Kelly, Minister Cullen said the false allegations made against him and Monica Leech had left him feeling violated.

“The only way I can describe it to you is that…it was like waking up every day and being raped as a man – and that is how I felt and I use those words very carefully,” he told the conference on Thursday last. “But that was actually how I felt.”

He added: “And as it progressed I said to myself one night: ‘Actually, I don’t feel like that. I actually go to bed every night knowing that I’m going to be raped the following day.”

At the height of the intrusion into his private life, the Minister featured on the front pages of Sunday newspapers for 13 successive weeks causing irreparable damage, he said yesterday.

In his speech, described as “personal, very brave and incredibly honest” by one observer, Minister Cullen outlined the torment which he and his family had been subjected to.

His children were forced to change school three times due to bullying and, quite shockingly in his daughter’s instance, due to a teacher humiliating her about the rumours surrounding her father.

Minister Cullen also made reference to a journalist entering his former wife’s home when her daughter was inside, ‘bullying’ her into calling her mother in pursuit of a comment.

The Minister’s sons had been forced to “defend their father’s honour” when taunted by schoolmates but “got the living daylights beaten out of them” in return.

Long after it was established that the story was untrue, sections of the media continued to perpetuate an image of him as a “buffoon”, as someone who was abusing his position, he felt.

In March of last year, five people nearly died when the door of a helicopter in which Minister Cullen was travelling fell off.

In the aftermath, the Minister felt he had been “portrayed as the villain…who spent all his time flying around the world” when in fact he had used the helicopter only four times in five years.

But Minister Cullen stressed that he had not come to yesterday’s conference to twist the knife into the media nor to seek sympathy given his own experiences.

“The only pillar that’s left in terms of communicating with the Irish people is the media, and I think in that sense, then, the media have… a grave, grave responsibility to act in a way that at least presents a story in a factual way.”

However, the Minister’s choice of words was subject to criticism on last Thursday night’s edition of ‘Tonight With Vincent Browne’.

The TV3 host and Irish Times columnist described Minister Cullen’s phraseology as “over the top” while journalist and barrister Marion McKeon went further, labelling the comments as “self-serving, narcissistic and disgusting”.

Widely-read blogger Maman Poulet (mamanpoulet.com) stated: “It was a crass and extremely hurtful remark. I’m sure the Minister and his family suffered significant distress during the period but surely he could have found another situation to provide comparison.

“There is no comparison between rape and the effects of press intrusion. Especially as the Minister himself handled the situation very badly in terms of managing the response.”

Taking a more sympathetic line on his blog, the Tallyman (www.tallyman.ie) posted:

“I am worried that (Minister Cullen’s) words and the meaning that he was trying to convey in them could very well be taken out of context, especially by media outlets that were not there.

“The Minister was clearly referring to the dread and fear he suffered and the constant anxiety that the allegations were cultivating in his life.”

He added: “The Minister’s speech and subsequent statements to questions drew no criticism from a room full of journalists, legal professionals, the Press Ombudsman and indeed academics.”

The weekend’s newspapers also criticised the Minister’s selected phraseology to varying degrees.

Sunday Times columnist Brenda Power described Minister Cullen’s use of the word ‘rape’ as “idiotic”.

She added: “Clumsy and hysterical as Cullen’s language certainly was, it did convey a vivid impression of what it must be like to find yourself at the centre of a media whirlwind, when it seems that you have been selected as the country’s main supplier of newspaper headlines, phone-in fodder and pub talk without ever actually tendering for the job.”

In its editorial, The Sunday Tribune described Minister’s Cullen’s “unfortunate” use of the word, suggesting it demonstrating his lack of understanding about this most harrowing crime. “The Minister says he feels wounded by these stories and their effects,” stated its leader writer.

“But while he chose a specific phrase to focus attention on how badly he feels, his case would have been all the stronger for not using it.”