Tomás Ó Flatharta

It seems a Fine Gael Minister in 2012 was a movie fan who liked the Godfather gangster series. Michael Lowry TD lost a defamation action against the journalist Sam Smyth, prompting this exchange between the writer and the politician :

A Fine Gael minister once explained to me how he categorised Michael Lowry losing a defamation action against me in the High Court back in 2012: “It’s not personal, it’s just business.”

Sam Smyth

The fictional inspiration :

I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen; I didn’t ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!

Hyman Roth, like his old friend Vito Corleone, never lets things get personal. At least, he tries not to and puts up a facade that he does. Of course, that’s not true, he goes after Michael for both personal and financial reasons, but not before pretending it’s never personal.

Source :

Godfather Movie Quotes

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Sam Smyth has published a very full explanation of Michael Lowry’s business and personal dealings.

Link :
Sam Smyth Versus Michael Lowry – Beggar-Gombeen Corruption in Ireland

I am not so philosophical: It was very personal to me. 

Had I lost, the disgraced former minister would have ended my career as a journalist and put me out of house and home.

Lowry contended that I had defamed him on the Tonight with Vincent Browne show on TV3 on June 24, 2010.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, the High Court judge who considered Lowry’s allegations against me, repeated in his February 10, 2012 judgment what I said that so enraged Lowry that he sought to go after me personally in the courts. 

This is the transcript of the show as taken from the Kearns judgment:

Sam Smyth: “But the first that we caught sort (sic) on video with hand in till was Michael Lowry and he resigned as you might remember as Minister for Communications which all this has led on from.” 

Vincent Browne: “Now let’s be clear now, let’s be careful about the hand in till. There is no suggestion at all anyway that Michael Lowry used his position as Minister to extract public funds that weren’t, that he wasn’t entitled to.”

Sam Smyth: “No but was in receipt, in allowed? The biggest business in the country to pay for the refurbishment of his home. I mean…” 

Vincent Browne: “There was a tax that was a tax fraud.”

Sam Smyth: “And that well, there was not only a tax fraud, I really don’t think most people think it’s a good idea for Ministers to have their bills picked up by businessmen.”

Lowry contended in his legal filings that these words meant he was “a thief, a corrupt politician, unfit to be a TD or Government Minister and was or is a dishonest or untrustworthy politician”.

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