I think I like the same sort of bar-fighting that Senator Jimmy Harte does. You don’t play politics unless you want to get bruised and dirty, and Jimmy appreciates that.

I criticized Jimmy Harte because it seemed to me that he leapt on an obviously scurrilous and fake Irish Independent smear job in order to give voice to xenophobic sentiment. The Irish Independent is the William Martin Murphy paper, and Labour is the Jim Larkin party, and for a Labour man to engage in that sort of lynch mob mentality at the Indo’s behest is unacceptable. The Labour Party should be defending working people and the unemployed. The Labour Party should be on the side of a Polish immigrant who can’t find a job. The Labour Party should be on Magda’s side, instead of saying how she should be deported and shunned.

I can be as mean to Jimmy and say things as stupid and hateful to him as he did to me, no question. But the worst thing he said was to call me biased against Donegal. I love Donegal and have many friends from Donegal, and I am truly shocked and hurt to think that anyone would think me capable of hating Donegal or any county. Except for Cork and Meath, obviously.