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Cocaine exposé that rocked Dáil
By Robert Brennan
September saw the publication of The High Society by Justine Delaney-Wilson,
a controversial exposé of the drug culture in middle and upper-class
Ireland.
The book exposes the myth that the drug problem is consigned to run down
Dublin estates and gave an insight into modern day Ireland with revelations
that rocked the Dáil.
The book contains many shocking revelations; including a Government Minister
who admitted to snorting cocaine.
This has led to fevered speculation on Irish airwaves and newspapers about
his identity and whether or not there really is rampant drug use amongst
the pillars of Irish society.
There have been calls for the book’s author to face police charges
if she did not reveal his identity.
Delaney-Wilson insisted she would not betray her source, who says in her
book: “I certainly do take drugs — just coke though —
regularly enough.
“I am certainly not the only one around here [in the Dáil]
that does.
“The hypocrisy that surrounds it really galls me.
“We all know how widespread it is, in bars, offices and over there
[gestures to the Dáil]. But we pretend to be horrified when we
read the figures in the papers or hear about rampant abuse among professionals.”
The opposition called on the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to question his cabinet
over the revelation.
Delaney-Wilson stated that she had a moral duty to protect her sources
even when they were Ministers.
She said: “Of course I don’t want to spend any time in garda
custody or a night in Mountjoy prison.
“But I gave this minister my word I would protect him.”
The writer said she would have been less shocked if politicians and the
public had raised a storm over the neurosurgeon, air traffic controllers,
lawyers and a nun who all said they took drugs.
She said: “I think this whole affair shows that Ireland is a nation
in denial in relation to drugs.
“It says a lot that people are more concerned about a politician
taking drugs than those who have our lives in their hands like doctors
and air traffic controllers.
“I can understand that people will be angry that a Minister in a
government which is waging a war against drugs is taking drugs.
“But I never once in my research witnessed the commission of crime.
“What this tells us is that while Ireland takes on working-class
drug use and the crime connected to it, it tolerates middle-class crime.
“In reality it is middle-class cocaine consumption that is really
fuelling drugs and crime in the state.”
Traces of cocaine have been found in the toilets of the Irish parliament
at least three times in the past two years. |
