Philip Walton Looking for Apology from Biffo

durkadurka

Garglegate just gets funnier....


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0916/breaking51.html


Ryder cup winning golfer Philip Walton has written to Taoiseach Brian Cowen asking him to explain why he mimicked the sportsman at the now infamous Fianna Fáil party meeting in Galway.
In a statement released exclusively to Reuters today, Walton said he and his wife felt compelled to contact Brian Cowen after details of the skit appeared in newspapers and television reports.
"From what I have heard and read so far the stories are of concern to myself, my wife and also my children as they have seen reports on 'You Tube'," Walton said in a statement.
"As a result, we felt the best thing at this point was to write to An Taoiseach ourselves to get more details and the exact context of the various stories."
The statement said Walton, who holed the winning putt in the 1995 Ryder Cup, felt "anger" at this week's events.
Walton's letter will heap further pressure on Mr Cowen who was forced to apologise yesterday for performing badly on a morning radio interview.
A renowned mimic, he regaled the media and political colleagues, including senior Government ministers, with a song and impersonations, including one of Walton, on Monday night.
Reuters

whatawaster

fair play to him

chughes

whatawaster wrote: »

fair play to him

Couldn't putt it better myself.

Aidric

Laughable stuff.

LostCovey

TwentyMajor has an exclusive tape of the complaint.

http://twentymajor.net/2010/09/16/phillip-walton-makes-complaint-about-brian-cowen/

thelongfellow

Remind me never to do my impression of Philip Walton when I've had a few beers...

blackwaterfish

hilarious! a genuine case of you couldnt make it up. Life weirder than fiction once again.

have to say tho, the idea of our leader "regaling media and political colleagues with impersonations and songs" out-weirds everything ever.

whatever he lacks as taoiseach... biffo's sounds like class crack ( if you could stand to be around politico's for longer than .1 of a second )

does he even play golf ffs!?

JerryHandbag

However funny you might think Waltons voice sounds, for a guy with the looks of Brian Cowen to be making fun of someone with a vocal defect...you have to laugh. Maybe Philip should go on national TV and return the compliment? Dress up in a sumo wrestler costume and stuff his face with cake?

blackwaterfish

exactly jerryHandBag... fight fire with fire.

isnt it blazingly obvious that phillip going to the press only brings more public attention to his and his families embarressment at this "outrage"?

biffos on the way out the door now... the wheels are coming off the wagon. he's a liability to the good name of FF. Wheel in gilmore lads.

( imagine someone being able to bring FF into disrepute on whole new level... takes some doing )

phillip walton is the catharsis to a rebirth of this nation with a brighter future for all. he's the post capitalist-ireland moses.

phillip walton: ryder cup hero, saviour of a nation.

infamous

Philip walton would want to get a grip, you have to be able to laugh at yourself everyone has defects you need to take these insults as the bit of craic they are. Biffo gets slated regular due to his appearance and keeps putting himself out there mary harney likewise, any negative comment regarding either of them usually contains the words fat fcuk in there somewhere, which hasnt really got anything to do with been able to perform their jobs. Gift grub etc make a fortune mimicking people including biffo nobody ever looks for an apology there.

Anatom

infamous, you're dead right - Walton should just take it on the chin. His reputation as a successful Irish golfer will forever remain unimpeachable but he just looks ridiculous asking for a public apology. It also drags on a mundane story much longer than it warrents as well.

Cowen gets constantly slagged off about his appearance as well as his accent, as do almost all politicians. Do you remember Scrap Saturday? The politicians loved it and some used to get worried if they weren't featured 'cos it meant they weren't in the headlines and that's what all they want - to be in the headlines. Unfortunately, this crop aren't too smart at controlling how that happens anymore...

The "Elmo loves you" comment on TwentyMajor was brilliant though!!!:D

Martin567

Anatom wrote: »

infamous, you're dead right - Walton should just take it on the chin. His reputation as a successful Irish golfer will forever remain unimpeachable but he just looks ridiculous asking for a public apology. It also drags on a mundane story much longer than it warrents as well.

Cowen gets constantly slagged off about his appearance as well as his accent, as do almost all politicians. Do you remember Scrap Saturday? The politicians loved it and some used to get worried if they weren't featured 'cos it meant they weren't in the headlines and that's what all they want - to be in the headlines. Unfortunately, this crop aren't too smart at controlling how that happens anymore...

The "Elmo loves you" comment on TwentyMajor was brilliant though!!!:D

I don't agree with the above at all. Any time I ever heard Philip Walton interviewed it was pretty obvious that it was a medical condition and not just a funny accent. I would imagine it is something he is self-conscious about and to have the leader of your country imitating him like a school bully is pretty incredible.

I don't think the Scrap Saturday analogy really applies either. First of all, I don't think Haughey ever loved it. It was taken off the air at the height of its popularity. Also, there have to be some boundaries. I don't recall anyone ever "taking off" Pronsias De Rossa's stammer even though he was a very prominent politician at the time.

JerryHandbag

Anatom wrote: »

infamous, you're dead right - Walton should just take it on the chin. His reputation as a successful Irish golfer will forever remain unimpeachable but he just looks ridiculous asking for a public apology. It also drags on a mundane story much longer than it warrents as well.

Cowen gets constantly slagged off about his appearance as well as his accent, as do almost all politicians. Do you remember Scrap Saturday? The politicians loved it and some used to get worried if they weren't featured 'cos it meant they weren't in the headlines and that's what all they want - to be in the headlines. Unfortunately, this crop aren't too smart at controlling how that happens anymore...

The "Elmo loves you" comment on TwentyMajor was brilliant though!!!:D

The point is it was not a very politically correct thing to do.....and a polititian that did it. Are we gonna have him doing Steven Hawking impersonations next? I've met Philip Walton, he's a nice guy, he doesnt deserve this sort of embarrassment. And he's not bringing anymore attention to it, if it was already on youtube then the damage was done.

We all know what B.I.F.F.O. stands for.....

Edit: Maybe we should get Ian Paisley to superglue his big mouth to the floor like he threatened to do a few years ago

Anatom

Don't get me wrong - I'm not condoning for one minute what Cowen did at all. He was stupid to do it, and stupid enough to think that no one would report it to the wider world and he's suffering the consequences of the whole charade now...

All I was saying was that Walton increased the length of the issue's time in the news cycle by publicly commenting on it.

By the way, de Rossa's stammer was constantly being "taken off" by comedy acts, including Scrap Sat. I can't remember who got it taken off air exactly, but from recollection it was RTÉ, not Haughey. I know for a fact that PJ Mara enjoyed it too.

GorHugh

Simple fact here , Philip walton brought more Joy and good feeling to this country with droping that winning putt then that fat waste of space brian cowen ever did ... end of story

who_ru

Perhaps Walton despises FF and all they stand for and is determined to make them suffer some retribution by demanding a public apology.

At least Walton was competent at his chosen profession.

durkadurka

It's the absurdity that gets me. Biffo impersonating a golfer who hasn't been around for ten years or more and that golfer taking offence and probably forcing an apology.

Imagine if this helps to bring biffo dowN.

Walton could look back on his life as having done two heroic things.

Imhof Tank

GorHugh wrote: »

Simple fact here , Philip walton brought more Joy and good feeling to this country with droping that winning putt then that fat waste of space brian cowen ever did ... end of story

Small point maybe, but he didnt actually make that putt - he had 3 for it on the 18th and was conceded the win after 2 putts left him inches away

Anyway, pathetic by biffo and the rest of the lads no doubt laughing their heads off egging him on

FlutterinBantam

Two nonentities slugging it out!


Eh... I'll give that a miss thanks;)

danthefan

Under normal circumstances I would say Walton should just get on with life but when the supposed leader of our country is doing impressions at a Parliamentary Party meeting when Ireland is facing some of the worst problems it ever has, things don't really sit right.

Adiaga 2

Imhof Tank wrote: »

Small point maybe, but he didnt actually make that putt - he had 3 for it on the 18th and was conceded the win after 2 putts left him inches away

Another small point but he had 2 for it after a chip from the rough.

Fairplay to Philip calling Cowen out on this.

thelongfellow

Adiaga 2 wrote: »

Another small point but he had 2 for it after a chip from the rough.

Fairplay to Philip calling Cowen out on this.

Walton is being a d!ck about the whole thing.

Aidric

Lol @ all the Mother Theresa's crawling out of the closet.

heavyballs

not like Walton to get thick like this,didn't think he had it in him,i can honestly say i've never heard him raise his voice:D