Chris Boardman in yellow at the Tour de France on O'Connell St, Dublin, in 1998, with Eason's book store in the background (Photo: Sirotti)
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is normally kept out of the limelight and away from the cameras and microphones when his Fine Gael party is contesting elections.
And the policy, strange as it is, perhaps should be extended to other times of the year when one considers his recent comments about the Tour de France.
At an event related to Dublin being a host city for the Euros 2020 soccer tournament, Kenney reflect on the time the Tour de France start was hosted by Ireland in 1998.
Everyone will recall that the Festina affair began when one of its staff, Willy Voet, was caught by customs driving through France on his way to catch the ferry to Ireland.
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He was arrested when his vehicle was found to contain a huge quantity of performance enhancing drugs.
The Tour de France passes through Tallaght in west Dublin in 1998; a major drugs storm was brewing but the Taoiseach's recall of the events is strange.
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The incident cast a huge shadow over the Tour’s visit to Ireland, with the issue exploding once the race was back on French soil and the gravity of the drugs seizure on the French-Belgian border became clear.
Many hoped it would be a fresh start for cycling, though it only gave way to the Lance Armstrong era.
And while the episode was a very ugly one and a major embarrassment when the Tour was in Ireland, Kenny’s memory of it seems very odd, to say the least.
He was minister for tourism until 1997 and in that role was involved in facilitating the race’s visit.
“When I was back in tourism in the mid 90s, we had visits from Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche to bring the Tour de France, we made arrangements for that,” Mr Kenny said at the soccer event.
“I didn’t know and nobody else knew that when they came in 1998, the 200th anniversary of the French landing in Killala, it turned out not to be the best Tour de France’s for reasons that you will recall, syringes falling out of suitcases and so on.”
He made the remarks over a week ago. And though they escaped our attention at the time one reader has sent them in to us and we thought it worthwhile to publicise them.
It seems odd he has never felt the need to get his unique account of the race off his chest when he is posing for photos at the cycling events he rides.
Le Tour 1998 Irish stages
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