As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted …

An old teacher of mine told a good story about that phrase. When Éamon de Valera was making a campaign appearance in Ennis, Co Clare, in the 1923 General Election on 15 August 2023, he was arrested on the platform. He topped the poll two weeks later. He was released on 17 July 1924. When he returned to Ennis to campaign for re-election in the subsequent General Election in June 1927, he began his speech from the same platform with the immortal words “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted …”. (This Clare Herald video, on Facebook makes the same claim).


It’s a great story. And it’s all over the internet. I’d be grateful if someone could point me to a credible contemporary source.

There are many other apocryphal uses of the phrase. I particularly like this one:

As Europe teetered perilously on the edge of cataclysmic conflict, BBC television was still in its infancy. The service could not continue in war time – its transmitter at Alexandra Palace would have been a powerful beacon for enemy planes. So, with only days to go until the declaration of war, the television signal was cut off on 1 September 1939 half way through a Mickey Mouse’s Gala Premiere. It would only resume in 1946, picking up at the same point in the cartoon but only after the announcer had witheringly intoned: “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted.”

Unfortunately, as well as being a great story, it is also a complete fabrication. …

Whatever the origin story of the phrase, it occurred to me when I was reading a Motion agreed in the Dáil yesterday. The Government Chief Whip (Mary Butler TD, Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach) moved:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 205 (pdf), the Bills which lapsed on the dissolution of the 33rd Dáil, and are set out in the Schedule to this motion, shall be restored, at the stage specified in the Schedule below and notice of them shall be published pursuant to Standing Order 37.

                                                   SCHEDULE

    Bill Title:                                                        To be restored at:
        …
    5. Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024                  Committee
    …

This means that legislative consideration of the Defamation Bill 2024 will continue from where it left off before the 2024 General Election. This is unsurprising: both main parties now in Government promised this in their election manifestoes, and a promise to this effect was included in the Programme for Government. So, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by the election, there are many issues with the Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024, and I will resume my series on this blog analysing it.