The acronym GUBU, standing for grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented, refers to a strange series of incidents in Ireland in the summer of 1982 which culminated in a double-murderer, Malcolm MacArthur, being apprehended in the home of the then-Attorney General, Patrick Connolly.
The words were paraphrased from a comment by then Taoiseach Charles Haughey, who called it "a bizarre happening, an unprecedented situation, a grotesque situation, an almost unbelievable mischance".[1] The corresponding acronym was coined by Conor Cruise O'Brien, and both it and the phrase are still occasionally used in Irish political discourse to describe other notorious scandals.[2] In January 2011 some ministerial resignations from the Government were described by its opponent Michael Noonan as "... bizarre, grotesque and to some extent unbelievable."[3]
- ^ T. Ryle Dwyer, "Charlie: The political biography of Charles Haughey" (1987), ch. 12.
- ^ Irish Parliamentary Debates Archived 17 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine — usage of the term "GUBU" in Dáil and Seanad debates.
- ^ RTE news downloaded 21 January 2011 Archived 21 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search