EARLIER TODAY, MINISTER for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross landed himself in hot water after the internet unearthed a photo of him sporting a feather boa while seated next to Amanda Brunker at an event over the weekend.
“So… this happened last night,” Brunker captioned the photo.
Given the ongoing Bus Éireann strike, it’s fair to say that a photo of the Minister for Transport beaming and wearing a feather boa didn’t make for great optics.
Bizarrely enough, it turns out that Shane Ross and Amanda Brunker are good acquaintances, and have tweeted each other many times over the years.
One time, they met each other at a school bazaar, an encounter that Minister Ross described as a “pleasant interlude” in an otherwise “frantic day”.
There they are now.
Here’s Amanda sending an encouraging tweet to Shane regarding a bill he was about to propose in Dáil Éireann.
Here they are having a chat about the presidential election.
Here’s Amanda wishing Shane Ross luck in his quest to shake the Queen of England’s hand.
And here’s Shane Ross reminding his followers to tune into Amanda’s World Christmas Day special on Sunshine 106.8.
Earlier today, I e-mailed Amanda Brunker and asked her to shed a light on both the feather boa photo and her unlikely friendship with Shane Ross.
Brunker told DailyEdge.ie that she’s “met Shane Ross at many things over the years. Mostly local stuff.”
She clarified that the photo was taken at a lipsync battle competition held on Saturday night to raise funds for Naomh Olaf GAA Club in Sandyford.
They were fundraising for new changing rooms for the women’s teams.
Brunker and Ross were both judges for the night’s event, which was won by three footballers lipsyncing to Beyoncé.
Brunker also stated that Ross had agreed to judge the event a few months ago. (A query to Shane Ross regarding the event and the photo in question went unanswered.)
Lesson of the day? Amanda Brunker has lots of celebrity friends.
