I found out that Ronan faked his own death a few months after he "died" when I got in contact with his very surprised mother. My dear friend, as it turned out, was not dead but rather a very talented pathological liar. I found out shortly thereafter that I wasn't the first to have been taken in by his tale spinning. Sadistic and weird, but whatever. Better a living idiot than a dead friend.
Still, I didn't know what to say to the people who had been my shoulder to cry on when he'd "died" and who had read the tribute and offered kind notes and wishes. I put off dealing with it, but soon enough the truth came to light among his acquaintances and one of them posted it to a Cork web forum, the Peoples Republic of Cork. Then the journalists started calling me -- three Irish newspapers and two radio stations.I cooperated with the Irish Daily Star because the guy who called me was nice and I thought it'd be a hoot as well as a nice little payback.
The Irish Independent followed with an article without my cooperation or consent. I later agreed to an interview on Irish national radio via cell phone while I was in Jayyous, also for a laugh. (This was in October of 2004.) The radio show host kept trying to get me to admit on the air that I still liked the guy and that I was a home-wrecker. First-class.
Then people started bombing my webpage guestbook, and some entries gave out personal information about Ronan that had no business being on the web, or were just obscene or stupid, or questioned my honor or my parentage. So I had to sort that out. (I put most of the entries back up -- check it out, it's pretty humorous.)
I didn't make any money off of this that I'm aware of despite the allegations in my guestbook, but so far there's been almost enough hilarity to make up for the whole bizarre situation. May all the world be so boring some day that an American girl getting duped is front-page news.
Below is an email from the journalist who wrote about the story in the Irish Daily Star, and the two articles follow. It made Ronan a national laughingstock for at least a month.
* * * Hi Pamela,
I hope you are keeping well.
Tried to call you a few times over the weekend, but your mobile phone was switched off.
Anyway, we ran an article on Saturday and got a tremendous response. Another newspaper, The Sunday Independent, followed up on the story the following day.
The whole issue generated a lot of discussion on the airwaves. A station in Cork even ran it as a news item all day Monday and devoted a large party of a show on Sunday to it. [!!!]
Since the story appeared a lot of people have come out of the woodwork to have their say about Ronan. It appears that he had quite a few enemies.
We didn't name him in the article we published or give any identifiable details about him - so don't worry there. We also blacked out his face in the photographs. I'm sure people were smart enough to go to your website for those details.
I've been reading with interest the postings in your guestbook. All I can say is that there are some pretty juvenile people in Ireland going by some of the posts. But I think you'll find that the ones made by people who actually know Ronan pretty much back you up.
I have sent a copy of the 'paper to your folks in Stigler and below I have put in a copy of the text used in our piece on Saturday. It made page one and was continued on page four.
Hope you keep well and I wish you the very best in the future. You are a brave woman and I know you won't be fooled again.
Regards,
Shane Phelan
Irish Daily Star* * * 'Dead' Irish Liar Broke my Heart
By SHANE PHELAN
Irish Daily StarA WOMAN who set up a website in honour of her Irish lover, who she thought was killed while fighting in Iraq, has been stunned to learn he is still alive -- and living in Ireland.
Her lover, a seaman with the Irish Navy, wanted to end his passionate fling with American student Pamela Olson.
But the method chosen for giving her the 'flick' was macabre -- straight from the pages of a war thriller.
Pretty Pamela (24), from Stigler, Oklahoma, was distraught when she received an e-mail telling her that the brave seaman had been killed by a sniper in Iraq while saving the life of an 8-year-old little girl.
To help get over his death she created an elaborate internet website in his honour.
But the cruel deception was uncovered when grieving Pamela's mother wrote to the dead man's family expressing her condolences.
Pamela was stunned to hear that the man was alive and well and had recently married.
Now she has branded the Irishman she fell for during a holiday romance in Croatia as a "big-time liar and charlatan."
Olson first met the seaman in Croatia during August 2002. He was there with his then fiancee and two other friends. But he abandoned his partner for days after meeting the pretty American girl in a bar in Dubrovnik.
He wooed gullible Pamela Olson with tales of heroics and daring.
She claims he told her he was an elite army ranger who had been on missions with the UN in East Timor and Lebanon and that he had ridden a Harley Davidson across Russia.
The claims would later prove to be completely false, but at the time she fell madly in love with him.
"His larger than life stories and funny, thoughtful, humility made it effortless to fall in love with him," a stunned Pamela told The Star.
They met again in Miami the following year. She claims he told her that if they were not living 6,000 miles apart that he would put a wedding band on her finger.
Inspired by his tales she later went on holidays in the Middle East. At this stage he had told in e-mails that he was stationed in Iraq.
He said he was laid up in a field hospital there after being shot in the backside.
While in Amman she made contact with him by phone, hoping that a meeting could be arranged. But he said he could not get any time off to meet her. [Because he was in Ireland.]
She returned home to the USA in December and when she e-mailed him on March 10 asking was he alright, she received the bad news that he was dead.
Now that she knows that it was all a lie she said she was furious over the pain and suffering she endured on learning of his "death".
The e-mail, which purported to be from a UN colleague of the dead sailor, said he had been shot dead by an Iraqi sniper while on a patrol on May 1 this year.
The e-mail said he had shown extraordinary bravery to sweep an eight-year-old Iraqi girl into his arms and push her to safety before being mown down in a hail of bullets.
The colleague [who was actually Ronan himself posing as 'Scott'] urged her to pay tribute to him on the internet and she set up a website dedicated to his memory.
However, she told The Star that she had recently been contacted by a number of people in Ireland who told her that he was alive and well.
"I've got over it now, but at the time I was very upset," said Pamela.
"When I found out he was alive, I was glad. But at the same time I was thinking 'what a rat this guy is'. He led me quite a merry dance." [Er -- have you ever heard me say 'merry dance'?]
"When I set up the website it was heartfelt and coming from true emotions at the time.
"But it turned out that he was a big-time liar and a charlatan who made up almost everything he said to me, including his own death.
"And even though he is quite a jerk, his stories did inspire me to travel and learn about the Middle East," she said.
When confronted about Ms Olson's claims, the seaman denied even knowing her. [Nice one!]
He then said he had no comment to make when he was informed that The Star was in possession of photographs of him and Ms Olson together.
"What you can write in your paper is that she has ruined my life. My marriage is on the rocks over her. My son is getting hassled in school over her and my job is on the line because of it," he said.
"My job is the only source of income for my family. That means my mortgage is on the line over it.
"That is what you can write in your newspaper and what you can tell her (Pamela). I don't have any other comment to make.
"I have nothing to come clean about, my friend. I'm sure these are doctored photographs."
And the following article appeared in the Irish Independent, one of Ireland's best-selling newspapers. I never talked to these guys, so they made everything up that they didn't get off the website. But apparently the article made the rounds on every military base and office email list in Ireland.
* * *
A dead lover walking: US woman conned by 'Irish Army Ranger'RALPH RIEGEL
in Cork, and
JEROME REILLYAMERICAN woman Pamela Olson was so devastated when told that her Irish lover had been killed while saving a child during a gun battle in Iraq that she set up a web page to honour her fallen hero.
Friends from all over the world were heartbroken at her news. They wrote messages of support and pledged to help Ms Olson through her loss. Some reminded her of his sacrifice for Iraqi freedom.
But now she has been told her dead hero is not only actually alive and well, but apparently married and living happily in Cork. He is also not in fact an elite soldier, but a humble Irish sailor serving aboard a navy ship.
And in revenge at his apparent Walter Mitty stories, the pretty but credulous 24-year-old Oklahoma student has told the whole story on the internet, accusing her former beau of being a fantasist.
She says she was furious when she learned that the 25-year-old Corkman was not an Army Ranger, didn't play rugby for Munster, never drove a Harley Davidson across Russia, nor served with gallantry in war-torn East Timor and the Lebanon.
In fact the man, from East Cork - and whose identity is known to the Sunday Independent - was an ordinary sailor with the Irish navy who allegedly created a heroic and often hilarious Action Man persona, nicknamed "Neo" after the character played by Keanu Reeves in the action blockbuster The Matrix.
He may have meant no harm, but Ms Olson is now full of bitterness and scorn for her former lover - whom she has lashed on the website that once honoured him.
She told the Sunday Independent: "I felt I was in love with him and was devastated when I heard by email that he had been killed. I was furious when I realised it was all one great big lie." She added, "I was hurt when I found out the truth."
The Corkman's (Neo's) tales of derring-do had impressed the naive Ms Olson, whom he met while on holiday in Croatia in 2002. At the time he was a single man. [Actually, he was engaged to another girl and seeing a third girl at the time.]
Now, according to Ms Olson, he's "a lying douche bag", but the story of "Neo's" heroic life and faked death has attracted a cult readership to Ms Olson's web page, www.pamolson.org. The Irish sailor also told Ms Olson that he was a "quarter Cherokee", and created another alter ego called "Scott" to break the sad news that her lover had been killed in Iraq.
He appears to have done so after Ms Olson indicated she wanted to come and visit him there. The account which "Scott" posted via electronic mail from the man's own email account reads like a Mills & Boon novel.
Scott wrote that Ms Olson's boyfriend was killed on May 1 while his unit was doing a "recon" patrol in southeastern Iraq, not far from the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
He allegedly wrote: "Out of nowhere a sniper fired on their unit. A radio operator from South Africa was hit in the chest and went down screaming.
"The foreign aid workers nearby dove for cover, as did X's men, but a small Iraqi girl, maybe eight years old, was left crying in the middle of the road.
"The UN soldiers returned fire but had no idea where the sniper was. X knew that the sniper would take a shot at the girl, the wounded radio operator, or the aid workers to draw them out of cover. He couldn't leave them there helpless.
"X leapt to his feet, grabbed the girl, and pushed her through an open door. It drew the sniper's fire long enough to let the medic get the radio man to cover."
But, in Scott's words, "the most unstoppable guy I ever met got stopped".
"X was hit by four bullets, one to the left shoulder, two to the chest, and one to the left hip. His last words were, "Did I do OK, are they safe?"
Ms Olson says she fell for this outrageous tale, which was designed to end their relationship for good. But, bereft and heartbroken at this tragic news, Ms Olson created a website honouring the Irishman she knew, the dashing inside centre who played rugby for Munster, had an honours degree in physics and maths and who saw the first plane crash into the World Trade Centre while on holiday in New York on 9/11. She only learned of the apparent deception when she contacted his mother to offer condolences.
"She told me in no uncertain terms that he was alive, well and recently married. It was quite a shock, but I was so glad he was alive I wasn't even angry. Just extremely perplexed," she explained.
Then, after publishing the details on her website, Ms Olson was contacted by several people in Cork as to the true details of her former lover's life.
"He led me quite a merry dance," Ms Olson has said. [This is how rumors get started...]
"I've got over it now, but at the time I was very upset. When I set up the website, it was heartfelt and coming from true emotions at the time, but it turned out he was a big-time liar and charlatan who made up almost everything he told me - including his own death."
On the the other side of the Atlantic, the Corkman is clearly embarrassed that what may have started out as the harmless creation of an overactive imagination to spice up a friendship has escalated out of control.
Before packing up and getting out of his home town yesterday morning, he told the Irish Daily Star: "She has ruined my life."
The man was uncontactable for comment yesterday, either at his home or by telephone.
However, locals admitted that the 25-year-old was "deeply shocked" by the allegations - and was maintaining that some photographs included on the US website of him with Ms Olson were digitally fabricated.
Locals admitted that his parents were deeply upset over the affair.
It's understood the sailor has vehemently denied any suggestion that he claimed to have served in Iraq. "He seemed to be under enormous pressure over the last couple of weeks - he just wasn't his normal cheerful self," one neighbour declared.
The Irish sailor told one person that the Oklahoma girl was determined to destroy his life and his career.
Last night, the Naval Service stressed that it couldn't possibly comment on the matter.
However, it's understood the Defence Forces are set to regard the embarrassing claims as a strictly private matter - and the man is unlikely to face any form of military inquiry.
When it emerged that the story was going to be leaked to the Irish media, the man contacted Haulbowline Naval Base to alert them to the allegations and Iraq claims.
Senior politicians and Defence Force chiefs also expressed "grave concern" at the potential implications for Irish nationals in Iraq or the Middle East of any belief, however erroneous, that Ireland maintains elite military forces in the war-torn Middle Eastern country.
No member of the Irish defence forces is serving in Iraq.
So that's it for my fifteen minutes. Don't feel bad laughing. I've been in stitches for days.
* * *
After After Afterword: Message from Niva
Just when I thought the matter was at rest, I received the following message in my webpage guestbook, signed by none other than that implacable assassin, Abdullah Niva himself:
Name: Abdullah Niva
Homepage: http://www.mercenariesworldwide.com
E-Mail: abdullahnivea4men@shotmail.com
City/Country: Falluja, Iraq
Comments: Ah Neo, you infidel dog, you are alive! And so am I! You thought I was killed in Iraq when I thought I had killed you! A soldier's life is strange and full of ironies, is it not? My years of ninja training allowed me to slow down my respiration and heartbeat to feign my own death. Your comrade Scott is not the expert shot you are. My body was bulldozed into a mass grave by the Irish Ranger pig-dogs but on the third day I rose again. I am currently gainfully employed in the jihad against the Great Satan here in Iraq but soon I will travel to Ireland and track you down. We will have the final battle on your home soil, man to man. And this time, it is I who will emerge victorious! It still gives me great pleasure to recall the day I wouldn't give you permission to save the Palestinian civilians from the Israelis bullets. I knew that seeing the death of innocents would hurt you to the soft core of your being. You always were too weak and compassionate. It will be your undoing! Your may have noticed that your buddy Scott has not been in touch for some weeks. That is because I killed him with a crossbow bolt to the heart. I defiled his body and ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Dr. Pepper. You are next on my list. I will have my revenge! So watch your back Neo, my old nemesis. I will come at an hour when you least expect it: it may be when you are jumping the Grand Canyon on your Harley, it may be when you score the Heineken Cup-winning try for Munster, it may be when you are fighting for truth, justice and the Ronan Coveney way, but I WILL get you. You are doomed. Doomed! DOOMED! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
