GUBU

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". 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. In January 2011 some ministerial resignations from the Government were described by its opponent Michael Noonan as "... bizarre, grotesque and to some extent unbelievable."