How a boozy dinner led Dunphy to finger Bertie
Broadcaster to be grilled over his conflicting accounts of cash conversation with developer
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BROADCASTER Eamon Dunphy went to the Mahon Tribunal to try to lend credibility to corruption allegations against the Taoiseach because of his close association with the journalist Frank Connolly, the Sunday Independent can reveal.
Mr Dunphy told the tribunal's lawyers of his upset at the Government's intervention which led to the closure of his friend, Mr Connolly's Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI).
Last week, it emerged Mr Connolly had attempted to use the property developer Tom Gilmartin to repeat to the tribunal his subsequently disproved allegation that Mr Ahern received £50,000 from the property developer, Owen O'Callaghan.
Seven years ago, Mr Connolly claimed Mr Ahern had received £50,000 from Mr O'Callaghan.
The allegation was fully discredited in the Circuit Court when Mr Ahern took libel proceedings in 2001.
During the trial it emerged that the source of Mr Connolly's information, a curious and unreliable character known as Denis 'Starry' O'Brien, was a liar and a forgerer.
The journalist is known to have been deeply upset that his professional reputation was damaged in the debacle, and not that of Mr Ahern.
Associates of the reporter also say that he is "obsessively" trying to prove his allegations against the Taoiseach, and is using the Irish Daily Mail and, now, his friendship with its former columnist, Mr Dunphy, to do so.
Mr Connolly was also deeply upset at (and is perhaps motivated by) the intervention of Mr Ahern and former Justice Minister Michael McDowell, which led to a decision by a US philanthropic organisation to remove financial support from the CPI.
Mr Dunphy and Mr Connolly have established an unlikely friendship; the journalist has appeared on the broadcaster's radio shows venting various conspiracies, claims and allegations.
Mr Dunphy has a track record of involving himself as a 'player' in the controversies of the day and it seems, initially at least, he may have relished the prospect of emerging, however unwittingly, as a figure in the Bertiegate saga.
Mr Dunphy's claims to the tribunal are based on his version of comments he alleges were made to him by Mr O'Callaghan over a boozy dinner in Dublin more than 10 years ago.
An analysis of Mr Dunphy's version of events, as reported by Mr Connolly, effectively leads to a conclusion that Mr O'Callaghan had allegedly said that Mr Ahern had received donations but had refused to do favours in return for the money.
Furthermore, it could be concluded that the only time Mr Ahern had allegedly made a decision favourable to Mr O'Callaghan (on a commercial project in Athlone) was on the alleged explicit instruction of the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, something which Mr Reynolds will almost certainly reject.
Legal observers are anticipating that Mr Dunphy can now expect a rigorous cross-examination in relation to his second-hand and apparently contradictory allegations of corruption against Mr Ahern.
The Taoiseach has staked his political reputation on vehement denials that he ever received money, directly or indirectly, from Mr O'Callaghan. Mr O'Callaghan has also robustly denied the claims.
Mr Connolly left the Sunday Business Post after it published a front page apology when the 'Starry' O'Brien sourced claims were proved false. He subsequently established the now defunct Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI), an outfit financed by a philanthropic organisation bankrolled by the US billionaire, Chuck Feeney.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Mr McDowell had discussions with Mr Feeney before support for the CPI was withdrawn.
Last week, Mr Connolly, through the Irish Daily Mail, reported at length on allegations Mr Dunphy is said to have made to the tribunal. Mr Dunphy was refusing to comment yesterday.
Interestingly, Mr Dunphy's motivation for going to the tribunal -- his belief that Mr Connolly was treated unfairly in relation to the CPI -- was not reported by the Irish Daily Mail last week when it recounted details of Mr Dunphy's claims.
Mr Dunphy's allegations concerning the Taoiseach are contained in a note of a conversation he had some time ago with tribunal lawyers.
But those allegations appear to be contradicted by a puzzling passage in Mr Dunphy's written statement to the tribunal, the preparation of which he undertook with legal advice.
In that statement, Mr Dunphy was at pains to point out that Mr O'Callaghan had never suggested that he [Dunphy] or his football associates would have to be involved in bribery to get their plans for a football stadium off the ground.
In his initial conversation with the tribunal, Mr Dunphy said he had met with Mr O'Callaghan after he had been approached by Sam Hammam, the owner of then English Premiership club, Wimbledon FC, who had wanted to establish if Irish investors would be interested in assisting the re-location of his football club to Dublin.
Mr Dunphy reportedly said he knew Mr O'Callaghan had a suitable site with planning in Neilstown, West Dublin.
The broadcaster told the tribunal lawyers: "I approached him with the idea of involving him in our project." Mr Dunphy subsequently had a number of meetings with Mr O'Callaghan.
Mr Dunphy allegedly said the exact words used by Owen O'Callaghan in relation to Bertie Ahern were that he had been "taken care of" and that "he doesn't do the deal".
Mr Dunphy went on: "I asked him what did he mean and he said: 'It was Albert who delivered' by putting pressure on Bertie and that's the way it was explained to me. 'He'd [Bertie] been taken care of' I think is the expression he used."
Mr Dunphy also allegedly said: "[The word] money wasn't used but the clear inference was that he [Bertie Ahern] had reneged on a deal that wasn't just a commitment."
"This thing about Bertie recurred a number of times over a couple of years -- and his unreliability -- but he made no bones about saying to me 'you can't rely on Bertie'.
"And on that one occasion he specifically said that he [Bertie] would take money alright, but he won't deliver."
Mr Dunphy claimed Owen O'Callaghan said to him: "I wanted to do my business. I wanted to develop projects. There was no other way."
He further told tribunal lawyers that "He [O'Callaghan] had a wry smile when Bertie was mentioned; Albert was reliable, Bertie wasn't."
A formal written statement from Mr Dunphy was described last week by Mr Connolly as "markedly less detailed" and "more circumspect" in relation to what the broadcaster had initially alleged had been said to him by Mr O'Callaghan.
"Throughout my dealings with him, I found Owen O'Callaghan to be patient, businesslike and honest.
"At no stage during our project did he suggest anything untoward, or in any way intimate that we might use inducements to achieve our objectives."
However, he also stated: "Other than generalisations about planning being 'tricky', Owen O'Callaghan made no overt references to payments to anybody."
