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Last Saturday night, the first editions of the Sunday Independent began to hit the streets of Dublin.
Meanwhile, in Roscommon, independent TD Luke 'Ming' Flanagan was on Twitter to respond to my front-page story about penalty points being wiped from his record.
The story revealed that Mr Flanagan, 41, was stopped on June 3, 2011, for driving while on his mobile phone, that he received a fixed-point penalty of €60 and two penalty points that were later "invalidated" after representations were made to the local garda superintendent.
That night, as the story broke on Twitter, Mr Flanagan, having ignored my calls and texts for the previous 36 hours, broke his silence.
At 11.10pm, he tweeted: "Watch the Dail at 6 on Tuesday. I will reveal how gardai contacted me to ask would I like my penalty points wiped."
Seven minutes later, he sent another tweet.
"You'd be surprised to hear of the people who call you to offer to have points wiped. Not just Guards."
Three months previously – along with his fellow independent TDs Mick Wallace, Clare Daly and Joan Collins – Mr Flanagan had blasted the gardai for wiping points off "connected people on the inside", going as far as to call the force "corrupt".
Then last Sunday morning Mr Flanagan was back on Twitter. At 9.42am, he tweeted: "Sindo fails to mention that it was in fact gardai who actually contacted me to have penalty points removed. All revealed & more in Dail tues."
The story was picked up by the daily papers and the Irish Independent reported how Mr Flanagan had denied the story to them back in December.
But those were not the only denials.
A few weeks ago, I had called Mr Flanagan about this story. He denied having any knowledge of points being wiped from his record.
DMC: "Hello, is that Ming? It's Daniel McConnell from the Sunday Independent. I've just heard something I need to check with you, I just need about two or three minutes of your time."
MF: "What was it about?"
DMC: "I had heard basically that you had penalty points scratched from your record by the guards in Roscommon. I got some rough confirmation of something earlier on but I just wanted to check it out with you."
MF: "Well that is news to me. In fact I'd be completely and utterly amazed if anyone would do anything like that for me now. Jesus Christ what was it for?"
DMC: "Well it was put to me that you were coming back from the Dail, and there is a provision that TDs coming back from the Dail are exempt from getting such things, and that a request was put in to have them withdrawn and the guards did it."
MF: "Well, that is news to me. You imagine I might have heard about it."
DMC: "Fair enough. That's just what was put to me."
MF: "Well I'll tell you if that turns out to be true I'll be demanding I get them. Because I don't want any favours you know. Simple as that but . . . It's kind of funny because I would have been waved down by a guard because I have picked up the phone and hung it up because it will be ringing or whatever, and they'd go 'go on you're alright', and I'd be going 'okay fair enough'. I'm a little bit baffled now, but anyway."
DMC: "You're saying you didn't put in any requests or anything like that yourself, that there was never any time of you making any representations to gardai?"
MF: "Well not for penalty points or anything like that. Not for speeding or anything like that. Sure, I actually got two penalty points and I went to court over it and they gave me four penalty points, so far from letting me off I got double the amount. Okay, bye now."
TUESDAY
Ahead of his anticipated Dail speech, Mr Flanagan gave an interview to the Roscommon Herald.
Having previously denied all the details of the story, he confirmed the major details of my story last Sunday.
He had received the penalty points in June 2011. The points had been wiped, but most astonishingly he confirmed that he wrote to the gardai to have them wiped.
He bizarrely claimed he always knew the information would come out, but he wanted to be the person to reveal it.
He wanted to wait until the publication of Justice Minister Alan Shatter's internal review into the penalty points affair.
The story was now gathering pace significantly.
Shortly after 6.10pm, during the debate on the Spent Convictions Bill, Mr Flanagan, dressed casually in a dark jumper and dark jeans with his distinctive goatee beard, took to his feet, clutching an iPad.
Speaking for just seven-and-a-half minutes, he confirmed that he had points wiped not once but twice for using his mobile phone while driving.
Casting himself as the great whistleblower, Mr Flanagan said he wanted to expose a rotten culture of cronyism and backslapping within politics and the gardai.
"Not only is there a cohort of gardai who are going around asking people do they want points cancelled, but it appears there is a franchise system going on whereby if you are cosy with a senior garda, then you can have these offences quashed,'' Mr Flanagan said.
He confirmed he was stopped by gardai on June 3, 2011, "on his way to the Dail" for using a mobile phone while driving. He said that he was later approached by a garda sergeant who "insisted" he write in to the local superintendent so that could have the points revoked.
He considered naming the garda sergeant who approached him, in the Dail, but had been advised against it. Later, on TV3's Tonight with Vincent Browne, Mr Flanagan denied that he approached gardai to get penalty points quashed.
He said: "I would say I was corrupt if I had approached them – the fact they approached me would suggest it was endemic."
Presenter Vincent Browne said: "You're up to your neck in it."
During his Dail speech, Mr Flanagan, also disclosed a similar incident happened the following December when he was handed penalty points for the same offence on his way to a Roscommon County Council meeting. He said a senior council official later contacted him, informing him he had "sorted out" the issue.
"It is quite extraordinary to think that a senior county council official would feel confident enough that approaching a senior garda would enable him to have penalty points quashed for a citizen,'' Mr Flanagan said.
WEDNESDAY
Less than 12 hours after his appearance on TV3, Mr Flanagan was on his local radio station, singing a very different tune. On Shannonside Radio, he humbly admitted to being corrupt over the quashing of penalty points for using a mobile phone while driving on two occasions.
"On the issue of the penalty points, it was corrupt what I did. So draw your own conclusions from that."
But he defiantly insisted he will not stand down over the controversy. "No, I don't think it is a resigning matter."
Commenting further on the second incident in December, Mr Flanagan said he received penalty points for the same offence at a roundabout on his way to a Roscommon County Council meeting.
He said a senior council official later contacted him, informing him he had "sorted out" the issue.
Mr Flanagan's comments drew a furious response from Frank Dawson, chief of Roscommon County Council.
In a statement, Mr Dawson said he assumed he was the senior council official referred to by Mr Flanagan but denied any involvement.
Mr Dawson said Mr Flanagan mentioned it to him in December 2010 that he was stopped by the gardai for using a mobile phone while driving outside the council offices. "I utterly reject his allegations that I sorted out his penalty points issue for him," he said.
"I will take all necessary steps to protect my good name and reputation."
The letter Mr Flanagan wrote to have his points wiped later emerged, in which he claimed his error was a "once off and that he normally doesn't take calls while driving".
THE FALLOUT
Mr Flanagan pulled out from a scheduled appearance on Ray D'Arcy's popular Today FM show on Wednesday as the political firestorm raged on, Clare Daly TD taking his place.
Ms Daly said Mr Flanagan had been stupid and that he had made a mistake.
But she praised his "shoot from the hip attitude" and claimed he was a victim of "gross media intrusion".
In truth, the affair has severely damaged relations within the Dail's technical group. Shane Ross said Mr Flanagan's decision to deny the story at first was "mad."
John Halligan TD said he was totally "pissed off" with Mr Flanagan's antics.
"I totally disagree with what he has done and I don't agree with his attacks on the media. I think at this stage he owes the media an apology and should come out holding his hands up."
Others in the technical group have echoed Mr Halligan's complaints and have voiced their frustration at not being able to eject Mr Flanagan from the technical group, under the current rules.
The reaction in Roscommon has also been severe, especially from voters.
"I'll never vote for him again, he should resign," said one.
But other matters have come to light and remain outstanding. Firstly, the Dail was not sitting on the day he was originally stopped in June 2011, so how could he claim privilege?
Secondly, the exemption claimed by Mr Flanagan, contained in Article 15.13 of the Constitution, gives privilege to TDs and senators from "arrest in going to and returning from either House".
As he was only subject to a standing charge penalty and not arrest, he should not have claimed the privilege at all.
Thirdly, why did Mr Flanagan only seek to have the points reinstated when he knew the story was breaking? And why the lies?
Rather than being the victim of a media witch hunt, Mr Flanagan's undoing was his own corrupt act in seeking his points be wiped, his arrogance in his denials to media and his comments about members of the gardai and senior officials in Roscommon.
While he may survive as a TD for now, he is a deeply isolated and badly bruised figure.
The fall from the moral high ground is often harsh, but few have fallen harder than Luke 'Ming' Flanagan.
Irish Independent
