Fionnán Sheahan

I am convinced I've read two books in the last couple of years which comprehensively argue that.

But to move to your question, how he was boxing off the ropes, more or less from the start.

He was elected in November 1979.

It was a backbench coup.

They were tired of Jack Lynch, even though 18 months earlier he had delivered a huge landslide.

They just felt the party and the country had become atrophied.

From very early on, Charlie was, as I say, in a corner fighting for survival.

He was quite brilliant at it, a lot of people would say.

Even more sympathetic biographers such as T. Royal Dwyer would argue, well, he was very good at boxing off the ropes, but why should he always be in that position?

He hadn't the confidence of a significant number of people in Fianna Fáil from very early on.

There were continual mutterings about his probity and his integrity.

Was he compromised?

Was he too close to business?

Was he basically taking bungs, to be quite frank?

And it took an awfully long time.

It was gone from office before finally it emerged.

I remember being in Brussels of an evening when the first murmurings of Charlie is going to be named as in allegations of financial impropriety.

And I remember a very senior civil servant saying to me, that is complete rubbish.

They couldn't catch him up to now.

They're not going to catch him now.