Free Haughey's Forty Years of Controversy by T. Ryle Dwyer

on Wednesday 29 April,’ Lynch explained to the Dáil. Before the meeting the Taoiseach was very agitated. ‘What will I do, what will I do?’ he kept muttering as he paced about his office.
    â€˜Well, if I were you,’ Berry said, ‘I’d sack the pair of them and I would tell the British immediately, making a virtue of necessity, as the British are bound to know, anyway, all that is going on.’
    But Lynch had not been looking for advice. He was just talking to himself and he abused Berry for having the impertinence to advise him.
    The Taoiseach spoke to Blaney first and then went to the hospital to speak to Charlie. Each denied instigating ‘in any way the attempted importation of arms,’ Lynch told the Dáil. ‘They asked me for time to consider their position. I agreed to do so.’
    At this point Lynch apparently hoped that the whole thing could be swept under the carpet. He told Berry that the two ministers had assured him there would be no repetition and he therefore considered the matter closed. Berry was stunned. ‘Does that mean Mr Haughey remains Minister for Finance?’ he asked incredulously. ‘What will my position be? He knows that I have told you of his conversation with me on 18 April and of the earlier police information.’
    â€˜I will protect you,’ Lynch replied.
    Next day the Taoiseach told his cabinet that he had decided to accept the denials of the two ministers. But, according to Boland, he warned ‘that henceforth no minister should take any action in regard to requests for assistance from the six counties without approval.’
    Boland went straight to Charlie and told him the news. Although Boland thought the crisis was over, it was really only beginning. The story had been leaked to Liam Cosgrave, the Fine Gael leader. He tried to interest the Sunday Independent and the Irish Independent in the story, but their editors thought it too hot to handle.
    On 5 May Lynch announced the resignation of Micheál Ó Moráin as Minister for Justice on the grounds of ill-health. Although rumours were already circulating about the arms plot, the Taoiseach managed to skirt questions about further possible resignations. At eight o’clock that evening, however, Cosgrave confronted Lynch with the story. ‘I considered it my duty in the national interest to inform the Taoiseach of information I had received which indicates a situation of such gravity for the nation that it is without parallel in this country since the foundation of the state,’ Cosgrave told the Dáil.
    That night Lynch demanded the resignations of Charlie and Blaney, but both refused. He therefore requested President de Valera to remove them from office in accordance with the constitution. The Taoiseach made his early morning announcement to the press.
    At a meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party the following afternoon, Charlie joined Blaney and the other members of the party in unanimously upholding the Taoiseach’s right to remove them. The Dáil then began a continuous sitting that was to last for over 37 hours straight as it debated the crisis. Tension was running so high that scuffles broke out in the lobbies. ‘It was not clear who was directly involved, but some deputies had to restrain others,’ the Irish Independent reported.
    Charlie did not take part in the debate but he voted with the government, as did Blaney and Boland. Members of Fianna Fáil seemed pre-occupied with retaining power.
    â€˜The necessity to keep the Fianna Fáil government in power at all costs was the overriding consideration,’ Berry concluded. ‘What was happening in the Lynch regime would have been unthinkable under Mr Lemass or Mr de Valera. The naked face of self-interest in ministerial circles was on exhibition without any attempts at concealment from the serving civil servants.’
    Following the Dáil vote, Charlie issued a