This day last week John Bruton began to think it could be all over. The devastating results of the Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll had appeared in this newspaper the previous day. Alan Shatter had suggested he should resign. Jim Mitchell and Michael Noonan were already known to be plotting.

Mr Bruton's supporters had no doubt that a heave was imminent and they were wobbling. On Saturday morning, one said privately that the leadership was "there for the taking". Another said Mr Bruton would wait 48 hours and assess the situation. In politician-speak, this is usually interpreted as meaning that resignation is not ruled out.

It was the party chairman Phil Hogan, senior Bruton loyalist Ivan Yates and party whip Charles Flanagan who calculated it was worth a fight, and that it was still possible to reverse the tide.

Just after 5.30 p.m. on Saturday, Mr Bruton rang Jim Mitchell at home to try to confirm there was a heave against him. Mr Mitchell said he couldn't talk as he was going to a funeral. He never phoned back. Within half an hour he was meeting Michael Noonan, who had driven up from Limerick to plan their campaign to oust Mr Bruton. Mr Noonan was still keen on running as a "dream team". Jim Mitchell insisted they move to oust Bruton first, and then both run, each pledging to select the other as deputy if they won.

Mr Bruton guessed correctly that the move was on - he even thought the funeral reference might have been an attempt at humour or a Freudian slip, bearing in mind what Mr Mitchell was up to. He decided that a response could not wait.

Mr Bruton's emotional statement that he would fight the heave and calling on colleagues not "to desert the colours" was written with help from an adviser outside the party. It was issued exclusively to the Sunday Independent on Saturday night and formed the basis of that paper's lead story the following morning. Its implication that Mr Noonan and Mr Mitchell were involved in a form of treachery deeply annoyed the opposition camp.

On Sunday morning, news of an impending joint Mitchell/Noonan press conference spread. Mr Bruton's people decided to come out fighting in advance. Journalists were advised to turn up at Morton Stadium in Santry where Shamrock Rovers were to play Bohemians. Mr Bruton would be attending the match and would not refuse to answer reporters' questions should they come across him.

Flanked by two of his daughters, as well as Austin Currie and his press officer, Niall O'Muilleoir, Mr Bruton strode towards the waiting journalists. "Fancy meeting you here," he quipped before launching into a full-blooded defence of his position.

The leadership issue had been decided just two months ago, he said. He had received an overwhelming mandate. Those who hadn't the courage to stand up and be counted back then should now explain why. This was now a distraction, damaging to the party. Had anyone asked him to resign? "They know me well enough," he said. "They wouldn't bother asking." Bohemians went 4-1 down before staging an extraordinary comeback to win 6-4. Some of Mr Bruton's supporters enjoyed pointing to the pattern of the game as an appropriate metaphor.

By Sunday night, Mr Bruton and his supporters had recovered from Saturday's despondency and were in top gear. On RTE's Six One news, the party press officer Mr O'Muilleoir saw the television pictures of Mr Bruton at Morton Stadium looking bedraggled with his tie crooked. He contacted RTE's, arranged a fresh interview in studio for the 9 p.m. bulletin. Mr Bruton turned in a strong performance, and did so later on The Week in Politics. As in the past, once his back was to the wall he was thriving.

Mr Hogan, Mr Yates and Mr Flanagan had gone through the 72-member parliamentary party list and made their best guess at the outcome. It could be 36-36, they figured, but only after a lot of work was put in. But that night, they were behind. There were about 72 hours to the vote.

PLANS for another push were being laid shortly after Austin Deasy's botched attempt in November. Opponents of Mr Bruton are believed to have commissioned a private opinion poll in December showing party support and Mr Bruton's rating remaining very low and testing support for alternative leaders.

It is not known whether Mr Mitchell or Mr Noonan knew anything about this poll, but senior figures say Mr Noonan's demeanour changed dramatically in early to mid-January. Having appeared demoralised and despondent for some time, he became energised, focused and positive.

Mr Mitchell gave the first public hint that a plot was under way when he appeared on RTE's The Week in Politics on January 14th. He didn't criticise Mr Bruton, but neither did he say "Mr Bruton is the man to lead Fine Gael into the next election". His tone was clear, he was withholding full endorsement.

The following day he had a prearranged meeting with Mr Bruton in Leinster House. He raised again the complaint that the small "management committee" of the party effectively bypassed the front bench and excluded the likes of Noonan and himself from important decision making. "Democratic centralism", he described it, after the Soviet style of political organisation.

Mr Bruton, his supporters say, resolved after that meeting to scrap that committee which caused huge resentment among his opponents. Crucially, however, he delayed telling the front bench. On Tuesday, a special front-bench meeting heard a presentation from national director of elections Frank Flannery on electoral strategy in a Dublin hotel. Mr Bruton told the meeting the front bench would meet twice a week from then on. However, he did not announce his decision to abandon his management committee.

The tensions over his management style therefore remained high. The following day, an ordinary front-bench meeting was held in the usual room on the fourth floor of the new Leinster House building. Twenty-two people together with party officials sit in a small room around a large table at these meetings. The temperature rises, people open the windows, and then the noise from the ongoing construction work forces people to raise their voices and strain to hear.

"When it's tension-filled and hot, it's an awful place," according to one member. It was tension-filled and hot on a number of occasions.

The next evening a party official gave Mr Bruton the results of the opinion poll, to be published in this newspaper the following day, showing both his and his party's ratings falling yet further from a poor position. He was, a source says, "crestfallen".

That night Mr Shatter was due to appear on the Later With O'Leary television programme. The party press officer rang him to give him the poll figures so he would be prepared to defend the party should he be asked about the poll. He was prepared all right, but Mr Shatter took the opportunity to fire the first stone.

The time came for everyone "to consider the appropriateness of the positions they hold", he said. Mr Bruton should "reflect" on this. He had been leader for 10 years. What he decided was a matter for him "initially" but must also be considered by the party.

Mr Mitchell and Mr Noonan had already talked around the issue of a move against Mr Bruton shortly after the Fine Gael front-bench meeting in Mallow, Co Cork, on January 17th. Mr Noonan put it to Mr Mitchell that they would jointly put themselves forward as an alternative leadership team, with Mr Noonan as leader and Mr Mitchell as deputy. He said a group of TDs had proposed this. The conversation was inconclusive but a move was becoming more and more likely.

The day after Mr Mitchell met Mr Bruton to object again to his "democratic centralist" committee, he left on a three-day trip to Paris.

The Irish Times/MRBI poll two days later and Mr Shatter's intervention temporarily wrong-footed Mr Noonan and Mr Mitchell. Unknown opponents of Mr Bruton - probably also supporters of one of the two men - had commissioned yet another poll to provide ammunition. The results were not due out for another week or more, however. The Irish Times poll and Mr Shatter's intervention meant they could not wait.

On Sunday afternoon, after Mr Bruton's camp had recovered from Saturday's self-doubt, Mr Mitchell and Noonan launched their challenge in a tiny overcrowded room in Buswell's Hotel. They had their own public relations adviser, Nigel Heneghan, present as well as a wealthy supporter and friend of Mr Mitchell, Ulick McEvaddy.

One source in their camp says that on that day they thought Mr Bruton might get the support of as few as 20 members of the parliamentary party. Mr Noonan went on television to predict Mr Bruton would resign before the vote. It was a gross underestimation of the effectiveness of Mr Bruton's supporters.

A key strategy of the challengers was to get the press to report that it was all over and that Mr Bruton had no chance. If party deputies, senators and MEPs could be convinced of this early on, it would cause a stampede of those wanting to be on the winning side, thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

But the Bruton side was wise to the strategy. They privately tossed out names of people who were on their side. They challenged reporters who told them the other side had over 40 votes wrapped up to name them. Until the morning of the vote, they convinced the press they should not report that the tide was against Mr Bruton.

This was crucial, as it allowed his side to continue to work on the handful of waverers and convince them that by backing Mr Bruton they could back the winner. Mr Bruton turned in several of the best media performances of his career.

Both Mr Mitchell and Mr Noonan said some tough things about Mr Bruton as part of their campaign. Mr Noonan said Mr Bruton would "close down" the party if he remained. Mr Mitchell referred to Mr Bruton as a "weak currency".

Such comments, made on both sides, added bitterness to the campaign. Already traumatised by constant poor poll showings and fears of political oblivion, party representatives were now being asked to boot out someone they generally saw as a decent, hard-working man. Having him criticised in such strong language was almost too much to bear.

On Wednesday morning Tom Enright and Jim O'Keeffe, both undeclared, went to Mr Bruton and told him they would vote against him. Neither was a surprise, but Alan Dukes was when he too went to Mr Bruton's office just before the meeting began. He said he would oppose him as well, and suggested the meeting be a short one to avoid further bitterness.

However, Jim Higgins and Frances Fitzgerald, both counted as certainties by the anti-Bruton camp at one stage, decided to back the leader. Outside the meeting Mr Hogan still said it could be a tie at 36-36. It was the best they could hope for. Mr Bruton believed he was losing, says one reliable source, but he knew how close it was, and thought there might still be some chance of swaying a crucial vote or two in the meeting.

However, the few breaks in the meeting went against Mr Bruton. Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, for whose vote the Bruton camp retained some hope, went against him. Several times during the meeting she was seen in conversation with Mr Shatter, a leading opponent of Mr Bruton. Some believe her vote was undecided until close to the end. Joe Doyle declared against him as well.

Donal Carey, a supporter of Mr Bruton, became upset during his speech. Mr Shatter and Gay Mitchell had sharp exchanges. Enda Kenny made sharp criticisms of both Mr Mitchell and Mr Noonan. After the meeting, Cork deputy Simon Coveney best captured the sense of anguish at the decision with which they were being confronted. "It is very sad for me," he said. "I feel I let somebody down on a personal level, someone I respect, but I feel I made the right decision for the party."

In the end, just three people switching sides would have won it for Mr Bruton. According to those inside, and those who waited outside for his press conference, nothing became him like his dignified exit. He gave a few short words to his colleagues and then phoned his wife Finola. Outside Leinster house, his voice clearly close to breaking, he thanked colleagues, Leinster House staff and family. He predicted Fine Gael success at the next election.

Mr Yates, Mr Hogan, Mrs Nora Owen and Mr Bruton's brother Richard all stood with him, tears shining in their eyes under the television lights.