Some alert persons cast more than a second glance at the cheque which was signed by Charlie Haughey in Leeson Street's Club Elizabeth in 1972 and reproduced by the Sunday Times in its Charlie and Terry saga. The cheque, for the then not
insubstantial sum of £56.45, is drawn on the Munster and Leinster Bank, Dame Street, Dublin. Very strange, they said, as the said bank didn't exist then.
Correct, up to a point. In 1966 three banks, including the Munster and Leinster, agreed to come together to form AIB but it was April 1st 1972 when they formally amalgamated, so Charlie's cheque was just inside the time limit.