Seldom has the Flood tribunal seen so much mud being thrown at so many people as during yesterday's angry and undignified proceedings in Dublin Castle.
The main targets of the abuse, delivered from a variety of sources, included Mr James Gogarty and his solicitor; Mr Joseph Murphy jnr; Mr Murphy's father and his dead stepmother; journalist Mr Frank Connolly, and at least two Government ministers.
From the witness-box, Mr Murphy jnr attacked Mr Gogarty with a venom not seen since Mr Gogarty, from the same position, directed his ire at the Murphys six months ago. On top of this, there was a resumption of the low-level war between Mr Justice Flood and Mr Garret Cooney SC, for the Murphys. The two clashed repeatedly during the day; on one occasion the chairman accused counsel of interrupting him "on purpose" and Mr Cooney responded by telling Mr Justice Flood to stop shouting at him.
On two occasions, the chairman limited the scope of questions in an effort to minimise the damage to the reputations of witnesses from uncorroborated allegations.
The day began badly for the Murphys with the chairman calling into question the credibility of Mr Murphy snr as a witness. At issue was the question of Mr Murphy's Irish bank accounts; in September, Mr Murphy gave sworn evidence from his place of residence in Guernsey that he didn't have any such accounts but it now seems that he had at least two.
Because of this, Mr Justice Flood agreed that the tribunal would seek information from the financial institutions about Mr Murphy's accounts since 1976.
In his evidence, Mr Murphy jnr outlined the three-pronged plan - using the Revenue Commissioners, newspapers and the gardai - to blackmail him, which he claims Mr Gogarty launched after failing to get a £400,000 payoff. The witness recounted two emotional meetings he says he had with Mr Gogarty in the Berkeley Court hotel in February 1992.
He was "like a nuclear reactor going off", said Mr Murphy, recalling how Mr Gogarty thumped the table to emphasise his blackmail demand. "He said: `you're young, you're inexperienced, you're new to the company and you don't know certain things'. "
Mr Murphy said he felt "threatened and intimidated" by Mr Gogarty.
At this time, Mr Murphy was aged 30 and had been chairman of JMSE for two years, while Mr Gogarty was a retired 75-year-old.
By the afternoon, the various lawyers were engaging in what the chairman haplessly referred to as a "slanging match" and a "cul-de-sac of abuse".
Mr Murphy related his account of the second meeting with Mr Gogarty. The latter again became agitated and shouted personal abuse at Mr Murphy and his family; at one point, he referred to Mr Murphy's deceased step-mother Una as "a dead effing bastard", the witness alleged.
This was "very important" in the context of the late-night phone calls he made to Mr Gogarty two years later, Mr Murphy explained. Mr Gogarty has alleged that Mr Murphy threatened him and his family with physical attacks but yesterday the witness flatly denied making any such threat. Apologising for having made the call, he said it "shouldn't have happened" and that he was "driven by frustration" with Mr Gogarty.
As early as March 1996, Mr Murphy knew of the allegation that his company had made a payment to Mr Burke. He checked it out with his father and the chief executive of JMSE, Mr Frank Reynolds, but both men said there hadn't been any payment. He did not consult the obvious choice for such an inquiry, Mr Roger Copsey, who was the financial controller of the company at the time.
In December 1996, journalist Mr Frank Connolly contacted Mr Murphy personally about the allegations. Without making any further inquiries, Mr Murphy denied that a payment had been made. When Mr Connolly wrote a further article about the allegations in May 1997, Mr Murphy finally rang Mr Copsey, who said he had no knowledge of a payment.
However, Ms Patricia Dillon SC, for the tribunal, took the witness through a series of documents and bank statements from June 1989, which clearly show that £30,000 was requisitioned and paid out for a "political contribution". Mr Copsey's name, and that of Mr Gogarty, feature highly in connection with the documentation.
In June 1997, the Fianna Fail TD, Mr Dermot Ahern, was sent to interview Mr Murphy about the allegations. There are substantial differences in the accounts given by Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy of their meetings at this time, and these will be explored in greater depth on Monday.