Des O'Malley said in the final episode of RTE's excellent Seven Ages this week that during the Haughey heaves and counter-heaves of the early 1980s, a member of the Oireachtas, whom he didn't name, was badly beaten up in the main hall of Leinster House by Haughey supporters. He was Jim Gibbons, then a backbencher, who was set upon by four men who punched him and knocked him to the ground while onlookers, including house staff, stood by. He was eventually rescued by Kerryman, Dan Mullane, a PRO for the flour-millers. The incident was not reported, beyond oblique media references, and Gibbons's health never recovered.