Victory for Mr Proinsias De Rossa in his libel action against the Sunday Independent has provoked delight among his former colleagues in the Rainbow Coalition. While the jury's failure to reach a verdict in the second hearing was greeted with shock in Leinster House, the magnitude of yesterday's award for damages also caused gasps of surprise.
Just as an incorrect expectation had developed during the second hearing that Mr De Rossa would win, there was speculation on this occasion that the Sunday Independent would be victorious.
The result comes as a major boost for Mr De Rossa, just six weeks after he only narrowly held on to his Dublin North-West Dail seat in the general election.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, last night said he was "delighted for him personally" at the outcome. A source in Fine Gael added that "anything that ensures Proinsias De Rossa stays in politics is a good thing because he has so much to contribute".
The period the two leaders spent in office together had been "extremely constructive" and had led to the development of a warm relationship, the source added.
A spokesman for the Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, expressed "extreme satisfaction at the outcome". The former Tanaiste, who is holidaying in the US, has written to Mr De Rossa congratulating him.
The former Minister for Social Welfare told the first aborted hearing in November 1996 that one of the things that upset him most was the fact that "if this were let stand, I would never be able to defend myself as an honest person . . . here was a man (Mr Dunphy) and the Sunday Independent saying I was not fit to be part of a government of this state".
On the basis of this statement, it is understood that Mr De Rossa would have found it extremely difficult to be part of a future government, had the verdict gone against him.
The Wicklow Democratic Left TD, Ms Liz McManus, who gave evidence on Mr De Rossa's behalf, said afterwards it was very important that he could, as a citizen, go to court and clear his name and that right had been vindicated. The amount of the award should not be seen at all as an infringement of press freedom but one could not use one's standing in the media to destroy "a good and decent person".
Mr De Rossa was first elected to the Dail in 1982 as a Workers Party deputy. He was elected leader of the party in 1988 on the resignation of Mr Tomas Mac Giolla. In an acrimonious split, he and six of the seven Workers Party TDs broke from the Workers Party and formed what eventually became Democratic Left.