It was 10 a.m. in Paris one day in late February 1980, and Mr Haughey had decided to go shopping for shirts.
The previous day the then Taoiseach had met the President of France, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing. The official business over, Mr Haughey retired to the Irish Embassy where he was staying. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the officials travelling with him went to their nearby hotel.
The next morning was to be free of official engagements, so two of the officials in the hotel and Mr Lenihan were surprised to be summoned to the embassy for 10 a.m. "What are we going to do now?" an official asked Mr Haughey when they arrived. "We're going shopping", said Mr Haughey.
Two limousines left the embassy that spring morning, the one in front carrying the Taoiseach and the Irish Ambassador to France, Mr Hugh McCann; the one behind carrying Mr Lenihan, the deputy secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Padraig O hAnnrachain, and the Government press secretary, Mr Frank Dunlop. "Where are we going?" Mr Lenihan asked. "Shopping", replied the official who had asked Mr Haughey.
After five or 10 minutes, the car pulled into a cul de sac. As Mr Haughey alighted smartly from his vehicle, a small man emerged from a shop on to the pavement and bowed from the waist. "Monsieur le Premier Ministre," he began. He explained that he was very honoured by Mr Haughey's presence.
The five men went into the shop, sat down and were given coffee. The source does not recall the name of the shop. Three or four men emerged from a back room carrying boxes. They carried the boxes, a dozen or more, out to the limousines.
Mr Haughey saw one of his officials had an expression of bemusement on his face. "Shirts", said the Taoiseach. "Shirts", he repeated. "You know they have a bust of me here."
The shirts each had the initials "CJH" embossed on the breast. This would have matched the dulled silver cufflinks that Mr Haughey regularly wore with the same initials engraved on them.
The small man who had bowed outside on the pavement gestured interrogatively at the four men accompanying Mr Haughey. "My security", said the Taoiseach by way of explanation, referring to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Irish Ambassador, the deputy secretary of his department and the government press secretary. The small man said that in honour of the occasion his security men should each choose a silk tie, which they did.
The party left in the official cars, without any apparent sign of money changing hands. The shirts appeared to have been bought on account. The source, who does not wish to be identified, says he has told stories such as this for many years, but if he had written them before people would have thought he had made them up.