JUSTICE FOR the Undocumented. They aren't just in America, you know, writes MIRIAM LORD.
Their number includes a former taoiseach, the chairman of Dublin Port, a leading image consultant and beauty salon owner, successful businessmen and sundry members and supporters of Fianna Fáil.
Through no fault of their own, they exist in a terrible limbo.
Back in the 80s and 90s they went in search of a better way. It was summed up yesterday by Joe Burke, who repeatedly told the Mahon tribunal that all he ever did was to work for "the benefit and betterment of Fianna Fáil".
He, like the rest of the tribunal undocumented, wasn't to know that the climate would change in the new millennium and humble witnesses without their proper documentation would find themselves in trouble.
A deposit account here, a deposit account there, and suddenly, you have deposit accounts and cash coming out of your ears.
Who was counting? Who would ever find out?
Then the tribunals came along, examining banks accounts and discovering that a very personable minister for finance was taking in money far in excess of his earnings when in office. And - the cheek of them - they began to ask why.
Which is how Joe Burke came to be back in the witness box yesterday, attempting to explain how financial transactions connected to Bertie Ahern were conducted, and where the money came from.
Affronted, might be the best way to describe Joe's reaction.
Joe has dedicated his adult life - when not running his now defunct pub refit business - to furthering the cause of Fianna Fáil and Bertie Ahern. He has been the former taoiseach's right-hand man for decades.
Joe, now chairman of Dublin Port, played a central role in the running of Ahern's Dublin Central constituency organisation since the early 1980s. He was in charge of a number of bank accounts and involved in the purchase of St Luke's, the house that would become the nerve centre of Bertie's political operation.
The building, which stands on the banks of the Tolka river, is playing a central role in the story of Ahern's complicated political funding operation.
After it was purchased, apparently with money donated by a group of 24 anonymous people dedicated to the furtherance of the democratic process, St Luke's had to be propped up by a number of bank accounts because it was sliding into the Tolka. Down through the years, more than a hundred thousand pounds has been sunk into the sinking property.
Unfortunately, the former senator Burke was unable to explain why the money expended never seemed to come out of the accounts dedicated for that purpose. In fact, until recently, when the tribunal started sniffing around, even Fianna Fáil didn't know that these separate accounts existed. No matter. Joe, trustee of St Luke's, would explain.
So in he came yesterday. His evidence was a terrible disappointment. Joe Burke, it transpired, is one of the undocumented.
St Luke's was purchased, he said, because the existing headquarters was "a tumbleshackle" house. However, for all the business and building-trade acumen of the trustees of St Luke's, it appears the new property they purchased was as tumbleshackle as the one they left behind.
Joe's evidence was bewildering. Was there a trust at all? He thought there was. Wasn't he a trustee? But, repeated lawyer Des O'Neill, there is no legal documentation in existence to prove the existence of any trust.
Joe Burke was nonplussed. "If it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist, but I wasn't aware it doesn't exist." Two accounts, the B/T account and the CODR account, were in place to look after the upkeep of St Luke's. But, acronym notwithstanding, the CODR account is not the same as the Cumann O'Donovan Rossa account, explained Joe. In Bertie's house, there are many mansions.
That left everyone baffled.
Thirty thousand pounds was withdrawn from the B/T account and "loaned" to Bertie Ahern's then partner, Celia Larkin, to help her aged aunts buy their rented home after they were threatened with eviction. An admirable gesture, even if it came from an account which was purely for the upkeep of St Luke's.
No documentation remains. Trustee Joe presumed solicitor Gerry Brennan looked after the interests of the trust by putting the legal documentation in place for the loan. That never happened. "I did not question Mr Brennan's legal integrity," Burke told the tribunal.
Unfortunately, Mr Brennan passed away in 1997. Joe never discussed the loan with Ahern, his close friend, even though the money was going to Ahern's then life partner. "Why would I discuss it?" he asked.
But when the house was purchased, Celia Larkin became the legal owner. She is not an elderly aunt, and the "loan" was only repaid in January of this year when the tribunal began asking questions.
Happily, Joe Burke was able to shed light on one aspect of the B/T account yesterday. Twenty thousand pounds was withdrawn from it in August of 1994, and IR£20,000 went into it in October of 1994. But a problem with damp was bigger than anticipated and he decided to hand the money back. Joe went into St Luke's with the £20k and handed it to a secretary. He got no receipt.
But these things must be investigated by the tribunal, it was explained by Des O'Neill to an exasperated Joe. He agreed. "It is most important the public are kept informed. They are paying for it, at the end of the day."