The testimony of the then Minister for Defence, Mr Jim Gibbons, at the 1970 Arms Trial caused the Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch, such alarm that he thought he might have to sack him, according to documents released at the Public Record Office in London yesterday.
In a letter written by the then British Ambassador to Ireland, Sir John Peck, to the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, he divulged that Mr Lynch's public support for Mr Gibbons hid his reservations about the minister.
"He defended Mr Gibbons, the Minister of Defence at the operative period," Sir John wrote on December 16th, 1970, "although his performance in the witness box had been so damaging and inept that, 10 days previously, Mr Lynch had privately told me of his exasperation and said he thought he might well have to get rid of him." Mr Gibbons did not leave the government after the trial and was later appointed Minister for Agriculture.
The Foreign and Commonwealth files detail Peck's observations of the atmosphere within Fianna Fail after the Arms Trial, which he described as "open political war".
"Fianna Fail, with the misguided but honourable exception of Mr Boland, put party and power above principles . . . there is a feeling that the whole truth has not been allowed to come out, and that `honest Jack' Lynch is perhaps a more devious character than his popular image suggests," Sir John wrote.
Another despatch from the ambassador, dated November 10th, 1970, detailed an allegation that a Dublin businessman contacted members of the jury involved in the Arms Trial, but the document does not shed light on the timing of the alleged contact. Referring to the late Mr Gerry Jones, Sir John said: "The Deputy Prime Minister told me that to his certain knowledge, this Mr Jones had tracked down and `got in touch with' all 12 jurors in the trial." Mr Erskine Childers was the Tanaiste at the time.
See also page 5