In the sitting room of Senator John Dardis's home outside Newbridge, Co Kildare, on Saturday, the mood of senior Progressive Democrats figures, Tánaiste Michael McDowell, Minister for Health Mary Harney and deputy leader Liz O'Donnell, along with Senator Dardis, was sombre.
The location, chosen to suit the Laois/Offaly-based Mr Parlon, the party president, had the benefit of being discreet, tucked just off the road one-mile from the Kildare town.
Earlier in the day, Mr McDowell had called Mr Parlon requesting his presence, although the former IFA president had not been impressed. He made it clear he did not want to leave off canvassing in his constituency, only for Mr McDowell to remind him he had other responsibilities.
During a RTÉ television interview yesterday, Mr Parlon insisted that a pull-out from the Government had not been considered by the PDs.
Such is not the case.
Three options remained on the table during the Newbridge meeting, which began around 4.30pm and lasted until 7.30pm, with a break to watch the Six One News.
Firstly, they could quit; secondly, they could stay in office but demand a statement; or finally, they could stay but make it clear that they would not do another deal with Mr Ahern.
Dublin South TD Liz O'Donnell was most vocal in pushing for a withdrawal. Ms Harney was quieter, although she favoured the same course of action, with McDowell seeking to play a middle course.
However, Mr Parlon, who is dependent on receiving Fianna Fáil transfers if he is to have a chance of re-election, was vociferous after McDowell had outlined the information he had received through his special adviser, Cormac Lucey, from Sunday Independent journalist Jody Corcoran.
McDowell had texted Corcoran at midnight on Thursday night asking him to call early on Friday morning, which the journalist did. By 10am, Corcoran met Lucey in his car in Merrion Square, and handed over Mahon tribunal papers in a duvet bag, including a copy of a transcript of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's interview with Mahon tribunal lawyers about his house.
The transcript convinced McDowell that Mr Ahern had not given him the full truth about his personal finances during last September's crisis.
McDowell was "gutted", to quote one source. Before noon, he had shared details of what he had discovered with Harney and O'Donnell before all three attended the launch of the party's health manifesto.
Later, senior party figures quietly insisted that the three had agreed a game-plan beforehand, but it did not look like that at the time. Questioned for the first time, McDowell said only that he had met with the Taoiseach earlier in the week, but that the encounter was not for the purposes of "satisfying or dissatisfying" himself.
Within minutes, however, Deputy O'Donnell had taken a much stronger line: "I think there is no doubt but that there is public concern in relation to these matters. Matters are unfolding quite rapidly as we speak, as you know. And the sooner these matters are clarified and resolved, the better for everybody concerned."
McDowell was then asked if, on the basis of his current level of knowledge, he would form a new coalition with Fianna Fáil, or would he require greater clarity.
This time around, McDowell was altogether more forceful: "There is material now coming into the public domain that changes the position. I believe that there a number of things on which I would want to reflect."
By Friday night, rumours had begun to circulate that the PDs were doing more than merely reflecting. From unofficial contacts, Fianna Fáil was left in no doubt about the degree of unhappiness of their coalition partner.
Strengthened by news that an Irish Examiner poll held some good news for them, Fianna Fáil displayed no signs of panic: "F*** them," one privately told The Irish Times.
Questioned shortly before 10pm, and told specifically that there was information to indicate that the party was about to quit, a party spokesman promised to reply. In a text message 30 minutes later, the spokesman only repeated what McDowell had said earlier, that he wanted to reflect. Then his telephone was taken off the hook.
By now, there was information to back up the story that McDowell, Harney and O'Donnell were, to a greater, or lesser extent, for quitting.
"There are just a few options on the table, and one of them is quitting," one quarter told The Irish Times reliably shortly before 11pm.
Following The Irish Times report on Saturday, broadcast organisations seized upon the possibility that PD ministers could quit within days, provoking fury in the Cork South Central-based Senator John Minihan when he heard the 10am 96FM news.
He was not alone in being left in the dark. Few outside Dublin were being kept in the loop either, while the mood in Fianna Fáil became more emboldened as word of the Sunday Business Post poll began to spread.
By this stage on Saturday, those opposed to any withdrawal began to make their voices heard, wondering aloud who was saying that they were about to go.
"This is complete bloody madness. Where the hell would we get transfers?," asked one middle-ranking figure in the party shortly before 5pm.
Questioned by reporters, the PD spokesman insisted "nobody should think that there is any architecture beyond" the meeting then under way in Kildare. Not only was there no architecture, there appeared to be no plan. Confusion reigned as Charlie Bird told the Nine O'Clock News he believed they were on the point of quitting.
In Kildare, the meeting ended at 7.30pm, with all options put to one side, until consultations were concluded, with Harney and O'Donnell travelling back to Dublin together.
Undoubtedly, Mr Parlon's views represented the majority of the party, some of whom were annoyed either about the possible course of action, or the fact that nobody had asked them about it, or both.
By 8am, McDowell was up and about, making arrangements for a press conference in the Morrison Hotel two hours later - one he held without any other members of the parliamentary party.
No one else was there because they could not get up in time from the country, or because they had "got to bed late".