Resignation sequence: Mr Phil Flynn's resignation from three high-profile positions in the public and private sector came shortly after the news that he had been questioned by the Criminal Assets Bureau as part of an investigation into alleged money laundering by the republican movement.
While the former vice-president of Sinn Féin rose high and speedily in the world of banking and as the trouble-shooter of choice for the Government, his fall last night was swift.
Only hours after the controversy began, Mr Flynn confirmed to The Irish Times that he had stood down as chairman of the Government committee on decentralisation, as chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), and as a director of the VHI.
In a interview on RTÉ television, he insisted that he had "no involvement, good, bad or indifferent" in money-laundering and rejected the suggestion that he may have been exploited by people he knows in the republican movement.
Shell-shocked after the culmination of a day of controversy over his directorship of the financial organisation at the centre of the Garda investigation, he admitted he was guilty of an error of judgment by joining the Chesterton Finance Company.
But by his own account, he believes he is guilty of nothing else and that Chesterton is clean.
"I am absolutely convinced that when this process is worked through that Chesterton will come through.
"I don't believe that money has been laundered through Chesterton," Mr Flynn said.
He acknowledged that he kept his friends in the republican movement and said it was not important to him how that was perceived.
"I'm an unrepentant republican - I always have been and I suppose at this stage in my life, I always will be. I make no apologies for that to anybody," Mr Flynn said.
"As far as my friends and associates are concerned, I have friends right across the spectrum. I have friends in the republican movement. I have friends who left the republican movement to join other organisations.
"Friendship to me is important. I have them and I keep them and it really doesn't matter to me how that's perceived."
Mr Flynn said he accepted it was "a bit strange that someone who is chairman of one of the biggest banks in the country would become involved in a small struggling financial organisation, as Chesterton was".
But besides acknowledging the error of judgement, he was unrepentant in every other respect. He resigned, he said, because he did not want his position to become the centre of the story.
"I have no involvement, good, bad or indifferent, in money laundering, full stop, for the republican or for anybody else. And if I'm proven wrong, I'll run up and down the street naked for you," he said.
There was no response last night from the Government. A spokesman said it had not received formal confirmation of Mr Flynn's resignation from the decentralisation body and, therefore, he could not respond.
