SEVERAL of Mr Albert Reynolds's seven children, along with friends and supporters, are expected to be in the High Court in London today when the jury is due to retire to consider its verdict in his libel trial.
The jury was due to retire yesterday, but this jury, dogged by misfortune since the hearing began, had had another mishap. When the court resumed yesterday morning, the judge, Mr Justice French, announced that a juror was absent because his mother had had a heart attack and he was by her hospital bed.
The two counsel then had legal arguments in the jury's absence about the contents of the rest of the judge's summing up.
When the court resumed in the afternoon, Mr Justice French said the juror would not be available for the rest of the day, but may be available today.
After consultation with their clients, counsel said they would decide this morning whether, if the juror was still unavailable, he should be discharged and they would proceed with 10, or to wait until he could be present. Another juror was discharged in the second week of the trial due to ill-health.
When the hearing before the jury resumes, Mr Justice French will conclude his summing up before asking jurors to retire. It is not known when they will bring in a verdict, but it could be quite quickly.
Mrs Kathleen Reynolds was present on the first day of the trial, but not since, as she is not in perfect health. Her daughter, Miriam, has told the court that she receives a progress report every lunch-time.
Mr Reynolds told The Irish Times that, even though she was in London, she would not be present for the verdict. Asked if she had spent her time in London sight-seeing or shopping, he joked: "She has run out of credit cards."
Yesterday was the second anniversary of the Cabinet meeting which eventually led to the fall of the government, when the Labour Ministers withdrew as Fianna Fail insisted on appointing Mr Harry Whelehan as President of the High Court.
Referring to the current Owen controversy, Mr Reynolds described its similarities to the circumstances which brought down his government as uncanny.
Mr Reynolds is suing the Sunday Times for an article by Alan Ruddock in its English edition on the fall of that government under the title, "Goodbye Gombeen Man". The Sunday Times has denied libel, pleading justification.
In its Irish edition, the Sunday Times published a different story, by Vincent Browne, which outlined the fall of the government from both the Fianna Fail and Labour point of view.
Both the public and the press seating areas overflowed yesterday. But still, apart from a few days in the first week, not a single British paper has reported the legal contest between the former prime minister of a neighbouring state and one of the best-known newspapers in Britain.