For those who've forgotten or are too young to know, what exactly was Watergate? Frank McNally explains
Mr David Trimble has said he suspected IRA penetration of the Northern Secretary's office is "even bigger than Watergate" - a reference to the story which dominated world headlines 30 years ago.
It began in June 1972 as a "third-rate burglary" of Democratic Party headquarters in Washington's Watergate hotel and office complex.
It ended two years later with the first and still only resignation of a US president, Richard Nixon. In between unfolded a saga that went far beyond a mere burglary, made heroes of two journalists and continues to lend its name to political intrigue and scandal 30 years on.
Details of other burglaries quickly emerged.
The June operation had been partly an attempt to adjust surveillance equipment installed in a previous break-in.
But White House-approved burglaries had also included the office of a psychiatrist treating a defence analyst who leaked the "Pentagon Papers" - damning secrets about the Vietnam War - to the press.
Tapping of journalists' phones, dirty tricks against rival politicians, misuse of the FBI and CIA for political purposes, obstruction of justice: the seriousness of the charges rose, and with it, the seniority of White House staff deemed responsible.
When Nixon was forced to hand over the White House tapes, which included the "smoking gun" conversation in which he discussed a Watergate cover-up a week after the burglary, his fate was sealed.
The story came to light because of the determination of two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose book, All the President's Men, became a bestseller and the basis for the film of the same name
Woodward was given vital leads by a contact nicknamed "Deep Throat". The subject of intense speculation ever since, the informant has been variously claimed to be non-existent, a composite of several people or Gen Alexander Haig.
All such claims have been denied and, despite 30 years of speculation and an offer of $4 million for his memoirs, Deep Throat's identity has never been made public.