Minister for Justice Michael McDowell provided American billionaire Chuck Feeney with details of Garda files held on Frank Connolly going back more than 20 years. The information included reference to one serious alleged incident in the files.
The details were given to Mr Feeney during the meeting on September 2nd at which Mr McDowell also provided information on the alleged use of a false passport by Mr Connolly to travel to Colombia in April 2001.
In the following week Atlantic Philanthropies, Mr Feeney's charitable foundation that was funding the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI), was given further details by the Department of Justice of a suspended sentence Mr Connolly received in 1983 for his part in a riot at the British embassy, Dublin, which took place in July 1981.
Earlier this month, Atlantic Philanthropies cut its €4 million funding of the CPI, in the wake of the allegations surrounding Mr Connolly, the executive director of the body.
The board of the centre has accused Mr McDowell of making unsustainable and totally untrue allegations against the CPI and its director, Mr Connolly.
At the September meeting with Mr Feeney, Mr McDowell claimed that Mr Connolly had been involved in Revolutionary Struggle, a Marxist organisation dominated by students, which was active in Dublin in the late 1970s.
No charges were ever brought in relation to the alleged serious incident in the Garda files, but a number of students and activists were arrested and questioned at the time.
Mr Connolly did not return telephone calls from The Irish Times last night. The Department of Justice also declined to comment on details of the September meeting, stating it was private.
The Department of Justice also provided details to Atlantic Philanthropies of a June 1983 conviction against Mr Connolly where he received a two-year suspended sentence at the Special Criminal Court after pleading guilty in relation to a H-block riot in July 1981. He was also ordered to pay £250 into the Garda Benevolent Fund.
Tánaiste Mary Harney last night defended Mr McDowell. She said he had a duty to provide information when asked in his written parliamentary reply on December 6th, where he outlined allegations that Mr Connolly had travelled to Colombia on a false passport.