James Gogarty was in his 80s when he was thrust into the limelight after making allegations of corruption involving developers and a leading politician. A former garda and building company executive, his claim that he paid then minister for communications Ray Burke a substantial bribe in 1989 led to the planning tribunal and played a major part in Burke's political downfall.
By Gogarty's own admission, he had participated in an act of corruption; however, his subsequent decision to blow the whistle set in train a series of corruption inquiries that continue to this day. Without Gogarty, there would have been no tribunal and, with it, no revelations by Frank Dunlop and others.
The octogenarian's appearance in the witness box of the tribunal in 1999 brought huge crowds to Dublin Castle. Long before the phrase "Rip-off Republic" was coined, his verbal attacks on corruption in business and politics, and greed in the legal profession, struck a chord with many people putting up with second-rate social services after a lifetime of paying taxes.
Gogarty returned to a quiet retirement once he completed his evidence to the tribunal. At times, allegations of corruption seemed almost incidental to his main grievance, a long-running pension dispute with his former employer, Joseph Murphy Structural Engineering (JMSE).
Ever the tough negotiator, he insisted on being granted immunity from prosecution before he would agree to co-operate with the inquiry. Before the tribunal started, it seemed like one man against the rest, as faceless enemies leaked hostile stories about him to the media. Ultimately, Mr Justice Feargus Flood's 2001 report completely vindicated his claims, while finding that Burke and JMSE's owners had engaged in corruption.
Gogarty was born in Kells, Co Meath, in May 1917. He attended the local school up to the Intermediate Certificate before finding work as a bricklayer and plasterer. In 1939 he joined An Taca Garda, a reserve force set up at the outbreak of the second World War. Three years later he transferred to the Garda Síochána and also began to study engineering at UCD. It was to take him 17 years of broken study to obtain his degree; at one stage, he was pounding the beat as a garda until 2am, then rising early to attend lectures the following morning.
He left the Garda in 1947 and got involved in housebuilding around Dublin. In 1968, at the age of 51, he began working for Murphy, effectively running the Irish operations of the British-based millionaire businessman.
Hard-working, tough and censorious, he ran Murphy's businesses with an iron hand. When a strike broke out at Moneypoint in Co Clare, where JMSE was building the electricity generating station, Gogarty intervened personally, giving rise to allegations of intimidation.
The dispute took its toll on Gogarty's health, and he resigned as managing director in 1982 at the age of 65. However, he stayed on as an executive chairman and continued to mind Murphy's huge bank of land in north Dublin. At an age when most people retire, Gogarty spent two years working on a contract in Sellafield in Britain, living in a hotel and commuting home at weekends. He had an almost feudal relationship with Murphy, who once rang him on Christmas Day and summoned him to come to his home in Guernsey the following day.
Murphy promised him a comfortable pension, but when this failed to materialise, Gogarty grew worried. His wife, Anna, was 20 years his junior, and he had seven children to provide for.
Nonetheless, when other directors of JMSE attempted to wrest control of the business from Murphy, Gogarty weighed in on the side of his employer. After the pair successfully fought off the attempted putsch, Murphy again promised his employee a handsome pension. But when it failed to arrive, Gogarty forced his hand in October 1989 by diverting money due from the Moneypoint job to his solicitor. Gogarty got his money but the two men were now sworn enemies.
It was against this background that the payment to Burke came to be made. Murphy, feeling the heat of unwelcome scrutiny arising from the business dispute, decided to offload his 700 acres of land in north Co Dublin. Developer Michael Bailey approached JMSE with a joint development proposal, under which Bailey would get 50 per cent ownership of the land for nothing, in return for getting the lands rezoned.
Money would have to be paid to county councillors for this to happen, Gogarty told the tribunal. "There was five or six councillors that could organise or maximise the votes of Dublin County Council and that he [ Bailey] was also in a position to cross the political divide."
Burke was no longer on the council, but his influence on Dublin politics was still immense. In June 1989 Gogarty travelled with Bailey and Murphy's son, Joseph jnr, to Burke's house to make a substantial payment. Famously, he asked Bailey: "Will be get a receipt?" for the contribution and got the answer: "Will we, f***!"
Gogarty said the envelope he gave to Burke was stuffed with £50 and £100 notes - £30,000 in all - and a £10,000 cheque (untraced). He assumed Bailey's envelope contained the same amount, but wasn't sure. "There could be feathers in it for all I know," he quipped at the tribunal.
The payment might have remained secret if Gogarty's dispute with the Murphys had been settled. Instead it festered, with a series of legal spats and allegations of intimidation of the pensioner.
Gogarty brought his grievances to a number of people, including Nora Owen and Michael McDowell, to no great effect, but it was only when he responded to a newspaper advertisement seeking information about planning corruption that the full story started to leak out.
Burke reacted with a mixture of bluster, threats and - when his name was finally linked to the payment in media reports in 1997 - a claim that the money was "totally unsolicited". However, the Government was forced to set up a tribunal, and four years later Mr Justice Feargus Flood's report found that the payment, and others received by Burke, were corrupt.
James Gogarty: born May 1917; died September 15th, 2005