Further light was shed on the destruction of a 16th century listed building in Donabate, Co Dublin, during Mr James Gogarty's cross-examination yesterday.
Turvey House was one of two buildings listed for preservation in the County Dublin development plan when it was demolished in July 1987.
Yet Mr George Redmond, the de facto county manager, said at the time he had no knowledge of the demolition or that Turvey had been listed for preservation.
For three centuries, Turvey was home to generations of the Barnwells, a Catholic Norman family.
It is mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters. During the Penal Days, it was the place of concealment of Blessed Edward Campion, a Jesuit priest connected with the Gunpowder Plot.
Turvey had a fine fireplace on the first floor dating back to about 1600.
In the 18th century, a Georgian facade was erected over the original Tudor frontage. The main door-case from that era was considered unique.
Then, in the late 1960s, a JMSE subsidiary bought the house and estate.
The firm's strategy, here and elsewhere, was to buy land in rural Dublin cheaply, then sit on it until the city spread and land prices rocketed. Turvey was another investment waiting to mature.
Yesterday's evidence charted Turvey's sad decline in the letters and memorandums of a variety of local officials. As Mr Gogarty recounted in earlier evidence, the house was "let go to rack and ruin".
By 1973, five years into JMSE's stewardship, the house had deteriorated considerably. "There are hardly any windows left unbroken, the door is left open and there is no attempt to prevent vandalism," a council official noted.
"Fireplaces have been ripped out and destroyed and the balustrades have been removed from the staircases. It is now in a dangerous condition and if left in its present state the internal structure will start to collapse."
The council spent £274.20 on boarding up the house. It later pursued Mr Gogarty successfully for the reimbursement of this money.
In 1986, the council's planning officer, Mr Gay McCarron, said Turvey was in an "extremely ruinous and dangerous" condition. He warned that his department would oppose any attempt to demolish it.
Yet only a year later, the council served a demolition order on Turvey. JMSE hired a demolition firm, Burke Plant Hire Developments, and the job began on July 13th, 1987, according to a council memo read by Mr Cooney yesterday.
A council inspector visited on the Tuesday and Wednesday, when the job was completed, and declared himself satisfied with the work done. The danger had been eliminated, he reported.
"It doesn't sound like an overnight job," Mr Cooney said.
Mr Gogarty maintained that the demolition was carried out on the first night, with the remaining two days devoted to clearing-up work.
"Are you asking the chairman to believe that Burke Plant Hire worked through the night to demolish the house?" asked Mr Cooney.
Counsel had clearly never heard of Drogheda Grammar School, demolished overnight two years later, or Molesworth Hall and St Ann's Schools on Molesworth Street, which met the same fate a decade earlier.
The contemporary report in The Irish Times seems to support Mr Gogarty's version. It said the demolition was carried out "at the weekend". The story was written on the Tuesday.
There followed an unseemly row between the council and the Office of Public Works, which claimed the council had "illegally interfered" with the building. According to Mr Cooney, it was only then that Mr Redmond became involved.
Mr Cooney said there was no question of Mr Redmond "sticking his neck out" on Turvey, as Mr Gogarty had alleged.
Mr Cooney will tackle Mr Gogarty's other allegations about Mr Redmond in today's cross-examination. His main purpose in opening the council documentation was to show that Mr Gogarty played a central role in Turvey's demise. Mr Cooney claimed that in his evidence, Mr Gogarty had given the impression he had nothing to do with the house or its demolition.
Later, Mr Cooney called on the witness to apologise for having alleged that Mr Joseph Murphy junior had assaulted a woman in an incident in November 1989. He said Mr Murphy was charged with a "very, very minor" offence and this was dismissed under the Probation Act.
Mr Gogarty said he recalled reading in the Evening Press that a man described as an "emigrant Irish labourer" had "gone over the top with a bit of drink and did some damage on a girl, her dress and that type of thing".
Mr Murphy was describing himself as a labourer when he was a multi-millionaire's son, Mr Gogarty claimed.
But the report on the front page of the Evening Press of November 20th, 1989 fails to support this version. It reads: "A man who let off a fire extinguisher in a crowded hotel during celebrations after an All Blacks test match was given the Probation Act today after paying £100 into the court box.
"Joseph Murphy (27), who works in England, damaged a woman's mink coat when he sprayed revellers in the Berkeley Court Hotel, Dublin District Court was told."
"Gardai blocked Mr Murphy as he ran from the packed foyer after the prank."
Mr Gogarty, subdued but combative throughout the morning, refused to apologise.