Dunlop says developer paid for SF protest bus

Developer Owen O'Callaghan paid for a bus to run Sinn Féin-organised protesters to a demonstration outside Dublin County Council in December 1991, the tribunal was told yesterday.

Former Fianna Fáil press secretary Frank Dunlop told Patricia Dillon SC, counsel for the tribunal, that Sinn Féin representative John McCann organised the demonstration in support of the Quarryvale development. Mr Dunlop said he paid for the bus and was subsequently reimbursed by Mr O'Callaghan.

Mr Dunlop, who was working for Mr O'Callaghan and developer Tom Gilmartin in the early 1990s to promote their Quarryvale project in west Dublin, said that at the time, the Quarryvale development was a contentious issue within the council and was being opposed by Green Properties, the company behind Blanchardstown Shopping Centre.

He said the protest became slightly heated and he was embarrassed about it, but felt he could not stop it.

The tribunal was also told Mr O'Callaghan bought a word processor and printer for Mr McCann, who was involved in the Quarryvale Residents Association.

The tribunal heard in evidence last month that Mr Gilmartin had said Mr O'Callaghan drove him to a pub in Clondalkin in 1990, where he was allegedly threatened by a Sinn Féin representative. He later identified the figure as Cllr Christy Burke. However, counsel for Mr Burke put forward Mr McCann as the Sinn Féin representative who met Mr Gilmartin in connection with Quarryvale.

Ms Dillon pointed out yesterday that other members of Sinn Féin were supporting the Green Properties development at the time. Mr Dunlop replied that it demonstrated "the undoubted ability of Sinn Féin to be on both sides of the fence".

The tribunal was also told about the financial difficulties of the late Liam Lawlor.

Mr Dunlop recounted how he went with Mr Lawlor to AIB in Ballsbridge to help him with his financial problems.

He said Mr Lawlor had a "cockamamie" idea about using shares held by Mr Dunlop in the Citywest development as collateral for a loan. He said the plan did not have a very realistic basis, but he "tagged along" to the meeting because Mr Lawlor was his friend and had asked him.

"The public perception was Liam Lawlor was very well endowed financially, he lived in a period house, he drove fairly large cars and he had all of the outward trappings of someone who had money," Mr Dunlop said. "The reality was that he was in serious debt."

Ms Dillon asked Mr Dunlop what he did with a number of cash withdrawals made from his accounts in the 1990s.

In particular, Ms Dillon asked about a withdrawal of £5,000 from Nationwide Building Society in September 1991, on the same day that Mr O'Callaghan withdrew £10,000 from his personal AIB account.

Mr Dunlop said he could not say what he did with it, except that it was for the purposes of having cash.

Neither man could explain to the tribunal what they did with that money, Ms Dillon said. She asked if there was a joint purpose for the withdrawals. Mr Dunlop said there was not.

Ms Dillon then highlighted a lodgement of £8,000 to the account of Hazel Lawlor, Mr Lawlor's wife, made shortly afterwards.

She also highlighted two transactions, one to Mr Dunlop's account and one to the account of Mr O'Callaghan, both for the same figure, £9,075, and lodged on the same day, in October 1991. When she asked Mr Dunlop where the sum came from, he replied that he did not know.