The lobbyist, the businessman and the councillors

Frank Dunlop
Frank Dunlop was appointed Fianna Fáil press secretary in 1974. He was appointed head of the Government Information Service and government press secretary when that party assumed office in 1977, and remained in place until 1982. In 1989 he set up Frank Dunlop & Associates and was a familiar figure amid councillors in the old Dublin County Council offices in O'Connell Street.

Between 2000 and 2008 over some 124 days at the Mahon tribunal, Dunlop claimed he kept bundles of cash in his home which was used to bribe councillors to rezone land. In 2009 he received a two-year prison sentence for corruption, with the last six months suspended. He was released in July 2010, having served just 14 months. He has claimed businessman Jim Kennedy gave him IR£25,000 in 1991 to bribe councillors to vote in favour of rezoning land at Carrickmines.

Jim Kennedy
Businessman James (Jim) Kennedy started as a small farmer in Abbeyleix, Co Laois, but moved to the pub trade in Dublin in the 1970s. He expanded into housebuilding, auctioneering and property development and bought an amusement arcade in Dublin's Westmoreland Street which he used as a business base.

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Cllr Tony Fox: Independent member of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. Photograph: Collins Courts

Colm McGrath
Colm McGrath was first elected as a Fianna Fáil councillor in Clondalkin in 1985. A businessman who owned a security services company, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1977 general election. He was dropped by the party in 1999 but retained his council seat after running on an Independent ticket.

Don Lydon
Don Lydon is a psychologist and former Fianna Fáil member of Seanad Éireann from 1987 to 2007. From Co Donegal, he was a member of Dublin County Council from 1985 to 1993 and a member of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council from 1994 to 2002.

Liam Cosgrave
Liam T Cosgrave is the son of former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and grandson of the first president of the executive council, WT Cosgrave. He was a Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire in 1981 and was re-elected in two elections in 1982. He was elected to the Seanad in 1993, where he remained until 2002.

Tony Fox
Tony Fox is the only councillor of the four former councillors in the case to remain a publicly elected representative. Now an Independent, Mr Fox retained his seat in the 2009 local elections. A member of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, he trained as a tailor and lives in Churchtown, representing the Dundrum electoral area.