'Nothing is being done about it - it's still going on'

Donnycarney:In Angela's café, Charlie came easily to mind. Only six months ago, the small room adjoining the community centre heaved with politicians, journalists, confreres; all here for the former taoiseach's State funeral at Our Lady of Consolation Church next door.

They thought of him fondly in Donnycarney in those strange days in June.

Yesterday, all had changed and all stayed the same, Angela Foley thought. Her café was empty, a fogged-up sanctuary from the biting winter cold, the yard unrecognisable from the set of those bright, busy days. But still it was Charlie that filled the room yesterday, and she couldn't tell you there was a cold word said all day.

"All the old people around here, they haven't got a bad word to say about him," said Angela. "People were saying, the man is gone, let him rest in peace or whatever." She shrugged. "Sure they already knew."

Caretaker Michael Boylan admitted, almost dutifully, to feeling some anger, but then times moved on, he said: he is middle-aged and says he barely remembers the man. "The older people would remember him from years ago.

"A lot of people remember him for the free travel. They talk about that. There used to be a boxing club here, and he got them the boxing ring and he got a few other things for them as well."

In Kitty Kiernan's pub, local man Jim Mangan shook his head at the figures he heard on the radio yesterday and which he felt skirted the incredible.

"He was the one who said tighten your belts, and he had this extravagant lifestyle, going over to France to buy shirts that would cost more than a holiday for most people."

"Loads of people around here loved him. Still do. He was some class of a lovable rogue, but at the same time it's a bit too much to take."

In Sam Hire across the road, Pat Gaffney was about to close up for the night. For Haughey, only a cynical shrug.

"I'm angry because there's nothing being done about it. It's still going on. The builders today still have the politicians in their pockets. So years of money and years of tribunals and years of waste, and it still goes on.

"But absolutely nothing you could tell me about a politician would shock me. It runs so deep: politics, business and money . . ."