Podcast: Fintan O’Toole on Ben Dunne’s profound legacy - and their strange encounter

Last weekend, millionaire businessman and former Dunnes Stores chief executive Ben Dunne died suddenly in Dubai. He was 74 years of age.

In 1992, Dunne made headlines when he was arrested in his Florida hotel room for cocaine possession, setting off a chain of events that revealed corruption at the highest levels of Irish politics and finance.

Had it not been for Dunne’s cocaine-fuelled psychosis in Florida, would former Taoiseach Charles Haughey’s secret financial dealings ever have been exposed?

On today’s podcast, columnist Fintan O’Toole reflects on Dunne’s eventful life and the extraordinary impact he had on Ireland, as well as his own strange encounter with him as a young Dunnes Stores employee.