Can journalist Sam Smyth out-McCracken McCracken and precipitate a second, or even third, tribunal of inquiry into the Ben Dunne and payments to politicians affair, with his soon to be published Thanks A Million Big Fella?
Blackwater Press publisher John O'Connor told Quidnunc from his holiday home in Rosslare this week that Smyth will reveal the background and details on who contacted him with the names in the Price Waterhouse report, how he discovered that Dunnes Stores paid for Michael Lowry's extension and how he tried to contact Lowry the day before the Minister left to chair a meeting in Brussels. His calls were not returned and he broke the story the next day.
Smyth claims to have interviews with further relevant persons other than those who appeared before Justice McCracken, and promises "sensational and more wide-ranging developments" according to O'Connor. Thanks A Million Big Fella is due in mid October. If a second tribunal isn't in full swing by then this book, says O'Connor, could cause one. "The story starts on a windowsill in Orlando but where does it finish?" says Smyth.