Ray Burke began by describing his former council colleague, Jim Geraghty, as a "one-term" politician. This wasn't meant to suggest Mr Geraghty had a limited vocabulary, but that was about the only insult Mr Burke spared him during an attack involving numerous terms, all abusive.
In the course of two hours, the former government minister described the former councillor as "vicious", "evil" and "an assassin in the middle of the night". As a politician Mr Geraghty had been inactive, resulting, Mr Burke said several times, in his being "rejected" by the people. Perhaps most damningly, Mr Burke added: "In all my years in politics, he never knocked a door for me".
Knocking doors may be an important bonding ritual in north Dublin politics, but knocking former colleagues was the order of the day yesterday. Although Mr Burke and Mr Geraghty were united in insisting they felt no personal animosity for each other, their falling out at the tribunal was no place for the fainthearted.
Earlier yesterday Mr Geraghty told the inquiry of being in Mr Burke's council offices in 1986 when unnamed persons entered with a hold-all full of cash and, on a separate occasion, a stuffed plastic bag.
When he told a Fianna Fail colleague, Mr Geraghty received a dressing down from a furious Mr Burke, who informed him that if there was any further mention of the matter, Mr Burke would "effing well" ensure Mr Geraghty never graced another Fianna Fail ticket.
Total "fabrication", Mr Burke insisted. But even before he took the stand, his defence gave notice the gloves were off. The chairman had to intervene several times during a cross-examination which redefined the term "robust", featuring everything from the fact that Mr Geraghty's home was the subject of a search for Dessie O'Hare in 1987 to a court case in which he was acquitted of electricity fraud.
When it comes to describing himself, Mr Burke is more than a one-term politician, the tribunal heard. Long known on documents as either Ray or Raphael P, his confirmation name of Damien disturbed the tribunal team by appearing as an added initial in bank documents, at least one of which was also signed "Patrick Burke". These were all legal names, Raphael Patrick Damien Burke protested, dismissing suggestions by counsel that the variations were one of several "layers of concealment". When Mr Hanratty persisted on the name issue, Mr Burke was insulted - badly, he implied. "In 30 years I've been insulted by experts," he told the chairman, "and this guy doesn't rate".
