WITH enough gravel in his voice to cover an avenue leading to a country mansion, Ben Dunne played multiple roles at the start of the tribunal.
The philanthropist was led by his barrister through his career of giving. He was St Bernard, the man who gave to "charities and to needy situations" because, "if I may say, sir, I came from a situation where I was fortunate in life ... All the Dunnes, in fairness, have that kind streak to them."
He was Mr Motivator, the businessman who rewarded his hardworking contractor Michael Lowry because the more Mr Lowry did for him, the less his fridges played up. He agreed to pay £200,000 for Mr Lowry's house extension, including "items of furniture, paintings and a custom built double bed". We heard a further £105,000 was paid by Ben through an off shore account, not mentioned by Mr Lowry in the Dail in December.
Finally Ben played Charlie's Angel, the man who says he was asked by a Taoiseach in trouble for £150,000 and offered him £700,000 instead.
Four payments and £1.1 million later, the tribunal is to hear from Ben today about the time he met Charles Haughey in 1991. Ben happened to have three bank drafts worth £210,000 made out to fictitious people. He will tell us how he handed over the drafts "and was thanked by Mr Haughey for doing so", counsel for the tribunal said.
When the big man with big pockets finally took the stand, much of his thunder had been stolen by this warm up act. Counsel Denis McCullough catalogued the evidence the tribunal was about to hear to gasps, shaking heads and the occasional snigger.
Ben's cross examination took the packed room of lawyers, journalists and around 50 interested members of the public on a whistle stop money jaunt from the Isle of Man to Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, London and back to Dublin.
There was a glimpse into the meeting in 1993, when Mr Bruton was in opposition and leader of a party with an ailing bank account. "We had a cup of tea and a fairly brief chat. The meeting lasted less than an hour. I recall it well and I made a contribution to the party."
Then there was the Dublin pub where, in 1990, having a pint on his way home, he bumped into Ruairi Quinn and handed him an envelope with a £15,000 cheque in it for Mary Robinson's presidential, campaign.
Later in 1993 he spoke to Dick Spring on the phone "for not "too long" about a tourist project in Tralee. "We discussed amounts." and I agreed to contribute £50,000 towards the development of Waterworld." He sent his driver over to Dick's office with a cheque on a Friday evening.
He even took us briefly to the 14th floor of an Orlando hotel when, nudged into it by his barrister, he hesitantly referred to his "well documented situation in Florida".
As the afternoon wore on and the bank account numbers and figures poured out, it all became a little too much. Then backs stiffened and there was loud guffawing when a barrister who forgot about his microphone whispered to his colleague. "Turn to Charlie now."
Ben couldn't recall when he first met the man, but he remembered him "purely as a man I'd like to meet". The introduction was made by someone he described as being one of his five closest friends, Noel Fox.
Then, after an 8 a.m. Dunnes Stores board meeting 10 years ago, Noel and myself would sit down and have a cup of tea and he brought the matter up."
Mr Haughey had "some financial difficulties" and he wanted Mr Dunne to be one of a chosen few to help him out. Asked if he inquired why Charlie was in trouble, Ben said simply. "I didn't ask him."
