lDeveloper Tom Gilmartin searched the internet to identify the Sinn Féin councillor who allegedly threatened him in a pub in Clondalkin, Co Dublin in 1990, the Mahon tribunal was told yesterday.
The tribunal heard how Mr Gilmartin, with the help of his son Thomas, looked through dozens of photographs of Sinn Féin representatives in early 2004, in an attempt to identify the man who he believed had threatened him.
In previous evidence, Mr Gilmartin had told the tribunal that developer Owen O'Callaghan had taken him to a pub in Clondalkin where they met three men wearing dark glasses. One of the men identified himself as a Sinn Féin representative and warned him that there was a file on him and he should get out of Ireland.
At the time, Mr Gilmartin was involved in putting together a shopping centre development at Quarryvale, now known as the Liffey Valley Centre.
He described the encounter to the tribunal legal team in 1998 but did not identify the man.
Under cross-questioning yesterday by Paul Sreenan SC, counsel for Mr O'Callaghan, Mr Gilmartin said he did not know who the man was for a long time. But after going through internet photographs, he identified Cllr Christy Burke as the man who threatened him. He said he was absolutely certain.
Mr Gilmartin explained that when he identified Mr Burke, he told his solicitor, who then wrote to the tribunal.
"I was entitled to engage in that exercise," he said.
Mr Sreenan pointed out that in evidence to the tribunal Mr Burke had denied the allegation, saying that he had never met Mr Gilmartin and Quarryvale was not in his ward.
"What do you expect him to say?" Mr Gilmartin asked. "Either that or he has an identical twin."
Mr Gilmartin was also quizzed about his recollections of a meeting on December 28th, 1988, when he said Fianna Fáil councillor Finbarr Hanrahan asked him for £100,000 to secure the rezoning of his land at Quarryvale.
Mr Sreenan contended that Mr Gilmartin had embellished his story each time he told it, either in statement to the tribunal or on the stand.
He said Mr Gilmartin had, at first, mentioned the meeting but had not mentioned the demand. He then introduced the demand and added a comment that Mr O'Callaghan had asked "did he tap you?" when he left the meeting, Mr Sreenan said.
Mr Gilmartin argued that he had only given the gist of the story at first and if he had written down the details of all that had happened in his statement, it would have been 200 pages long.
He also said that at initial interviews with the tribunal, because his story was so long and convoluted, the tribunal legal team had some difficulty "getting their heads round the totality of the story".
Mr Sreenan accused Mr Gilmartin of inventing speeches in his own mind and then attributing them to other people.
"Way back 10 years ago I was a total nutter, wasn't I, Mr Sreenan?" Mr Gilmartin said.
"I was a total liar, an inventor, a Walt Disney, a Myles na Gopaleen . . . Mr Dunlop was an invention, Mr Lawlor was an invention . . . they were all inventions of mine, were they? In my imagination, Mr Sreenan?"
During cross-examination, it emerged that Mr Gilmartin had made about 100 pages of "handwritten scribbles", to help in his recollection of events before his solicitor prepared a statement for the tribunal. These had not been discovered to the tribunal. Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon directed Mr Gilmartin to produce the notes, "if they are available", as soon as possible.
