Bertie Ahern's past explanations about his finances look increasingly questionable after two days before the Mahon tribunal, writes Mark Hennessy.
In the 1993/94 Premier League, Roy Keane was in his first season with Manchester United in a year when the Red Devils won both the league and the FA Cup.
On March 22nd, 1994, Eric Cantona was sent off twice within days: once sensationally at Highbury for a second booking that landed him with a five-match ban.
Days later, United's bid for the treble ended when they were beaten 3-1 by Aston Villa in the Coca-Cola Cup final, while Blackburn Rovers drew level with them in the league race.
However, United quickly returned to form in the weeks following, finally clinching the title on May 1st against Ipswich, before going on to win the FA Cup on May 14th by crushing Chelsea 4-0.
Unforgettable days for die-hard United fans. For 30 years and more Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been Ireland's best known Manchester United fan, often flying there six times in a season to watch them at Old Trafford.
For nearly a year, Ahern has claimed that he received about £8,000 sterling from a group of Manchester-based, mostly Irish businessmen on a Friday night before an Old Trafford game.
Up to now, however, he has said that the event, attended by 25 people, occurred on the night before a match in late September, or early October 1994 in the following football season.
During the second day of his Mahon tribunal appearance in Dublin Castle yesterday, he said he could not be sure if the dinner was held in "April, or May", or "late September, early October".
So far, one businessman, John Kennedy has said he was there; Michael Wall said he was in the hotel but did not eat the dinner; while the organiser, Tim Kilroe is now deceased.
Long-time friend, and ally, Senator Tony Kett was also present, he told the Dáil last October, adding: "I do not want to name someone by mistake and then be accused of misleading the House."
He also made no mention about the influence that his separation from his wife, Miriam had on those he said had made the donation, which he said was to mark the time he had given them over the years.
Yesterday, tribunal barrister Des O'Neill argued that a sum of £24,838.49 credited to Ahern's account in October, 1994, matches exactly a sterling exchange rate on offer on the day.
To get the figure, however, the bank would have had to use the less-generous rate offered for sterling sums below £2,500 - which Ahern said could not have happened, but which the tribunal said could and did in another transaction.
In his prior dealings with the tribunal, Ahern argued that the £24,838.49 was a mixture of the Manchester donation and the first so-called "dig-out" loans from four friends.
Yesterday the story changed.
Now he said that he cannot be sure that the "dig-out" loans amounted to £16,500 in the first place, or that other monies were not added before the Manchester and dig-out cash was lodged.
Credibility in politics is hard won, and easily lost. Following two days in the Mahon tribunal witness box, Ahern's store has not been extinguished, but it has been diminished.
On Monday, Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny gave the first signal that he intends to attack Ahern more seriously on the issue than he did either last year or before the general election.
Last night, Fine Gael held its fire, putting out party councillor and barrister Eugene O'Regan for radio interviews, rather than Kenny, or other senior frontbench figures, but Fine Gael now senses blood.
And the issue, Fine Gael believes, is no longer what did or not happen in the early 1990s, but what has happened since: particularly the documentary evidence that shows that Ahern had not offered the tribunal co-operation at every hand's turn, as he has insisted up to now.
The Taoiseach has offered a succession of explanations publicly about the often bizarre nature of his personal finances in the years before and after he became Fianna Fáil leader in 1994.
Through opinion polls and, subsequently, and far more importantly, in May's general election, the public either believed him or believed that it was not important enough to get upset about.
However, Ahern's case has been sorely tested following two often difficult days in Dublin Castle in a session that has loomed over him for several years, during which his irritation with O'Neill was often evident.
For much of the last few years, he had a mantra that he has been frustrated in his wish to go before the tribunal and deal with the allegations and questions, and that he had co-operated with it at every turn.
On countless occasions during that time, Ahern has used this image of the willing witness to deflect questions about the affair in a way that left questioners with nowhere to go.
Over two days O'Neill quietly and forensically, before a crowded hall in Dublin Castle, did serious damage to that image; even if O'Neill's plan of campaign was, at first, hard to discern.
Producing letter after letter from its exchanges with Ahern's legal team, he showed that the information gleaned by the tribunal was painstakingly secured, and not without difficulty.
Firstly, Ahern's legal team tried to limit inquiries into his finances to a time when, according to his own words, he did not operate any bank accounts between 1989 and 1992, arguing as his senior counsel Colm Maguire did again yesterday that Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin's allegations had covered only that period.
Having refused to accept the argument, the Mahon tribunal's lawyers spent two years in extended correspondence with Ahern's team in search of more information, but even then, the foreign exchange in Ahern's accounts was only discovered in the private session that took place last April.
And it emerged that Ahern had found by October 2004 the seven transactions on his accounts that have subsequently intrigued the tribunal - well over a year before the tribunal found them.
Within minutes on Thursday, Ahern sought to influence reporting of the tribunal by reading out a long statement outlining his sense of grievance at the fate he has endured for seven years.
The strategy worked as Ahern featured prominently in the media for much of the first day in the witness box, with headlines carrying his message.
However, his cause went backwards from there on. Following yesterday's difficult day Ahern now faces the challenge of recovering ground when he comes back to the tribunal.