Ray Burke
By mid-summer of 1999 photographers and journalists outnumbered tourists by two to one in Dublin Castle as Mr. Ray Burke , formerly Minister for Justice and Minister for Foreign Affairs, took the stand.
The Tribunal has established that Mr. Burke has over £100,000 in political donations ‘stashed away’ on behalf of the Fianna Fail Party.
As Mr. Burke sat in the witness box beating his breast and making a virtue of the fact that he had kept a hundred grand in ‘safe keeping’ for Fianna Fail for 20 years, Mr.Hanratty, senior counsel for the tribunal, reminded Ray that he had once been Minister for Justice.
Did you think you were above the law ?
Never
AAlmost all of the witnesses appearing before the Tribunals have had some difficulty in remembering certain events.
Such as who gave them money, where it was handed over, how much was in the brown paper envelope - minor details like that.
But Mr. Burke was the first witness to remember exactly what he did with £15,000 he withdrew in cash from a bank in Jersey. He described the money trail precisely.
And when Ray told the Dail that the £30,000 from Gogarty was the largest donation he had ever received.......
He also forgot to mention the 30,000 from Fitzwilton, the 35,000 from Oliver Barry, the 50,000 from Kalabraki and let’s not forget the 60,000 he received from the builder Joe McGowan in 1984.
But as Ray proudly said of the donations.
They were given to me as the standard bearer of Fianna Fail.
Some standard!
During his final stint in the witness box, Mr Burke was examined by Patricia Dillon, Senior Counsel for the Tribunal.
Ms. Dillon has been described by a journalist as: ‘Anne Robinson with serious attitude’.
But instead of dismissing Burke as the weakest link she told him:
I suggest to you, Mr. Burke, that if you are prepared to lie about little things, you might just as easily lie about big things.
Mr. Burke went ballistic. When he had finished giving his evidence he told some members of the press just what he thought of his new interrogator.
Burke
You know, that woman reminds me of the story of the man who never spoke to his wife in all the years of their married life. He was asked why he had kept silent for so long and his reply was: ‘I haven’t been able to get a fucking word in edgeways from day one.’
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