AS Charlie Haughey might have put it, I think there is some dissatisfaction with the (FF) leadership at the moment. Forty years ago, in the wake of the Arms Trial, the issue was policy; today, the grumblers claim their differences with the Taoiseach are presentational.

SHORTLY before he died, according to his son Seán, Charlie Haughey said: “I never broke my word in politics.”

Former Sinn Féin assemblyman John Kelly has died after a long illness.

IN THE concluding paragraph of my book, Haughey’s 40 Years of Controversy, I wrote that in the end he “probably destroyed his political legacy. It was a great pity because he was unquestionably a very talented politician”.

Former Independent TD Niall Blaney is to stand alongside his old political rivals Jim McDaid and Cecelia Keaveney on the Fianna Fáil ticket in Donegal at the next election, it emerged today.

Yesterday, former Taoiseach Charles Haughey departed the political stage, ushered to eternal rest by the panoply of the State funeral he was accorded, but the spirit of the man he was will linger indefinitely.

DR JIM MCDAID has apparently decided to quit active politics with immediate effect. He has stated that he is already concentrating on his medical practice.

A FIANNA FÁIL senator is due to be named today as one of a number of politicians who accepted an alleged bribe in return for voting in favour of a controversial rezoning issue.

AT THIS stage, most readers probably feel there is little more to be said about the recent controversy between Michael McDowell and Frank Connolly. The issues have been fairly well aired on both sides.

WHEN the time came to end his eventful political career, Charles J Haughey quoted Shakespeare’s Othello: “I have done the state some service, and they know it. No more of that. I pray you.”

TWO shocks in two days would have been too much for the system to bear. Less than 24 hours after Charlie McCreevy surprisingly acquiesced to take the European job, the Government made its other core appointment of the summer.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday led the tributes to the late Jack Lynch's widow, Máirín, who died on Tuesday night.

ON July 7, 1970, protesters picketed outside the home of Peter Berry, Secretary of the Department of Justice.

CHARLES HAUGHEY made a rare public appearance yesterday when he was among the chief mourners at the funeral of his brother, Paraic, in Dublin.

TIMES they are a-changing in the Haughey dynasty. First Abbeville went under the hammer and yesterday Charlie broke a 36-year tradition when his son Conor opened the Dingle regatta, in Co Kerry.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has issued a statement saying he never doubted the integrity of Capt James Kelly, a key figure in the 1970 arms trial.

THE former army intelligence officer at the centre of the arms crisis in the 1970s, Captain James Kelly, was an innocent man, the Taoiseach said last night.

SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Ireland. It is now almost 30 years since 33 innocent people were savagely murdered and scores mutilated in the single biggest act of carnage committed in the course of the Troubles.

FORMER Irish army captain James Kelly is to receive €70,000 after taking a libel action arising from a book on the 1970 Arms Trial.

OPPOSITION parties last night rounded on Justice Minister Michael McDowell for attacking the media over what he called a “feeding frenzy” on the Flood Report.

The Taoiseach has said it will be a number of weeks before the Government decides what, if any, inquiry should be held into the 1970s Arms Trial.

The Minister for Justice has said he cannot rule out the possibility of a formal inquiry into the 1970 Arms Trial.

The former Justice Minister Dessie O'Malley is expected to answer allegations of Government involvement in the illegal importation of arms in a TV programme to be broadcast tonight.

John O'Donoghue is expected to make a statement to the Dail next week on the Arms Trial controversy.