Lynch close to resigning over Littlejohn memory lapse

THE British announced publicly on August 6, 1973 that brothers Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, who were accused of involvement in a Dublin bank robbery in October 1972, had been British agents.

The Irish Government was informed in January 1973, but the whole thing was deliberately played down on the advice of the Attorney General in order not to prejudice the State’s case against the Littlejohns.

Jack Lynch, the leader of the opposition, criticised the low-key way in which the case was handled, even though he was Taoiseach when the British first informed the Irish government. Lynch denied this, and his former Attorney General Colm Condon backed him up. If the British had informed the Lynch government, Condon told a radio interview, he would have known.