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.

The Irish Ambassador in London had sent a courier with a report that the British authorities “had accepted an offer of information concerning IRA activities” from the Littlejohn brothers, “but that any illegal activity had not been authorised by it.”

Lynch had personally instructed that the report be given to his Minister for Justice Des O’Malley.

Certain clarifications were requested, and Ambassador Donal O’Sullivan responded with those on January 10, 1973. Copies of this material were now shown to Lynch and Condon.

Hugh McCann, the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, reminded Lynch that he had informed him as Taoiseach back in January. Remembering that meeting, the former Taoiseach promptly admitted that he forgotten the whole thing.

“I did not remember the details of it until Mr McCann called,” he explained. “It is impossible to remember all the scores of messages and interviews the Taoiseach gets each day.”

Condon admitted that he since remembered seeing the Ambassador’s report. Lynch caused a sensation in an RTÉ interview next day when he admitted his “loss of memory” had led to the confusion and he would, therefore, have to consider his continued leadership of the Opposition.

Des O’Malley told RTÉ that if he had not been on holidays, he would have helped to refresh the former Taoiseach’s memory. He was insistent that there was no reason for Lynch to resign as leader of Fianna Fáil.

Brian Lenihan said there was no question of a “mere lapse in recollection being regarded in Fianna Fáil as a reason why he should resign.” This was ironic in light of his own dismissal as Tániaste over a memory lapse in 1990.