Loyalty being stretched in Quinns saga

There was a familiar face in court that day.

The occasion was the sentencing of Frank Dunlop at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in May 2009. Dunlop had pleaded guilty to corruption charges arising from his activities as a lobbyist for developers in the early and mid-1990s. By his own evidence to the Planning Tribunal, he had been at the centre of a web of corruption, and when he was charge he held his hands up.

He got two years in the slammer, with six months suspended. The familiar face in court was Sean Boylan, renowned herbalist, and, even more renowned and successful, Gaelic football manager.