PJ MARA: Despite all the eulogising, as Haughey’s enforcer he must have known the score

The day I met PJ Mara we were both green and looking a little lost. I had been sent by a newspaper in Dublin to cover an event in the offices of the Construction Industry Federation. I stepped out of a lift to be met by Mr Mara.

“How are you?” he said, proffering his right hand for a shake, his left to rest on my shoulder, as if greeting a dear old friend. He hadn’t an iota who I was.

He had just started out in the PR game and was flying by the seat of his pants. He pulled me into a conspiratorial huddle and wearing a face of one who was rummaging in his memory, he whispered: “You’re...?”