James Gogarty RIP - He did the State some service

IF ever an Irish citizen could justly quote the lofty sentiments of Shakespeare’s Othello and say “I have done the State some service”, it was James Gogarty.

The former executive of the JMSE construction group, who has died at 88, caught the imagination of the entire country when he lifted the lid on a sordid can of worms involving corruption in high places and widespread bribery of politicians by business.

It was Mr Gogarty’s bombshell revelations about his company’s bribing of former Fianna Fáil minister Ray Burke which led to the planning tribunal that shone a spotlight into a murky world of land re-zoning, brown envelopes and back-handers.