Connolly eased out of the Sunday Business Post

He at first refused to state where he had been in April 2001 and then remained evasive, refusing to explain where he had been while on leave at that time. By Colin Murphy, John Byrne and Vincent Browne

Frank Connolly initially refused to tell his then employers in the summer of 2002 whether he had been in Colombia in April 2001 and although later he denied having been there, according to a person with knowledge of his dealings with his then employers, he remained evasive and, at all times, refused to say where he had been in April 2001. His employers at the time were the Sunday Business Post.

Frank Connolly had taken leave in April 2001. He previously had taken a number of extended leave breaks, during at least one of which he visited his brother, Niall Connolly, who was then resident in Cuba. Frank Connolly made no secret of this visit and wrote a number of stories for the newspaper subsequently, arising from that visit.

Management at the Sunday Business Post in the summer of 2002 were unhappy with Frank Connolly's evasiveness over his whereabouts in April 2001. This was after stories began to be published in various media about his alleged visit to Colombia. Although he had been the newspaper's most successful investigative reporter, breaking several major news stories over a number of years, it was felt by management he should leave the newspaper.

He did leave the newspaper later in 2002 after he had been offered a position on Ireland on Sunday. He was not fired by the Sunday Business Post but management made him aware he should seek alternative employment. His engagement by Ireland on Sunday was described by one person in the Sunday Business Post as "a mutually convenient turn of events".

In April 2001 Damien Kiberd, now one of the directors of the Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI), was editor of the Sunday Business Post but he was unwell during that period and was not acting as editor full time. Later in 2001 Damien Kiberd retired from the Sunday Business Post where he had been the founding editor. He was succeeded by Ted Harding.

Frank Connolly has denied on a number of occasions he ever visited Colombia or ever applied for a passport in a false name. However he refuses to state where he was in April 2001, claiming he will deal with such matters if a prosecution is ever taken against him.

We submitted a series of questions to Frank Connolly in connection with the circumstances of his leaving the Sunday Business Post. By the time of gong to press he had not responded.

Allegations that an Irish journalist had been identified as having travelled on a false passport in Colombia were first reported in the Daily Telegraph and in New York-based Irish Echo on 15 May 2002, just at the time of the general election here.

Toby Harden reported for the Telegraph from Bogota that "another visitor to the FARC zone, entering on 7 April last year, has been by identified by British sources as a Dublin journalist and dedicated republican. He, like (Padraig) Wilson, travelled to San Vicente del Caguan via Bogota from Paris on a false passport." These reports arose from follow-up enquiries after the arrest of the Colombia Three (including Frank Connolly's brother, Niall) in August 2001.

The Irish Echo in New York came closer to identifying the journalist. In its issue of 15-21 May 2002, the Echo reported that Padraig Wilson was "believed to have visited Colombia in April 2001 in the company of a well-known Irish journalist whose newspaper has been critical or dismissive of allegations that the three Irishmen were in Colombia were on an IRA mission to help FARC".

"He and his newspaper regularly suggested that such reports were part of an effort by members of various intelligence organizations to undermine Sinn Féin", the report said.

The Echo cited sources in the State Department, who were commenting following the publication of a House International Relations Committee report on IRA-FARC links.

Frank Connolly was first named in a Sunday Independent "exclusive" by Jimmy Guerin, (brother of the late Veronica Guerin) on 19 May 2002. A week later, the Sunday Times reported that senior Garda sources had said Frank Connolly "resembled a man who had travelled to Colombia using fake documents" and that Gardaí wanted to interview Connolly "to eliminate him from their investigations".

Two months later, in the week that Frank Connolly left the Sunday Business Post to take up a position at Ireland on Sunday, the Sunday Independent reported in detail on the Garda investigation into allegations that he travelled to Colombia on a false passport. It was alleged, said the paper, that Frank Connolly had travelled to Bogota, Colombia on 7 April 2001, using a passport in the name of John Francis Johnston, stayed a week in Colombia and returned via Paris on 14 April 2001.

The paper said Connolly was likely to be charged with "larceny of a passport", which meant "obtaining a passport on the basis of false documentation". It said the Colombian authorities had "photographic evidence of a passport bearing Mr Connolly's picture which was taken at Bogota Airport". This was uncovered by the Colombian authorities after a search of records following the arrest of the "Colombia Three".

According to the Sunday Independent, "Colombian intelligence and anti-terrorist organisations from the US prepared a report which was presented to a recent hearing of the House International Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill which was examining links between FARC and the IRA".

"The report stated that the IRA had dispatched 15 men to Colombia between 1999 and 2001, and while conclusive evidence of formal links between FARC and the IRA was hard to prove 'there was too much apparent traffic from Ireland to the Colombian guerrilla group to be a freelance coincidence'."

Connolly first worked in journalism as a researched on the Late, Late Show, where he researched a special on nuclear power. At RTÉ, he had "differences" with other staff, "particularly in relation to issues relating to the North", he said later. He left, and freelanced from a number of publications during the 1980s, including the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Independent and Magill (where he first wrote about Ray Burke's alleged involvement in planning corruption).

Connolly subsequently found a home at the Sunday Business Post, where his nationalist politics fitted in with those of the paper, and of then editor, Damian Kiberd. Connolly said of the paper, "I think that certainly was where I felt most comfortable" and described Kiberd as "a very good and courageous editor".

Connolly was Northern Ireland editor for the Post, and wrote a series of interviews with key players from all the political parties as the peace process developed. Kiberd said of Connolly, "he was a very good story-getter, very persistent, with a good sense of news".

"He broke a lot of good stories – but lots of them were attacked when they came out first by the mainstream media. Some of his stories were bitterly attacked in Dáil Éireann, particularly the Ray Burke one."

Another story bitterly attacked was a story Connolly wrote in the Post in 2000. Connolly reported allegations of corruption against Bertie Ahern by Denis "Starry" O'Brien. Ahern sued, and won £30,000 damages against O'Brien in the Circuit Court, and received an apology in the Post.

In Ireland on Sunday.Connolly continued to break stories, although they didn't get the same prominence as in the Sunday Business Post. Most notably there, he broke the Monica Leech/Martin Cullen story in 2004. He left Ireland on Sunday to become the executive director of the CPI, which launched in February 2005. Connolly was previously linked with paramilitaries at the planning tribunal in 1999. Joe Murphy jnr claimed at the Tribunal that Dermot Ahern had said Connolly was in the Irish Republican Socialist Party, whose military wing was the INLA, and that Ahern had described Connolly as "a dangerous bastard". Ahern said he didn't remember making the comments. Connolly said the allegations were "disgraceful".

Additional reporting by Patrick Kennelly and Sam McGrath