The GUBU Factor
Since the February election Charlie Haughey has suffered from a series of "grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre and unbelievable" (to use his own characterisation of the Connolly affair, a phrase immortalised by Conor Cruise O'Brien by its initials, GUBU) events which have undermined his own credibility and that of his Government. The following is the complete GUBU list.
February 25: Des O'Malley announced he was challenging Haughey for the Fianna Fail nomination as Taoiseach. Later that day O'Malley withdrew his challenge, when it became clear that he would command only about IS votes out of 81. March 9: Tony Gregory revealed the details of an amazing deal done between him and Haughey to secure the latter's election as Taoiseach. March 23: Dick Burke turned down Haughey's offer of the EEC commissionership, following pressure from his Fine Gael party colleagues. March 29: Dick Burke, following further reflection, accepted Haughey's offer of the EEC Commissionership, thereby improving the Fianna Fail position in the Dail and offering the prospect of further improvement should it have won the consequent by-election. March: Sometime after the election Haughey attempted to remove Senator Des Hanafin from his position as secretary of the Fianna Fail fundraising committee. Following considerable acrimony and opposition, the committee was finally disbanded. April 20: Haughey's election agent and solicitor, Pat O'Connor was accused in the Swords District Court of having voted twice in the February election. Because of a previously undiscovered technicality, the charge was dismissed. May 25: Fianna Fail lost the Dublin West by-election caused by the defection of Dick Burke to Brussels. Haughey's position was thereby undermined for his "stroke" ill persuading Burke to take the EEC job had backfired. Meanwhile the badly damaged Fine Gael morale was enormously boosted. June 15: Fianna Fail TD for East Galway, John Callanan died, thereby weakening Haughey's position in the Dail. June 22: Former Minister for Justice, Jim Mitchell, revealed to the Dail that while Taoiseach in early 1980 Haughey had installed in his own and in his advisers' offices a telephone system with an override capacity which would have enabled them to listen into all telephone calls made through the Leinster House extension. Haughey denied any knowledge of the existence of this capacity. A special Dail committee enquiry has stalled in its investigation of these charges, amid a growing belief that the insinuation they contained were groundless. Nevertheless Haughey's reputation was probably further damaged. July 30: The Government announced a freeze of public service pay for the remainder of 1982. The announcement was made to the press by civil servants in the absence of the Taoiseach and ministers, who had departed from Dublin on holiday. No consultation with the unions took place prior to the announcement. In subsequent days the credibility of the Government was undermined by the announcement that allowances to TDs were about to be increased considerably - these were later cancelled - and by the revelation that several semi-state companies had already paid the third phase of the public sector wage agreement. The handling of this issue caused the Government further damage but eventually an agreement was reached with the public service unions which will have a significant effect in holding down the public sector pay bill for 1982. Cuts announced in the medical service also damaged the Government, especially in the manner of their implementation. August 16: The Attorney General, Patrick Connolly, resigned following the arrest in his flat in Dalkey on Friday August 13 of Malcolm MacArthur, who was subsequently accused of two murders. Connolly had left- the country on Saturday, August 14 with Haughey's approval and then travelled on from London to New York in spite of a request from Haughey to him to return home. It subsequently emerged that Haughey was unaware of the fact that MacArthur had been arrested in Connolly's flat until the Saturday afternoon. While Haughey's failure to order Connolly back from London on the Saturday afternoon indicated indecisiveness, the situation was corrected within 24 hours. Nevertheless Haughey's reputation suffered very badly from the affair because of the imputation of scandal involved. August 18: At a press conference which dealt with the public service pay issue and the Connolly affair Haughey inadvertently made a statement about the MacArthur arrest which pre-judged the guilt or innocence of the accused. An immediate apology was made by the G.I.S. but the matter was later referred to the High Court which found that there was no contempt involved. September 3: A row erupted over a proposal by Haughey to promote Mr. Eamon Rayel to clerk of the Dail and, it was believed, ipso facto a member of a new constituencies revision committee. Suggestions that the Government was to alter the terms of reference of that committee to ensure that Fianna Fail's bonus of percentage seats over percentage votes would be maximised were the source of continuing controversy both inside and outside Fianna Fail. September 27: James McGovern was detained by the RUC in Fermanagh, thereby preventing him giving evidence in an assault case involving a Garda Thomas Nangle, the brother in-law of the Minister for Justice, Sean Doherty. Doherty later denied any involvement in or knowledge of the arrest. Subsequently there were a spate of rumours in political circles about the conduct of Sean Doherty as Minister for Justice and in particular about alleged interference with the Garda Siochana. October 6: The Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party met to consider a motion of no confidence in Haughey as Taoiseach and as leader of Fianna Fail. In an open roll call vote 22 TDs voted no confidence in Haughey out of a total of 81. Earlier that day two Ministers, Des O'Malley and Martin O'Donoghue resigned from the cabinet. October 18: Dr. Bill Loughnane, the Fianna Fail TD for Clare died of a heart attack. October 19: Jim Gibbons, the Fianna Fail TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, suffered a severe heart attack, thereby removing him from participation in Dail votes for several weeks. With the death of Loughnane and the temporary loss of Gibbons vote, the Fianna Fail Dail strength was reduced to 79 four votes short of an overall majority. October 20: Haughey unveiled the long-awaited economic plan which he and his supporters believed would revive his personal political fortunes and re-direct public attention from the GUBU factor. The plan was based on assumptions which most independent economists found entirely unrealistic and it contained almost no specific decisions to deal with the serious economic problems which it accurately and starkly outlined.
November 4: The Workers' Party voted against Haughey in a motion of confidence: the Government fell for Ireland's Eye. Champagne flows and the entire staff gather to watch and listen as RTE reporter Nickey Coffey goes through the life and times of Hughie. They'll have cause to remember it within weeks. Later that night, much later, staff learn from an ITGWU official that even as the champagne flowed her members were voting on whether to accept Hughie's offer. A refusal would have stopped the paper. The Daily News would have been stillborn. They accepted and their union colleagues pressed the button at Sandyford Printers. It was that close. Monday October 18: Trouble Thursday October 21: Confusion 5 pm. The switchboard is jammed - all six lines. Staff had been queuing to make on average six calls a day out as they struggled to produce the paper. Now the calls that do get through are from rivals - the Press, the Independent, the Times. "Is it true that a receiver has been put in?" One photographer is offered shifts on the Irish Times for the weekend.
6 pm. Staff go ahead with producing the next day's paper. The newsroom is invaded by Sunday Tribune staff, some tired and over emotional. They gather at the door leading to the boardroom and demand to see the board - "the new Board" 6.25 pm. Daily News editor Jim Farrelly comes into the newsroom and says: "Anyone who is not working for the Daily News please leave the building." He is met with a chorus of "No" from the Sunday Tribune staff. Exit Mr. Farrelly. 6.40 pm. A member of the board confirms that there will be no Sunday Tribune magazine on Sunday. But there will be a Daily News tomorrow and a Sunday Tribune. Angry Tribune staff withdraw. 7 pm. They have gathered upstairs in the nearby Fleet Bar. Daily News chapel officers attend. It's an angry session with calls for immediate action and more in favour of holding off. They know by now the issue is bigger than temporary suspension of a colour magazine. "Don't give them an excuse to stop this week's Trib" says one staffer. "Let us seek more information." Agreed, on the promise of a 3 pm meeting next day with Director and General Manager Jim O'Shea. Friday October 22: A smell of death 10 am. Sunday Tribune chapel meets with Daily News representatives present. Brian Trench points out that a Board meeting lasting over eight hours yesterday was talking about much more than just shutting the magazine. He's angry that there has been no consultation but suggests holding off national union intervention until after a promised 3 pm meeting with general manager Jim O'Shea. 11.10 am. Daily News chapel meets and Father of the Chapel John Ikeringill brings into the open a sensitive point. "The futures of both chapels are inextricably linked". Staff decide to await further information. Rumours begin to circulate about pay cheques not being issued, others bouncing. There's still a week to go before wages are due. The staff work on. The production staff come in. They've sent to the Sunday Tribune for their cheques, normally paid at 11.30 am, and have been told there will be nothing until 3 pm - after the banks close and with a bank holiday ahead. Their ultimatum goes back across the river - pay up 2.30 pm or we stop the paper. McLaughlin pays and they dash to the bank. For those who aren't afraid to acknowledge it there's the smell of death in the air. The management are not in a position to meet the staff.
Monday October 25: "Probably I should not have have started it" By now its despair. Editorial executives have already been told of an important announcement to come. The word filters down the ranks.
3.10 pm. Editor Jim Farrelly comes into the newsroom. "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make. Hughie and his men will be here in the next hour and a half and will make a statement to staff about a matter that has been close to our hearts this weekend. I am not in a position to pre-empt what they are going to say." 3.15 pm. News editor Paddy Clancy barks: "Everyone get your expenses in fast." Within minutes he's deluged by blue dockets. One reporter's docket includes "to lunch with Fraud Squad, £25". 3.40 pm. Chief Sub Hugh Galt makes a stab at a smile and says: "It was great fun. I hope my wife and children agree." Staff are still preparing the 16th issue of the paper. It will never appear. 5.10 pm. News editor Paddy Clancy says proudly to anyone within hearing distance: "What do you think of that for a last news list?" It's good. 5.15 pm. "They're in the building". The wore' is out. Staff are assembling in the newsroom. There is a deathly calm. 5.20 pm. Hughie's man John Sheehan leads the way as the board and Hughie enter. They look suitably grim for the occasion. Sheehan: "Due to the difficult financial and trading circumstances it is necessary to suspend publication of the Daily News and the Sunday Tribune for a number of days, to enable negotiation~ going on with an interested party to continue for the necessary financial capital. We hope these negotiations will be fruitful and allow us to resume publication in the short term. We hope that by Thursday afternoon we can hold another meeting at which we are confident of having good news." "Why stop it now? We are disappointed at the level of sales. I was probably too optimistic. But certainly we have a good base in the market and I believe we can convince very substantial financial people of this over the next few days. We have no guarantee that we are going to succeed but information we are holding back gives us some optimism that we should succeed. We had to control the situation. As it stands at the moment with piecemeal finances and very bad trading conditions we would have got nowhere. This company needs the faith of a substantial company. I had a go but it is no good having a go. It is too much for one man. "I think if you question my co-directors they feel the same way about it. To succeed in the market we must get really substantial finance. I would have lasted another two to three weeks but the Sunday Tribune was bleeding the situation. But we had to have a go when we did, otherwise we could not have kept it going. There were long drawn out union negotiations and it took quite a while to even get permission to employ people. "One could argue why did I start this paper. I could ask myself that question. Probably I should not have started it. It is unfortunate. The situation is that significant people are talking to us. I believe my feelings are the same as the team with me here this evening." Staff had been silent but now Hughie faced a barrage of angry questions. "Is there any connection between your' Thursday good news deadline and the fact that wages are due that day?" Hughie: "No. If negotiations succeed there is no problem with pay. If they do not we just do not know. We will have to get the advice of our financial people."
5.35 pm. Hughie: "The situation is that when a company goes out of business it is up to the liquidator to say what he can do about it. Workers have the first priority." Eamonn McCann, Chairman of the Dublin Branch of the NUJ enters the fray with the retort: "Hughie, a priority claim on nothing is nothing." Hughie: "One reason why I had to make this decision was exactly that. Considering the volume of sales and advertising I would have been doing wrong to continue. I cannot be clear on when we are going to start again. But there will not be any delay. It is a matter of two to three days. I am reasonably optimistic that this deal can be put together. Someone shouts up: "What about the staff?" Hughie: "We are confident that it will be saved. I have to go by the advice of my financial advisers. If the worst possible situation happened staff would be paid. But while there is no trading they will not be paid. Again I will have to get advice ." He is asked whether Christmas advertising vital to the survival of the paper has been secured. Hughie: "We have not got the Christmas advertising. There has been a credibility gap." Asked why stop the papers, Hughie replies: "The reason is we as a board have a responsibility to the creditors and to the workers. It would be wrong for me to proceed in these circumstances. The best thing is to suspend publication in the short term, knowing there is a possibility of getting going in a short period. If there was not that possibility I would tell you now." Reporter Brendan Burke asks Hughie whether PA YE and PRSI returns have been made. Hughie: "Yes, they have been forwarded to the Revenue Commissioners, as far as I am concerned. I have put £950,000, and in real terms, over £1 million into this firm, and have put a plan to a major in the UK. I am prepared to write off that entire investment. I believe it is necessary for me to do this to entice people in. There are too many old debts. That is the factual situation. I also hope to reduce my 100 percent shareholding to 25 percent." Eamonn McCann: "Is it still the situation that your assets will be available and made available to pay wages?" Hughie: "Eamonn, Eamonn, the situation is that at a meeting with my financial advisers on Friday it was made clear that we could go on if there was sufficient money to go alongside mine in reserve ... properties in mortgage. I felt I would put it alongside other investment. Unfortunately that other investment was not available on Friday because of the difficult trading record to date. It has been. very very difficult. If I lose I lose all I have put into both companies over a period. I am making 75 percent available to a third party. I can do no more than that." Eamonn McCann: "Certain assurances were given to us by you and we believed them. Are you sticking by those assurances. Your residential properties, will they also be thrown into the ring?" Hughie: "I made it clear from the beginning I would take it along as long as it had an opportunity of developing. At the moment my residue would not be sufficient to carry this firm along. Everything I have would make no difference. What I have told you is more important. I have written off one million pounds in this company. I am offering three quarters of what I own for the purpose of having this firm properly financed. The money required to put this firm over is very much in excess of what I have available. I have done my best. I worked like hell. I worried like hell. You are probably right, I should not have done it." Pressed about who he is negotiating with, Hughie says: "It would be wrong to say who it is. But my co-partners will confirm to you that I was on to him on two occasions this afternoon and we hope to be in London tomorrow. All I can say is I have done my piece. I will write off my entire 100 percent holding to maintain this firm. I have had a go. I am not saying I failed. But at least I have got rid of something that would have made it impossible to continue. I have created a clean sheet to give it a chance of surviving. I had the guts to go on foolishly, I should not have." Eamonn McCann: "You told the union that if the worst came to the worst your personal assets would be available and you valued them. I want to know if they are still available for our members. You still have assets available." Hughie fails to answer and Eamonn says: "You are a con man Hughie. Your word is not worth its weight in dirt. I do not believe anything you say." "This paper was started up to fill a gap in the market. I visualised it and talked about levels of sales and advertising. We did not get that level. I could have liquidated today. Maybe I should have. I have come here to explain to you what is happening. I have explained it as best I can." Board member John Sheehan is asked what assets the company has and replies: "Debtors are assets. There are other assets, paper stocks and ... we are not at this stage looking for a liquidator, we are looking for someone to finance this company." Asked if he could pay the wages owed now he replied: "They are not due for a few days. I could not really answer that question at the moment.
Same day: "That means the liquidator" After his address to the staff, Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Sheehan and Sean Collins meet in Jim Farrelly's office with Eamonn McCann, John Ikeringill and Tom McPhail. This meeting is at 6.35 pm. Mr. McLaughlin announces that up to Sunday evening the staff was employed by the Sunday Tribune Ltd. But now the Daily News Ltd., had taken over with "a clean sheet". "I have risked my investment in the whole firm", he adds. He confirms that the staffs employment by the Daily News Ltd. was effective from today. Questioned by Eamonn McCann about who would then pay the money owed to staff Mr. McLaughlin says that a lot of money was due to the Sunday Tribune Ltd. And the money owed to staff was owed by that company. "All your people's money is quite safe", he adds. "The difficulty is that the money could be in danger if the Sunday Tribune Ltd. is liquidated and the Sunday Tribune will have to be liquidated. In that situation there could be a delay in getting that money." Mr. Sheehan says: "My understanding is that we are going to have to liquidate the Sunday Tribune Ltd. The liquidator will then consider issues such as what money is owed to staff." Mr. McLaughlin adds: "These people can take their time. But I must emphasise that my solicitor has made it clear that the money is owed by Sunday Tribune Ltd." Asked by Mr. McCann to clarify whether the switch of ownership from Sunday Tribune Ltd. to Daily News Ltd. had taken place Mr. McLaughlin says, "It has been done. If we had not done this a liquidator would have moved in this week. There was no way I could get any more money into the Sunday Tribune." The question of a company called "Saulingo" is raised by Mr. McCann and Mr. McLaughlin replies that this was an off the shelf firm from which began the Daily News Ltd. Mr. Sheehan repeats that they would definitely be liquidating the Sunday Tribune Ltd. and Mr. McLaughlin adds that "the money is there but definitely we will have to liquidate the Sunday Tribune Ltd. The title of the Sunday Tribune Ltd. is now owned by the Daily News Ltd." Mr. McCann then asks who his members were going to seek money from. Mr. Sheehan replies: "I think we are going to have to apply to the court to wind up the Sunday Tribune and that means the liquidator." McLaughlin: "We are talking about Friday." McCann replies: "We are talking about now. Could you pay the money before liquidation?" Sheehan: "It would take days before the cheques go through." McCann: "I am asking you to do that." McLaughlin: "We have a meeting arranged with our solicitors and auditors tomorrow and I will decide then." When Mr. Sheehan suggests payment might be possible Mr. McLaughlin disagrees and says: "You cannot say that. It is no use pre-empting the situation. I cannot commit the firm any more than John can. He can give you a personal opinion but John, you have to be realistic. We must take advice and if we say something now we are committing the firm." Mr. Sheehan then says that first thing in the morning someone would be delegated to look at the question of social welfare entitlement, someone like Matt Brennan, and he agreed that a Board member too would be present in the Daily News to outline the situation. Mr. Sheehan persisted that, yes, money would be paid up to the capability of the finances "if it is legal and it may well not be." Hughie insists: "I am not running away. I could have locked the doors. Instead I came here to tell you what was going on. I have not taken a wage out of this firm for two years."
8 pm. It's all over. Staff are drifting off. The wake is already underway in Mulligan's pub. A statement is drafted on behalf of the Daily News chapel. "The chapel condemns the decision to stop publication of the Daily News and the Sunday Tribune. The union regards this as damaging at a time when talks are going on with potential investors. The union will be meeting with a representative of the board tomorrow to demand payment of money due to 65 members in both papers this Friday. It is confident that properly managed and financed both papers are viable."
9 pm. The wake is in full flight in "the Daily News pub", Reagan's of Townsend St. There is silence in the pub as RTE's 9pm news comes on. Now it's official. The cartoons are already circulating. The Daily News slogan now reads: "You lost the lot, Hugh got the lot". Willie Kealy, Deputy News Editor, says "Is there any truth in the rumour that Hughie is looking for £1 million worth of cocaine?" 11 am. The Sunday Tribune chapel meets. Brian Trench says that in future the union should have the attitude that it will have nothing to do with McLaughlin, and suggests the fraud squad should be asked to investigate. Des Crowley says, "I believe we can hold the law over him and that will frighten him." The announcement of suspension was made only to the Daily News chapel. Cheques issued to some staff on last Friday are already bouncing as the banks open.
11.30 am. The Daily News chapel meets. Calls of sympathy are coming in. They decide to stay in the building 24 hours a day. They do not consider themselves unemployed. Notices with no legal standing are already on the way from company secretary Matt Brennan. " ... it is regrettable that your employment is suspended until further notice." 12.30 pm. Meeting with a shaken general manager Jim O'Shea in his office in the Daily News building. Eamonn McCann, Brian Trench and Tom McPhail present. O'Shea: ."1 have suggested a liquidator this morning. I have never heard of suspension of publication in my life and then to have the company still trading. I was told last night that Hughie was in the UK talking to Maxwell. He is not. He is over in Beresford Place. 1 have not been briefed on the financial situation. But 1 am assured the money is there to pay cheques. Accountants have recommended we stop trading. What is happening now is close to fraud. "There was talk last night of changing companies. I am totally against that. I do not think the board can do that. I talked to Smurfits. They do not want to be the ones to stop the operation. A cheque was presented to Smurfits last Friday week to print the paper. It was post dated. They accepted it and later found it was post dated. That cheque was presented last Monday and was referred to drawer. "He asked Smurfits for time. I spoke to Smurfits and they told me of four possible investors. Some of the banks were involved which I found very strange. Smurfits wanted it to be clear that they were not going to close us. As long as people were still talking they saw hope. They have a contract to print." On the question of just who had stopped printing of the Sunday Tribune magazine he says, "I put the hold on the magazine on the instructions of Hughie. The printers of the magazine are paid by Sandyford Printers. On Wednesday evening I rang the magazine printers and stopped it. In the meantime there were meetings going on about new firms and shares being transferred. That I do not understand. That baffles me. "By Friday I was beginning to doubt my involvement in the day to day running of the company. But from my moral responsibility I am going to sit here until a receiver is appointed. Yesterday I had strong words with Hughie about it and we broke up shouting. On Monday afternoon he rang me and I asked him 'are you printing tonight?' He said no. I said 'get in here and tell the staff. It is not my obligation'." O'Shea referred to a meeting of the Board during the week at which Dempsey got 75 percent of the shares. "I have not seen any agreement. It does not make sense to me." He adds that it was disgraceful to say that reasons for stopping trading were the lack of ads and circulation. "I know for a fact that there are unsold, undelivered copies of the Daily News in a swamp in Baldoyle." He goes on: "I do not think the money is thereto pay wages. But I have not been privy to information. I operated in good faith on the basis that funds were available. "I cannot understand anyone who takes a decision to close a paper after two weeks. I am worried about the Sunday Tribune Ltd. That is the only company and if that has ceased trading what can you do? The confusion has arisen in suspending trading pending talks. The only difference is whether there is a receiver now or in two days. This is bigger than an individual can handle. I cannot give people answers. Smurfit might now put in a receiver. They had a written guarantee from Hughie. They should not have printed last week' but were prepared to go on as long as someone was talking." He says that no PRSI has been returned to the Revenue Commissioners.
1.30 pm. Editor Jim Farrelly is on the RTE News telling the nation about efforts to save the papers. Creditors are already in the building trying to remove their property. Cheques are still bouncing. Some staff are in tears. 2.30 pm. Conor Brady, Sunday Tribune editor, addresses staff. RTE's Today Tonight team is asked to withdraw after filming opening sequences. Brady tells staff the newspaper accounts of the situation are substantially accurate. The decision to suspend publication was taken at a board meeting which .he did not attend because he did not know it was going on. That suspension he felt would not be recognised by lawyers. The company was still a lawful operating entity and had obligations. But the Daily News Ltd. had now acquired titles of both papers ... "Le. the company of which I was a director is no longer trading. This transfer may not stand up to scrutiny. I believe when the Daily News was started that large assets were to be made available. They were shown to be available. Those funds are not exhausted. They still exist." He estimates that £1 ½ million is needed to keep both papers going. "The Daily News should not have been allowed to take place. It was under-financed and under-capitalised." He estimates the assets of Sunday Tribune Ltd. as £800,000.
3 pm. A file is already being prepared for presentation to the union's lawyers with a view to seeking an injunction against McLaughlin, freezing assets. The Daily News chapel meets. There is still hope and a proposal that the union will not enter into any agreements with any company in which McLaughlin is involved is held back. It might affect negotiations on a takeover. 5.45 pm. Eamonn McCann, NUJ officer Ray McGuigan and Tom McPhail meet with lawyers in their Baggot St. office to work out just what legal action is open to them. The files on Sunday Tribune Ltd. and Daily News Ltd., if they exist, are unavailable at the Companies Office, say the lawyers. 9.40 pm. The meeting resumes at the home of one of the solicitors, on the Bray Rd. Hughie lives just 200 yards away. The two solicitors have been joined by two barristers. There is new information. A board member has said Sunday Tribune Ltd. will be liquidated in the High Court tomorrow. The meeting presses ahead with phrasing an affidavit, assured by lawyers that liquidation will not affect the case. They break at midnight. A barrister will draw up the affidavit overnight. "It's a long shot" says one barrister. And the union will be liable for any damages.
Wednesday October 27: "I have no work for you" 12 noon. The lawyer arrives in the office with the affidavit. Six Daily News and Tribune staffers are named as plaintiffs. They hope to be in court by 2pm. As they go through the affidavit, there is a run on free coffee from the machine before its owners take it from the building. 12.50pm. NUJ office, Liberty Hall. The staff won't make it into court by 2pm. The union must get absolute clearance that should damages arise it will accept them.
1.45 pm. The solicitor's office, Baggot St. The proposed action is explained to union officials and the go ahead is given by 2.30pm. A call from the Four Courts. McLaughlin has liquidated. The solicitors say it does not affect the case. 3.55 pm. The staff is in court. But the barrister now says there is no point in proceeding. Dismay and confusion all round. 5.30 pm. They arrive back at the. Daily News. It is now christened Maxwell House instead of Apollo House. The coffee is lousy. The liquidator is installed.
5.35 pm. The staff meets the liquidator, John McStay. He says, "I knew nothing more about the situation than anyone else up to this afternoon. In the last hour and a half! have been bombarded with facts and occasionally misinformation. One thing I have learned. There is a large wage bill and not enough cash to pay it. These are the facts. Why I do not know." Before meeting the union team he has asked a number of Board members to leave the room. For the first time the staff sees the document of last Friday October 22 transferring the titles of the Sunday Tribune and Daily News to Daily News Ltd. for £100,000, payable in three instalments over three years - the first payment to be made in September of next year. McStay is asked about notices suspending employment and says, "I do not know what suspension of employment means. But as the person now in charge of Sunday Tribune Ltd. I have no work for you." On finance: "I was told that the Northern Bank Finance Company had agreed to make money available to Hughie to make available to the company. That arrangement was terminated by him not drawing on that money. Board members have told me that it was quite clear this money had been talked about and a lot of people have joiner! on the basis that this money was going to be available."
6.05 pm. McStay lays it on the line to the assembled and angry staff of both papers gathered in "Maxwell House". Referring to the transfer of titles he says: "There is an agreement which I have been shown. Until I am satisfied that it is in the general interest of the creditors it is not worth the paper it is written on. I can go to court and ask for it to be rescinded." He reveals that £300,000 in PAYE and VAT has not been paid. On a takeover he says: "Ultimately any buyer deals with me. The titles. are mine to sell." Asked about the possibility of calling in the Fraud Squad, he replies: "I would prefer to say nothing on that. I have not formed an opinion." The company, he says, has assets of less than £1 million and liabilities of between £3 and £4 million. What about cheques issued and not yet cashed: "They are waste paper" he replies.
7.30 pm. The Daily News chapel meets. It is agreed to picket Hughie's house tomorrow night for two hours from 6pm to 8pm. The sit-in continues and a roster is in force. 8.25 pm. Leinster House and a meeting with Workers' Party TO Paddy Gallagher. He agrees to raise the matter in the Dail the next day if he can get permission. A former print worker, he is sympathetic and amazed at just what has happened. Thursday October 28: The shifting urinals 11 am. Editor Jim Farrelly tells a union team of his talks with Robert Maxwell's. man in Dublin. They are interested. They can put in the necessary cash to "get the ball rolling" for six to twelve months. They want a list of staff. "He has asked me to be available over the weekend." 12 noon. A check with the Companies Office shows that the Daily News Ltd. has not yet been registered. 12.25pm. Liquidator McStay asks for a free telephone line. He has just been talking to Maxwell but has been cut off. Calls are made to journalists in the UK who were due to resign and join the News. Don't. Crowds gather outside the building to view a display of posters showing just what staff think of their ex-boss. The urinals have been removed from the wall in the men's toilet by their owner. 3.45pm. The union's Industrial Council meets in Liberty Hall and sets up a working party to handle the situation. 5 pm. The effort t6 have the matter raised in the Dail has failed. The House has broken up in disarray after Labour Party efforts to question Justice Minister Sean Doherty on more pressing matters. .
Friday October 29: Bouncing cheques 11 am. Things are getting worse. A photographer has just had returned to him a cheque for £180 issued on October, 7 - the day the paper was launched. He had cashed it too late. Mulligan's pub had been careful. They cashed Daily News staff cheques. 3.30 pm. The union's working party meets Eamonn Doyle, Maxwell's man in Dublin at the Coolock HQ of the European Printing Corporation. He's interested, an colourful. He's flying this weekend to Oxford to meet Maxwell with a list of staff "If the two teams disintegrate then we are not interested." On McLaughlin: "He could not run a Wimpy bar." Despite McLaughlin's promised "he has not met Maxwell." And an indication of what's to come? Their plant will be ready in February. He talks proudly of his success with European Printing Corporation. Bonuses are well up and, 'there has been a 1,307 percent increase in productivity."
4.30 pm. Back at the Tribune Beresford Place, to meet McStay. He has sent a solicitor's letter to the company solicitors demanding an under taking from the Board that they will not transfer or tamper with assets without his permission. If he doesn't get it he will go to court or Monday to do so. Hughie could still be in there running McStay says there is a tax reason why the transfer of titles could be beneficial to a new buyer. The losses can be transferred giving the new company a tax honeymoon but only if Hughie is involved. Saturday October 30: Hardship funds The Daily News chapel meets. Eamonn McCann tells them the union is "mildly encouraged" by its meeting with Doyle. "We do think there is a good reason for people sticking together in the short term." The staff breaks for the weekend. The sit-in goes on. Hardship funds are being set up in other newspaper houses. Money could be available by midweek. By midweek there will be cases of actual poverty. Staff have worked for a month without pay. Up to £90,000 in wages is owed
February 18: Fianna Fail won 81 seats out of 166 in the general election. It won 47.3% of the first preference vote - its seventh highest percentage vote in the 19 general elections that have taken place since the party was founded. Had the party won 129 additional votes in Cork East, 154 additional votes in Wicklow and 411 additional votes in Cork North West, it would have secured an overall majority on its own. This was achieved in spite of Haughey trailing his immediate opponent, Dr. Garret FitzGerald, by 20 and 30 percentage points in the opinion polls. 
Mulligan's is awash with rumour. It's the branch office across the road from Apollo House. That night, less than two weeks after the launch, a Sunday Tribune staffer warns that trouble is on the way. That morning, he says, Hughie was summoned to Sandyford Printers - the Smurfits are calling in their debts. A notice has gone up in the Sunday Tribune office saying the proprietor instructs staff to proceed with preparation of this week's paper as normal. The Sunday Tribune staffer asks: "Who is the proprietor now?" 
Hughie follows: "I have no particular statement to make except to say that we have come through extremely difficult times. The whole idea of starting the Daily News from the word go was to save the Sunday Tribune. There was no way the Sunday Tribune could succeed while carrying the overheads it had accumulated. 
Hughie goes on: "I do not agree that suspension of publication is a public statement of failure. If London finance is available I believe they can come back stronger than ever. I have been advised by a firm of leading accountants that it would be wrong for the board to continue as it has been. I believe there is still a good opening in the market but the money I have does not begin to match what is needed. 
Tuesday October 26: "That baffles me"