Haughey angrily denied the charge, though Lenihan, in his subsequently published account of the affair, noted that Haughey had denied " insulting " the officer, whereas the allegation was that he had " threatened " him.

He first achieved prominence in 1990 when the contents of his on-the-record interview with then Tánaiste Brian Lenihan, in which Lenihan admitted making calls to the residence of the Irish president seeking to speak to President Hillery to urge him to refuse a Dáil dissolution in controversial circumstances ( something he had previously denied ), led to Lenihan's dismissal from government, his defeat in that year's Irish presidential election and the unexpected election of the left wing liberal Mary Robinson as President of Ireland.

He decided to raise the issue of the calls again on the programme, given that in the preceding week Lenihan changed his story of eight years and had now denied twice, first in a student debate, then in an Irish Press interview with Emily O ' Reilly, making any calls.

The Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, denied that Lenihan was under any pressure to resign.

Lenihan had always denied this, but now new evidence had come to light.

Lenihan himself never denied his involvement in the incident.

She defeated Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan and Fine Gael's Austin Currie in the 1990 presidential election becoming, as an Independent candidate nominated by the Labour Party, the Workers ' Party and independent senators, the first elected president in the office's history not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil.

It emerged during the campaign that what Lenihan had told friends and insiders in private flatly contradicted his public statements on a controversial effort in 1982 by the then opposition Fianna Fáil to pressure President Hillery into refusing a parliamentary dissolution to then Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald ; Hillery had resolutely rejected the pressure.

Lenihan claimed that " on mature recollection " he hadn't pressured the President and had been confused in his interview with the student.

Three candidates had been nominated in the 1990 presidential election: the then Tánaiste, Brian Lenihan from Fianna Fáil ( widely viewed as the certain winner ), Austin Currie from Fine Gael and Mary Robinson from Labour.

In May 1990, in an on the record interview with Jim Duffy, a post-graduate student researching the Irish presidency, Lenihan had confirmed that he had been one of those phoning Hillery in January 1982.

In October 1990, Lenihan changed his story, claiming ( even though he had said the opposite for eight years ) that he had played " no hand, act or part " in pressurising President Hillery that night.

Their pressure backfired, particularly when his campaign manager, Bertie Ahern, named Duffy as the person to whom he had given the interview in a radio broadcast, forcing a besieged Duffy to reverse an earlier decision and release the relevant segment of his interview with Lenihan.

The revelations, and the discovery that Hillery had stood up to pressure from former cabinet colleagues, including his close friend Brian Lenihan, back in 1982 increased Hillery's standing substantially.

Three other cabinet ministers had also contemplated running-Brian Lenihan, Kevin Boland and Donogh O ' Malley.

In the interview Lenihan confirmed what he had previously confirmed to other writers over eight years, that on 27 January 1982 he, along with party leader Charles Haughey and a colleague, Sylvester Barrett, had repeatedly phoned Áras an Uachtaráin, the residence of the President of Ireland, to try to put pressure on the President, Patrick Hillery, to refuse a dissolution of parliament to the Taoiseach ( prime minister ), Dr Garret FitzGerald.

When challenged on the programme Lenihan maintained that his October 1990 version was correct, denying that he had played " any hand, act of part " in attempts to pressurise President Hillery.

FitzGerald had been in Áras an Uachtaráin on the night of the calls and had been told by the President's staff that Lenihan had persistently been making calls.

* November 1 – Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favourite Brian Lenihan to become the first female President of Ireland.

When Lenihan refused, Haughey formally advised President Hillery to dismiss Lenihan as Tánaiste, Minister for Defence and member of the cabinet, which the President as constitutionally required duly did.

Phone calls were also made to the President by Brian Lenihan.

Lenihan was accused of calling and attempting to influence the President, who as Head of State is above politics.

The failure to get the Fianna Fáil candidate, Brian Lenihan, elected as President of Ireland added to the pressure on Haughey's leadership.

However when the minority party in government, the Progressive Democrats, threatened to quit government unless Lenihan resigned or was sacked, and Lenihan refused to resign, the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, instructed President Hillery to sack him.

When he got there, he was informed that a series of telephone calls had been made by senior opposition figures ( and some independent TDs ), including Fianna Fáil leader ( and ex-Taoiseach ) Charles Haughey, Brian Lenihan and Sylvester Barrett demanding that the President, as he could constitutionally do where a Taoiseach had ' ceased to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann ', refuse FitzGerald a parliamentary dissolution, forcing his resignation as Taoiseach and enabling the Dáil to nominate someone else for the post.

A few weeks before the election a scandal broke over the accusation that Lenihan had phoned President Hillery in 1982, asking him not to dissolve the Dáil following the fall of Garret FitzGerald's government.

Lenihan refused to sign, and Haughey formally advised President Hillery to dismiss Lenihan from the government-which Hillery, as was required constitutionally, duly did, despite grave personal concerns.

In 1990 as part of his postgraduate thesis for his Master of Arts in Political Science Duffy interviewed senior politicians, one of whom was the then Tánaiste, Brian Lenihan.

Lenihan, previously a large framed man, had been reduced to a bone-thin jaundiced-looking shadow of his former self, so ill-looking that the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Tom King, said afterwards that on seeing Brian at an Anglo-Irish Conference meeting, he had speculated as to whether Lenihan would die at the meeting.

During a broadcast in 1990 the then Tánaiste and expected next President of Ireland, Brian Lenihan, badly damaged his chances of being elected.

Days after the Act was passed, an order was sought by minister Brian Lenihan, Jnr and approved allowing a transfer of over € 3, 700, 000, 000 into Allied Irish Bank, then an insolvent bank.

In early 1985 looking for a newer edge, they added Chuck Lenihan as a second guitarist, and ( then ) 16 year old Dan Richardson on drums.

) After three days of intense political and media pressure, Duffy released the relevant proportion of the on-the-record tape interview he had done with Lenihan.

When Lenihan's campaign manager, Bertie Ahern, named Duffy on radio as someone who had interviewed Lenihan back in May, a political storm erupted in which the journalist was put under siege by the media and Fianna Fáil, leading to his reluctant decision, after consulting with lawyers, to release the portion of the tape in which Lenihan talked about the events of January 1982.

Lenihan was popular and widely seen as humorous and intelligent.

Currie later remarked that Lenihan was his personal friend, and that he felt personally sick at being asked to endorse somebody he did not like, for the sake of beating Lenihan.

Lenihan's role in the event in 1982, seemed to imply that he could be instructed by Haughey in his duties, and that in effect electing Lenihan was in effect empowering the controversial Haughey.

This plan, suggested by Brian Lenihan and Donogh O ' Malley, was dropped after opposition by Trinity College students.

Though publicly Taoiseach Charles Haughey insisted that it was entirely a matter for Lenihan, his " friend of thirty years " and that he was putting no pressure on him, in reality he gave Lenihan a letter of resignation to sign.

The Presidential election was disappointing for Haughey with Brian Lenihan, the Tánaiste, who was nominated as the party's candidate, being defeated by Mary Robinson.

It is suggested that Haughey was forced by O ' Malley to sack Lenihan in order to save the government, and stay on as Taoiseach.

* In May 1989 one of Haughey's lifelong friends Brian Lenihan, a former government minister, underwent a liver transplant which was partly paid for through fundraising by Haughey.

The tribunal identified one specific donation of £ 20, 000 for Lenihan that was surreptitiously appropriated by Haughey, who took steps to conceal this transaction.

In October 1990, in the midst of the presidential election, FitzGerald was to be a guest, alongside Lenihan, on RTÉ1's Questions and Answers political debate programme.

FitzGerald aggressively challenged Lenihan, saying " I was in the Áras, Brian, and I know how many calls there were.

Aware that Lenihan had been one of Duffy's sources for the original article in September, with Duffy's permission the Irish Times ran a front page story stating that Lenihan had made the calls he was now denying.

Lenihan tried in a subsequent live television interview on the Six-One News to insist that what he had said to Duffy was wrong, insisting that " on mature recollection " his October 1990 version was the correct one, and all that he had said previously over eight years was incorrect.