Together with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman has written three historical fiction novels: Wake of the Perdido Star ( 1999 ), a sea adventure of the 19th century, Justice for None ( 2004 ), a Depression-era tale of murder, and Escape from Andersonville ( 2008 ) about a prison escape during the Civil War.

Fianna Fáil chose Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Brian Lenihan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

* 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 Moriarty tribunal found that, of the £ 270, 000 collected in donations for Brian Lenihan, no more than £ 70, 000 ended up being spent on Lenihan's medical care.

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 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.

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.

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.

Initially, Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan had been favourite to win, however after a number of controversies arising from the brief Fianna Fáil administration of 1981 – 82, and Lenihan's dismissal as Minister for Defence mid-way through the campaign, the Labour Party's Mary Robinson emerged victorious.

Brian Patrick Lenihan ( 17 November 1930 – 1 November 1995 ) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, who served in a range of cabinet positions, most notably as Tánaiste ( deputy Prime Minister ), Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Justice.

Brian Lenihan, Jnr served as Minister for Finance and Conor was Minister of State in the government of Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

A cabinet reshuffle in 1964 saw Lenihan join the cabinet of Seán Lemass as Minister for Justice.

In 1968 Lemass's successor Jack Lynch appointed Lenihan as Minister for Education.

Lenihan had hopes of further promotion within the cabinet, however, his appointment as Minister for Transport and Power was largely seen as a demotion.

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

Subsequently, it was reported in books by authors Stephen O ' Byrnes and Raymond Smith, and by many political journalists in newspaper articles ( some of whom had Lenihan as their source ) that Lenihan had been one of the people who had made phone calls to Áras an Uachtaráin, the President's official residence, on the night in question, in order to persuade or pressurise Hillery to refuse a dissolution.

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.

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.

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.

Three years later Lenihan contested the 1957 general election, this time in the Roscommon constituency.

After four years as a senator, Lenihan finally secured a seat in Dáil Éireann following success in the 1961 general election.

Though insisting that he would put no pressure on Brian Lenihan, " my friend of thirty years ", Haughey drew up a letter of resignation for Lenihan's signature.

Lenihan had actually confirmed his involvement in the effort some months earlier in an on-the-record interview with a journalist Jim Duffy, as he had to numerous political colleagues privately over eight years.

The songs were written by Gary Meskil, Dave Wynn, Chuck Lenihan, Dave Brady over the course of their formative years, 1983-1985.

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.

Notwithstanding, Fianna Fáil knew they could count on Lenihan to mount a barnstorming campaign in the last few weeks.

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.

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.

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

Duffy became the subject of mounting political and media pressure, with his silence being spun by Fianna Fáil press staff as evidence that the rumours that Lenihan had confirmed to him that he had made calls were false.

In 1990 Fianna Fáil's nominee in the presidential election was Brian Lenihan.

Lenihan first entered politics in 1954 when he ran as a Fianna Fáil candidate in Longford-Westmeath in that year's general election.

Of the four Fianna Fáil candidates Lenihan was the only one not to be elected.

Lenihan moved his political base from rural Roscommon to Dublin County West, where he was elected again as a TD at the 1977 general election landslide victory by Fianna Fáil.

Haughey, seeking to weaken the faction supporting Colley, appointed Lenihan as Minister for Foreign Affairs, a post he held until Fianna Fáil lost power in 1981.

In 1982, when Fianna Fáil regained power for ten months, Lenihan was Minister for Agriculture, the announcement in the Dáil being greeted by a sustained round of laughter on the opposition benches.

In 1987 Fianna Fáil returned to power and Lenihan was for the third and final time appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the additional post of Tánaiste ( deputy prime minister ).

In January 1990 leaks to the media suggested that Lenihan was considering seeking the Fianna Fáil nomination in the Irish presidential election, which was due in November 1990.

During leadership campaigns against Charles Haughey in the 1980s, Lenihan had regularly appeared on television to insist that Fianna Fáil was not divided, even as ministers were resigning and fisticuffs broke out in the environs of Leinster House.

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.

The Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fáil's coalition partner, told Charles Haughey that unless Lenihan was either dismissed or an inquiry set up into the events of January 1982 it would pull out of government, support the opposition motion and force a general election.