Frank Connolly's new book, Tom Gilmartin, published by Gill Books

Musician Christy Moore recently launched a new book about Tom Gilmartin, a key witness in the Mahon Tribunal, written by investigative journalist Frank Connolly. Tom Gilmartin: The Man Who Brought Down a Taoiseach and Exposed the Greed and Political Corruption at Heart of Irish Politics, was launched on Thursday, 3 April at 6.30pm at the Civic Museum, the Irish Georgian Society’s residence on 58 South William Street.

The book tells Tom Gilmartin’s story. From humble beginnings in the west of Ireland to success in the world of mechanical engineering and property development in England, Gilmartin returned to Dublin in the 1980s with ambitious plans for two retail developments to create substantial employment in the city but was frustrated by corruption at the very highest level in Irish politics.

The former property developer gave evidence at the Mahon Tribunal that he gave former environment minister and EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn a cheque for £50,000 which he intended as a donation to Fianna Fáil but which the party never received. The book recounts Gilmartin’s engagement with the tribunal before and after Flynn famously appeared on ‘The Late Late Show’ denying that he had wrongly withheld the payment. Gilmartin’s evidence led to Bertie Ahern being cross examined in public about lodgements to his various bank accounts when he was finance minister in the 1990s and ultimately to his resignation in 2008.

The book is based on direct interviews with Gilmartin over several years as well as his private statements to the tribunal, his public evidence and that of many other witnesses and on the report of the Mahon Tribunal.

The Mahon tribunal vindicated Gilmartin’s version of events and this book makes its detailed investigation into Gilmartin’s claims more readily accessible to a wider audience. Sadly, Tom Gilmartin did not live to see publication of the book with which he had co-operated. He passed away in November 2013.

The circumstances that brought the country to its knees have been well explored and documented but here Frank Connolly explores the roots of where the political and financial rot that has wreaked such havoc on the lives of so many Irish people began.

Tom Gilmartin: The Man Who Brought Down a Taoiseach and Exposed the Greed and Corruption at the Heart of Irish Politics was published by Gill Books on Thursday, 3 April 2014, priced at €16.99.

For further information please contact Teresa Daly, Communications Manager, 01 500 9521, tdaly@gill.ie.