In one of three versions she gave the tribunal of how she came to take possession of the controversial �28,772 which she lodged to the bank on behalf of Micheal Wall, Celia Larkin said she got it at a meeting in Gerry Brennan's office. She also gave evidence that she and Ahern, along with Wall and his wife, Gerry Brennan and others, went out for drinks on the Saturday night in December 1994 when Ahern expected to be elected taoiseach for the first time within days. It was a tradition for them, she said, to meet up the night after the annual fundraising dinner for the constituency. She said it was the solicitor who advised her what to do with Micheal Wall's money earmarked for expenditure on the Beresford house.

Wall gave evidence that Brennan drafted his will on 6 June 1996, after Wall was in a road accident. In the will, he left the house at Beresford Avenue to Ahern and, in the event of Ahern's death, to his daughters.

Tragically, Gerry Brennan died by hanging on 24 May 1997 at the age of 41. He had been married with one child and the family lived at Orwell Park, Rathgar. His solicitor's practice, Gerard Brennan & Co, was at No 27 Upper Mount Street, the same Dublin 2 street that housed Fianna Fail HQ and Frank Dunlop's PR firm. Ahern lived in a flat at Upper Mount Street for two years after his term as Lord Mayor of Dublin came to an end in 1987.

Gerry Brennan died intestate and his gross assets amounted to �166,782. Fellow solicitor David Anderson, now a district court judge, was approved by the Law Society to oversee the management and subsequent sale of the practice.

Bertie Ahern temporarily abandoned the general election campaign in June 1997 to attend his close friend's funeral. It was the solicitor, according to Ahern in his television interview with Bryan Dobson last autumn, who initiated the Christmas whipround of �22,500 to help pay the legal expenses accruing from Ahern's marriage separation.

"Gerard seemed to be on top of the world. There was no hint that anything was wrong.

He was simply a great character . . . completely laidback in his professional life, " a friend was quoted anonymously at the time. "Bertie is in bits. They were like brothers. Bertie confided in Gerard. Nobody could be closer."

Gerry Brennan grew up in Drumcondra and attended the Christian Brothers' school at Synge Street, along with the Fianna Fail fundraiser Des Richardson. A client remembered him as "an excellent and very discreet solicitor". He was appointed a director of the then stateowned Telecom Eireann in early 1990.

"Gerard was a key figure in the battle to make Bertie taoiseach, " said a Fianna Fail source. "He checked every speech to make sure it was legally correct."

Twelve days after Gerry Brennan's death, Bertie Ahern won his first election as leader of Fianna Fail and was installed as taoiseach, set to make history as the longestserving incumbent.