Many people probably knew little or nothing about Dáil pairing arrangements until Fine Gael's controversial ending of the gentlemen's agreement threatened to prevent Tánaiste Mary Coughlan's US trip last week. But Tuesday's storm in the Leinster House teacup was not the first time the withdrawal of pairing arrangements has caused controversy in the Dáil.

In the 1980s, Labour's Dick Spring suffered back injuries in a car accident. Yet Charlie Haughey withdrew pairing arrangements, meaning that the Kerry North TD had to attend the Dáil chamber for a vote even though he was still convalescing.

Fianna Fáil's David Andrews was the victim of another pairing controversy when he was forced to turn up for a vote at a time when he was suffering from severe back pain.

Former Fine Gael TD Oliver J Flanagan was involved in several pairing controversies, including one convoluted – and failed – attempt by Bertie Ahern to get him to help Fianna Fáil out of a voting predicament.

Flanagan, the late father of Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan, was a TD for nearly 45 years. He was also forced to attend a crucial vote in the Dáil when he was seriously ill in 1986 because Fianna Fáil had withdrawn pairing arrangements.

"It was said last week that he was wheeled into the Dáil for the vote but that is not the case," Flanagan Jnr recalled.

"It would have been in December 1986 and my father was seriously ill at the time. He had to come in for the vote and it was actually his last time in the Dáil."

While stories of Flanagan being taken into the Dáil on a stretcher or in a wheelchair are exaggerated, the veteran TD realised how ill he was at the time and used the opportunity to say goodbye to his parliamentary colleagues.

It is now part of Leinster House folklore that, after the controversial vote, Flanagan sat and shook hands with every TD in the Dáil, from both the government and the opposition benches.

Flanagan's health deteriorated further afterwards and he never got the chance to return to the Dáil before he died in April 1987.