A public execution is a rare event in Irish politics. It generates enormous pressures within the normally relaxed atmosphere at Leinster House.

Former colleagues solemnly don black caps and put distance between themselves and the condemned man. And the Opposition parties look grim.

The process is slow and reluctant. But there are times when no other political response will serve. We saw it with Charlie Haughey. It happened for Ray Burke. And now a bell is tolling for the Irish Commissioner in faraway Brussels.

On this occasion, however, a roused, dissenting female figure exploded on to the scene. Beverly Cooper-Flynn was standing by her Daddy. Described as "a class act" on The Late Late Show, the Castlebar TD is living up to the billing her father gave her.

Blood is thicker than water: the Flynns are sticking together. Family loyalty, as she said, was on the table.

Efforts by Seamus Brennan and Bertie Ahern to get her to accept "political reality" came to nothing. She would not support the Government's demand that her father make a full, immediate statement clarifying his position in relation to allegations that he had received £50,000 while minister for the environment in 1989. She wouldn't just abstain; she would vote against if the opportunity presented.

At 7.30 p.m. the former NIB banker stood up in the Dail to flay her father's traducers. What they were seeing was political expediency, sanctimonious opportunism and the demeaning abuse of Dail privilege. Jacques Santer didn't think her father's position impossible; he regarded the controversy as a purely domestic matter. And the Government had confidence in him.

And then, with a toss of her head at Des O'Malley and the harsh strictures he had just delivered on behalf of the Progressive Democrats, she slipped the knife into the Taoiseach. Fianna Fail should not "collude" with those parties which presumed to be their moral guardians.

In an appeal over Mr Ahern's head to party solidarity she declared that until she saw the votes counted, she would not believe the party she knew and loved would collaborate with its enemies in damaging her father. Fianna Fail, she said, "should not abandon leadership on the issue".

It cut no ice with the Soldiers of the Legion of the Rearguard. They rose and followed Mr Ahern. And Ms Cooper-Flynn found herself in a minority of one within Fianna Fail.

Earlier, the House was agog over Seamus Brennan's machinations as Fianna Fail sought desperately to avoid a public vote that would lead to the automatic expulsion of Ms Cooper-Flynn. Fine Gael had offered to co-operate with Fianna Fail. But the price was high: a return to the Dail in three weeks and a near certain vote on that occasion. But Mr Ahern and his Ministers were prepared to buy time and avoid a vote.

By 6 p.m. it seemed the deed was done. And John Bruton, on the eve of the Fine Gael ardfheis, spoke unwisely of a great parliamentary victory.

It was too much for Ruairi Quinn and the new-look Labour Party. They couldn't let Fine Gael have unencumbered use of the juiciest political controversy around. So they broke ranks and kicked the ball into an open Fianna Fail goal. It was pure opportunism. They demanded a vote in order to force the expulsion of Ms Cooper-Flynn, damage Fianna Fail and further enrage her father in Europe.

David Andrews had opened the debate on Tuesday with honeyed words about our "exemplary Commissioner" in Brussels. The Government, he said, had "full confidence in the Commissioner in the exercise of his European functions".

But it was a pragmatic, ring-fenced, time-limited confidence. And it revolved around the Government's EU negotiations for huge amounts of money under the structural and cohesion funds and CAP reform which are due to be completed in Berlin by March 25th. "His wisdom and experience are very necessary to us during the course of the crucial Agenda 2000 negotiations," Mr Andrews admitted.

And then there was the downside. "If Padraig Flynn is guilty of wrongdoing, then he must and will face the consequences . . . The same fate awaits those other politicians and former politicians who stand accused at present and those who may be implicated in the future."

Delicacy may have prevented the Minister for Foreign Affairs from specifying what that fate might be. But the Opposition parties were not so inhibited. They wanted a hanging if Mr Flynn did not offer a credible explanation within three weeks.

Fine Gael rounded up what Mr Andrews sniffily described as "a lynch party from the wild west" and set out in pursuit. The showdown brought divisions within Fianna Fail and the Opposition parties, the automatic expulsion of Ms Cooper-Flynn and further pressure on the Commissioner.

The first intricate steps in that complex political manoeuvre took place weeks ago. Mr Ahern came to the Dail and placed on the record a letter to Mr Flynn from his party's general secretary, Martin Mackin, concerning a £50,000 donation. Had he received this money for Fianna Fail, he was asked, and where was it? It was hoped the Commissioner appreciated "the legal necessity for this line of inquiry."

The response from Brussels to the formal Fianna Fail request was a furious silence. The Taoiseach had released private correspondence and had hung Mr Flynn out to dry. Worse than that, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, had described his position as "impossible", which was tantamount to calling for his resignation.

But, with his term as Commissioner due to run out in December, Mr Flynn wasn't going to fall on any sword. The best he could offer was that he would co-operate with the Flood tribunal.

Fianna Fail is on the rack. Events from the 1980s and 1990s are being investigated by the Moriarty and Flood tribunals. And there is no knowing what skeletons will fall out of various unsavoury closets to inflict damage on former and serving party members.

But the immediate political threat lies with the allegation that Mr Flynn was given a £50,000 donation for Fianna Fail by Tom Gilmartin in 1989 and failed to pass the money to the party. The Progressive Democrats are restless. And there are local and European elections coming down the line.

Silence, exile and cunning may not be enough to save our European Commissioner.