Phil Flynn: profile: Yesterday's charges against Phil Flynn are the latest chapter of a colourful and controversial career that has seen the trade union activist make the transition from revolutionary to pillar of the establishment.
It all came to an abrupt halt last February, however, when he resigned from three high-profile positions in the public and private sector after it emerged that he had been questioned by the Criminal Assets Bureau as part of an investigation into alleged money-laundering by the republican movement.
He stood down as chairman of the Government committee on decentralisation, as chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and as director of the VHI. He insisted that he had no involvement "good, bad or indifferent" in money-laundering.
There was a time when Mr Flynn was an unwelcome visitor to Government Buildings, despite his status as a trade unionist.
In 1984, he was elected general secretary of the Local Government and Public Services Union, while vice-president of Sinn Féin.
The then Fine Gael-Labour government had a policy of not meeting Sinn Féin public representatives, but could not avoid talking to the State's biggest public sector union.
Barry Desmond, then Labour minister for health, remarked that he would regard it as "an act of political hygiene" to have no dealings with him. Mr Flynn retained strong trade union support however, and was subsequently elected to the executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, despite a televised attack on him before the vote by Fine Gael minister for defence Patrick Cooney.
Following his election, he sent a telegram to the minister: "Dear Paddy, Elected on the first count. Thanks for your help and assistance. Hope to meet you soon."
Later in 1984, he stepped down as Sinn Féin vice-president, assuring the party's ardfheis that his experience and support would always be available to the movement.
Mr Flynn was born in Dundalk in 1940, the eldest of five children. He joined Sinn Féin when he was 14-years-old and lent support to some of those involved in the IRA Border campaign in the 1950s.
In 1975, he acted as a mediator in the Herrema kidnap siege. At various times he was refused a US visa, and he was arrested in Liverpool and held for three days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Special Criminal Court acquitted him on a charge of IRA membership. In 1987, Mr Flynn was reported to have resigned from Sinn Féin, and from then on he increased his trade union involvement, becoming president of the ICTU.
Labour's Ruairí Quinn, as minister for finance, appointed Mr Flynn chairman of the Industrial Credit Corporation in the 1990s.
One commentator observed at the time that Mr Flynn had a flair "for looking at things afresh". He headed the review commission into the Irish League of Credit Unions which reported in 2002.
He was married twice and is the father of three grown-up children.
