THE Reynolds libel jury watched 3 1/2 hours of video recordings of the proceedings of the Dail Committee on Legislation and Security in the High Court in London yesterday.
"This morning is the continuation of the film show," said Mr James Price QC, introducing the 14th day of the hearing, which was suspended for two days last week because of a juror's illness and another's attendance at a family funeral. The case is now in its fourth week.
The jury watched the former attorney general, Mr Harry Whelehan SC, give evidence to the committee that he was not surprised Mr Reynolds had made no reference to the Duggan case on the Tuesday before the government fell, as in his opinion it was not important.
Mr Reynolds is suing the Sunday Times over an article on the fall of the Fianna Fail/Labour government two years ago, published on November 20th, 1994, under the heading "Goodbye, Gombeen Man".
It was published only in the newspaper's British editions and said: "How a fib too far proved fatal for Ireland's peacemaker and Mr Fixit". It claimed Mr Reynolds had lied to the Dail in his speech of Tuesday, November 15th.
The Sunday Times denies libel and pleads justification and qualified privilege.
So far the jury has heard seven days' evidence from Mr Reynolds and a brief testimony from his daughter Miriam. It has also heard evidence from the author of the article, the Sunday Times Irish editor at the time, Mr Alan Ruddock; its editor. Mr John Witherow; and another journalist who contributed to the article Mr John Burns.
Some of the participants' views of the events are now being transmitted to the jury through the video recordings of the committee hearings and records of Dail proceedings relating to the fall of the coalition.
According to video evidence seen yesterday of Mr Whelehan he had expressed an interest in becoming High Court president to Mr Reynolds early in 1994. Mr Whelehan mentioned this to Mr Spring in April.
Mr Spring said he "noted" what had been said. "He never since said anything. He did not express any reservations", Mr Whelehan said.
In October, reports of the Father Brendan Smyth case appeared in the media, including allegations that requests for his extradition had not been acted upon by the attorney general for seven months.
He sought a report from the senior legal assistant in his office.
This said that the file had never been brought to his (Mr Whelehan's) attention. It also said the Smyth case was the first involving new extradition legislation.
The whole issue was discussed by the government on November 11th. He left the meeting while the appointment of a High Court president was discussed and was told later his appointment had been agreed. He learned later the Labour Party ministers had left the meeting while this was being agreed.
On the 14th the new attorney general, Mr Fitzsimons, had come to his house and asked him to "formally consider his position" before taking the oath of office. This request was renewed the next day.
He refused. "I did not think it appropriate that members of a government should bring pressure to bear on a judge to resolve a political problem."
When Mr Reynolds spoke in the Dail on November 15th he "strongly defended" the appointment. On November 16th Mr Reynolds made another speech in which "for the first time" he introduced the Duggan case and used it to say that, if he had known about it, he would not have gone ahead with the appointment, and, if Mr Whelehan was still attorney general, he should resign.
In order to protect the judiciary from becoming further involved in political controversy, he resigned as High Court president.
He referred members of the committee to the statement he issued at the time. This said the official in his office who had said the delay in the Smyth ease was because it was the first time the extradition legislation had been considered in this context had apologised to him and the Taoiseach for misleading them and therefore the Dail.
He also said he was "taken aback" when told of the Duggan case.
While it had similarities with the Smyth case, there were major differences in that the offences went back three or four years, while some of those in the Smyth case went back 30 years.
He asked the Dail committee to find that there was "no factual basis" for the change in Mr Reynolds's attitude to him between November 15th and 16th.
The jury then watched Mr Spring's November 16th Dail speech, when he announced that the Labour Party was no longer supporting the government.
In this he told how he had asked Mr Fitzsimons when he had told the Taoiseach of the Duggan case, and he had replied that he had told him on the Monday.
"It was immediately apparent that the Taoiseach should have included this in his speech on Tuesday." It was not possible to reconcile his defence of the attorney general with the information available to him, he said.
They jury also watched Mr Spring's evidence to the Dail committee.
Here, Mr Spring explained his "reservations" about Mr Whelehan's appointment on the grounds of his lack of judicial experience. He then gave his account of the events leading up to the fall of the government.
He had prepared a note as the basis for his remarks to the meeting with the Fianna Fail ministers explaining his decision, but he was not allowed to read all of it, he said. This note said the tenor of Mr Reynolds's remarks to the Dail on Tuesday were "misleading, untrue and concealed the facts".
He was pursued by a number of Fianna Fail committee members on the issue of when he had first learned of the existence of the Duggan ease and whether he knew about it when he had signed the agreement to go back into government a decision changed following his conversation with Mr Fitzsimons.
Mr John O'Donoghue, of Fianna Fail, tried to get him to identify the two pages of Mr Reynolds's speech he had read as the basis for his signature. One of those pages contained his own words, inserted by Labour Party ministers, and Mr O'Donoghue said both adjoining pages contained references to the Duggan case. He therefore must have read them before signing the agreement, argued Mr O'Donoghue.
Mr Spring said he was not sure these pages were in their final form at that stage.