MR Albert Reynolds told a libel jury at the High Court in London yesterday that his eldest daughter had rung him to inform him that the Sunday Times newspaper had printed a "dreadful" article accusing him of being a liar.
Mr Reynolds is suing the Sunday Times over the article, which accuses him of misleading the Dail. The newspaper denies libel, pleading justification and qualified privilege.
On his second day in the witness box, the former Taoiseach described as "traumatic" the days leading up to the downfall of his government. This culminated in the publication of the Sunday Times article in its English, Scottish and Welsh editions on November 20th, 1994.
"My eldest daughter Miriam rang at about 4 p.m. on the Sunday and said `Have you got the Sunday Times?'. I said `No' and she said, `Maybe you should get it, there is a dreadful article in it'.
"I said, `In what way?' and she replied, `I'll give you a flavour' - `A fib too far for the gombeen man proved fatal for Ireland's peacemaker and Mr Fixit'. `It's dreadful', she said, `they are calling you a liar'."
Mr Reynolds told the jury that when he bought the Irish edition of the Sunday Times to read the article he could not find it. Instead, the Irish edition had a different "three page special" discussing the events leading to his resignation.
"It just didn't add up - they were two distinctly different articles", he said.
Asked by his counsel, Lord Gareth Williams QC, what he felt when he finally read the English article, Mr Reynolds replied: "I felt just absolutely dreadful. Here was the Sunday Times calling me a liar and, going on from that, using words like Mr Spring did a deal with the devil'.
"I don't know of anybody living on this earth who would like to be described as the devil. It attacked my reputation and impugned my integrity. I did not tell a lie to the Dail or my Cabinet colleagues.
"One can precis it, how angry I was, how disturbed I was that this had happened, the extreme damage it was going to do to my reputation and what would people think of me.
"I don't know of any worse thing people could say of me. In my lifetime, I have defended my good name and reputation. I know about being a politician, I can take the rough and tumble, but I have always made it very clear to the media that `don't call me a liar unless you can stand it up'," he said.
Mr Reynolds said he regularly travelled the "breadth" of Britain to deliver lectures at universities and conferences and now he always wondered if his audiences had read the Sunday Times article and believed he was a liar.
In an emotional voice, Mr Reynolds continued: "A liar, a liar, a liar, is the worst thing that can be said. How do I feel when I go to address a large audience in these places? Does everyone remember I am a liar, a gombeen man, who can be taken to be some kind of devil? I am always conscious of that. I have to be conscious of that. That is the way it hurts me and continues to hurt me.
Lord Williams then read out to the jury the Sunday Times's Irish article, headlined `House of Cards', pausing occasionally to ask Mr Reynolds for his comments.
Mr Reynolds agreed that this article was "by and large" an accurate description of the events leading to the downfall of his Government.