Sir Anthony finds the time to mix business and sport

In business as in sport, Sir Anthony O'Reilly is a disciple of the Corinthian ethos.

Whether you're playing rugby or applying for the second GSM licence, it's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts. So it was typical of the O'Reilly philosophy that when his consortium's GSM bid failed in 1995, he promptly wrote a note of congratulations to the winner, ESAT's Denis O'Brien.

Recalling that the latter's father had been one of Ireland's finest divers, he described once seeing him perform at the Blackrock Baths, and feeling sure that O'Brien snr would win Olympic gold. "In fact he didn't, and you did," wrote O'Reilly to the ESAT chairman.

So you could imagine Sir Anthony's astonishment yesterday when lawyers broached the possibility that he had been in some way upset at not securing the GSM licence, and that he had the bad taste to communicate this to the government. Not that the lawyers were insensitive about it.

On the contrary, if international rugby defences had been half as respectful in their treatment, O'Reilly would have scored more than 15 tries for Ireland. Even so, the former Heinz chief required 57 different varieties of "no" to stress his failure ever to pressurise government on the issue. "Never", he said of a claim that he mentioned it to Michael Lowry when the latter was in his box at the Curragh.

On the contrary, he said of another occasion, it was Mr Lowry who brought it up in the hospitality tent at the Galmoy mine opening. Absolutely untrue, he said of a suggestion that he voiced disappointment to John Bruton at his [Sir Anthony's] summer home in Glandore, west Cork.

Effortlessly urbane, the witness stressed his friendship with Mr Bruton, and dismissed suggestions of hostility to the "very charming" Mr Lowry. But by way of corroboration, he cited his follow-up letter to the then taoiseach, summarising their Cork meeting and headed "Tuesday at Rushane".

He also gently disagreed with the claim that Mr Bruton faxed colleagues his own summary from Cork, complete with mention of Sir Anthony's GSM disappointment. Transmitting a fax from Glandore in 1996 would have been "a remarkable event", he suggested.

It wasn't meant as a comment on the success of the then minister for communications, but it was the nearest thing yesterday to an off-the-ball tackle.