Sorting out `a couple of days' in June 1989

"I am a divil for crosswords, especially The Irish Times crosswords, and I've a dictionary and a thesaurus. You would be surprised about the number of different meanings of words," Mr James Gogarty told the Flood tribunal yesterday. Responding to cross-examination from Mr Garrett Cooney SC for the Murphy group, he said he could not say on what day exactly he was present when an alleged bribe to Mr Ray Burke was discussed with Mr Joe Murphy jnr.

Mr Cooney had previously said it was his case that Mr Murphy jnr was not present when the arrangements were made or when the alleged bribe was handed over.

But Mr Gogarty thought there were two such meetings, a couple of days before and a couple of days after June 8th, 1989.

However, asked whether "a couple of days" meant two or three days, Mr Gogarty replied: "Would you object to three or four days. And would you give me a chance because on Sunday I wouldn't be going on with that skullduggery - I would have a rest day, you know," to laughter from the gallery.

Mr Cooney then suggested that "when I told you that the eighth of June was a Thursday you had decided to back off the description three days or a couple of days because you realised that that wasn't consistent with the events that you are now trying to establish".

Mr Gogarty said he did not back off anything.