What did Phil Flynn know and when did he know it?

The Irish Independent publishes this blockbuster story by Sam Smyth -- linking one of Bertie Ahern's most trusted advisors to the finance firm at the centre of the Cork arrests and, by implication, to the Northern Bank robbery.

ONE of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's most trusted troubleshooters is linked to a Cork-based finance company at the centre of the investigation into the money seized yesterday by gardai.
Banker Phil Flynn is a director in Chesterton Finance, the money-lending company whose other two directors are being questioned by detectives about yesterday's seizure of cash in Co Cork.
Last night, Mr Flynn was trying to contact Irene Johnstone (53) and Ted Cunningham (56), both directors of Chesterton, who were helping gardai with their
inquiries.

Mr Flynn, the current chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland), said last night he has been a director of Chesterton Finance for six months and he had checked the company out before he became a director.
He said: "I know Chesterton is clean. I had it checked out before I became a director six months ago."
Mr Flynn... said he had been trying to get in touch with Ms Johnstone and Mr Cunningham but could not get a reply from their telephones. He added: "Chesterton is not a big operation, it does short-term lending to people who can't get a loan elsewhere."
He continued: "The company lends against an asset and loans up to half of the asset's value."
Mr Flynn added: "It (Chesterton) is a small company. At any time it has just one to two million out on loan."

Who's Flynn? An ex-vice president of Sinn Fein, a former trade unionist, chairman of the Bank of Scotland in Ireland. Here's another profile, drawn up when he was parachuted in to try and fix decentralisation.

The Taoiseach is known to trust Mr Flynn's advice and he has been asked to deal with a number of very sensitive issues for Bertie Ahern.
Ted Cunningham and Irene Johnstone, who sit on the board of Chesterton Finance with Mr Flynn, are also directors of another company, Finance & Legal Clients Ltd (normal).

Unimaginable buzz at moment - sources close to government say the next 48 hours are going to be a whirlwind. So fasten your seatbelts, kids. We're in for a bumpy weekend.

Charlie Bird - wanker that he is - on Morning Ireland just now refused to credit Sam Smyth or the Indo, and talked about his conversations this morning with Flynn, who confirmed the substance of the Indo story.

Also, it was Flynn's brother whose Dundalk house was raided by the Criminal Assets Bureau on a document hunt, reports Bird.

In fairness, Flynn has never made a secret of his political leanings or contacts. But where does it all lead?

Tags: ireland, Northern Ireland, irish, irishblogs, Sinn Fein, IRA, corruption, Phil Flynn,

UPDATE: Charlie Bird added credit to Indo and Sam Smyth in later bulletin. Apparently even three Charlie Birds weren't enough for Charlie Bird to ignore common courtesy.

UPDATE 2: Irish Examiner profiles fellow Chesterton director Ted Cunningham. With picture.

Ted Cunningham was placed under surveillance by Special Branch detectives after he was witnessed attending a meeting with a pair of Bulgarian arms dealers who travelled to Ireland six months ago. It is believed he had secured contracts to launder as much as €10m in republican money over a period of time, not just from IRA sources but also possibly the INLA. Mr Cunningham is listed in the Companies Office as being a director of nine companies: * Chesterton Mortgage Co Ltd. * Insurance Concepts Ltd. * Tullybeg Retirement Village Ltd. * Beechlawn Golf Course and Driving Range Ltd. * Highbury Holdings Ltd. * Firmount Developments Ltd. * Midlands Projects Ltd. * Wolfe Tone Holdings Ltd. * Cave Hill Holdings. There is no suggestion of illegality on the part of any of these companies.