On this day 40 years ago, a major Irish political drama reached a conclusion when the fifth president of Ireland, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, resigned from office. Patrick Donegan, the minister for defence at the time, had insulted Ó Dálaigh over his decision to refer the Emergency Powers Bill to the Supreme Court for a judgment as to its constitutionality. Ó Dálaigh should not have had to resign; that he did was not just due to the failure of Donegan to resign but also to the refusal of taoiseach Liam Cosgrave to demand Donegan’s resignation.

In a letter to Ó Dálaigh, Donegan sought to blame others for how the controversy over his description of the president as a “thundering disgrace” had played out, complaining, for example, that “facile references by journalists, which can become emotive, are difficult to contend with”. This was an ironic assertion given Donegan’s emotive and facile comments about Ó Dálaigh. The president was scathing in response, asking pointedly: “Have you any conception of your responsibility as a minister of state and in particular as minister for defence?”