By Mairead Carey

Former Sinn Fein Vice President Phil Flynn has been given the benefit of the Probation Act and ordered to pay €5,000 to charity, after being found in possession of a pen gun.

Flynn, who in recent years was a close aide to the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern and the government’s favourite industrial relations trouble shooter, appeared in the District Court in Dublin on Friday.

The gun, which experts said was up to 70 years old, was found by police in a raid on Flynn’s offices last February.

Judge Ann Ryan said that the court accepted that Flynn had an unlawful gun and ammunition but that it had not been concealed and had been held for around 30 years in a desk drawer in his office.

He had no previous conviction and a long history of service to the state, she said.

After giving an undertaking to make the donation to charity, Flynn was left without a conviction.

Flynn, 65, hit the headlines in February when police from the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Garda Fraud Squad raided his offices as part of an investigation into the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast last December.

As a result of the raid, Flynn was forced to resign as chairman of the Bank of Scotland in Ireland as well as from a number of state positions.

A massive amount of media attention followed the raid. In August, the Sunday Independent ran a front page story quoting unnamed government sources saying they feared that Flynn may have brought a gun into Ahern’s office in Government Buildings.

In another story published by the Independent later that month, the Tanaiste (Deputy Leader) Mary Harney was reported to be furious that Flynn was still getting some industrial relations work from a state body.

In October, an Ulster Unionist peer, Lord Laird, linked Flynn to raids in Manchester and Dundalk which were part of an investigation into the assets of Thomas “Slab” Murphy, the reputed chief of staff of the IRA.

Because he made the claims in the House of Lords, Laird was covered by privilege and Flynn could not sue. At the time Flynn called on the government to clear his name.

“It’s time my government stood up and made a statement about all of this. They know it’s lies,” he said.

But the government and Flynn’s one-time friend Ahern have refused to comment.

Ten months after the raid, no charges have been brought against Flynn in relation to alleged IRA money laundering. The only charge that has resulted form the investigation into the former trade union leader was possession of the antique gun, which his counsel told the court was a “curiosity.”