`not a spotless character` ?? !!! An understatement if ever there was one!
just a small issue of the then Irish PM and his sidekick Blaney smuggling in weapons for the IRA to use against unionists up North for starters.
Your information is slightly wrong, he was not PM at the time, but minister for justice, and both he and Blamey were sacked by Jack Lynch who was. Secondly they had not actually got the guns but were negociating for import licences that was foiled by the police and Irish army intelligence, and thirdly the IRA did not exist as a force viable or otherwise until later, . The IRA at that stage were the tired old men of 1956. It was the ham fisted approach of the RUC aand particularly the B Specials ( for UK readers a militia linked to the official police , ) which acted as the recruiting agent.
The guns were proposed as defense against murderous mobs intent on burning out Catholic or Nationists,. The peace gates, the burnt out streets were not fictional. You might recall that slightly earlier there were groups gathering at the dundalk barracks looking for guns, and there were refugee camps set up here in the south.
But a spotless character of Charlie is certainly an understatement... His liki ng for the fancy life while insisted that we were living beyond our means!!!.