to resign on 4 May. He later claimed that he had in fact informed Lynch of the individuals involved. On 28 May 1970, Haughey and Blaney went on trial in Dublin, together with an Irish Army intelligence officer, Captain James Kelly, John Kelly and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx, who had allegedly agreed to use his contacts to acquire the weapons. All charges against Blaney were dropped in the District Court on 2 July 1970 and as a result he was not tried, before the main trial got underway under Justice Aindrias Ó Caoimh. The trial collapsed a week later as Ó Caoimh withdrew after allegations of bias. Following a second trial, presided over by Justice Seamus Henchy, the other four defendants were cleared on 23 October. At the trial there was a direct contradiction of evidence regarding the sanctioning of the imports between Haughey and the chief prosecutorial witness, Jim Gibbons, Minister for Defence at the time of the attempted imports. Haughey admitted arranging customs clearance for the shipment, but claimed in his defence that he did not know it consisted of weapons. This directly contradicted the evidence of Gibbons and Peter Berry that Haughey was fully aware of all the details of the conspiracy. It also contradicted the testimony of his co-defendants, who admitted that they had tried to import weapons, but maintained that the shipment had been legally authorised by the government. During the trial the judge remarked that either Haughey or Gibbons had to be committing perjury. Impact The resignations and sackings left four vacancies in cabinet. As a result, there was a major cabinet reshuffle and some senior politicians of the future, such as Desmond O'Malley and Gerry Collins, got their first step on the ministerial ladder. The scandal led to bitter divisions in Fianna Fáil between supporters of the sacked ministers Haughey and Blaney and supporters of Lynch. The same divisions affected government policy on Northern Ireland. Although the events led to Haughey being demoted to the back-benches, he remained a member of Fianna Fáil, while Boland was expelled in 1970 and Blaney in 1971. Blaney went on to found his own party, Independent Fianna Fáil, which re-joined Fianna Fáil in 2006, eleven years after Blaney's death. Haughey later returned to ministerial office and succeeded Lynch as party leader in 1979. There was no rapprochement in the relationship between Gibbons and Haughey and when Haughey