The Irish have always been good at allotting blame – leaving us with a legacy of people who are supposed to just slip quietly away.
Captain James Kelly was perhaps one of the Republic's best known scapegoats, abandoned by the state during one of the most turbulent times in the island's history.
He was stalked by suspicion after the 1970 arms trial despite the fact that he had been found not guilty in a Dublin court of conspiracy to illegally import arms into Ireland.
Before the infamous trial, the Dublin father-of-six was facing middle age and had a successful career in the Irish army as an intelligence officer.
He was part of the establishment – one of the untouchables.
He was also used to following orders so he did not raise any objections when he was approached by his superiors and instructed to work with republicans to purchase weapons for the defence of Catholic families north of the border.
The newspapers at the time were filled with horror stories about Catholic homes being targeted by loyalists.
Taoiseach Jack Lynch, used to being popular and still trading on his reputation as a legendary GAA man, looked on with growing anxiousness and frustration as some 1,600 Catholic families were forced to flee violence during the 1969/70 period.
One famous soundbite had Mr Lynch warning that the Irish government could no longer "stand by" as the violence raged on relentlessly.
Mr Kelly always insisted in later years that when he was approached by his superiors in relation to the supplying of weapons to republicans he believed that the orders were coming from the very top of the political pyramid.
As far as he was concerned, the orders had come from the office of Defence Minister Jim Gibbons who was acting on behalf of the Taoiseach.
When the captain discovered that he was the subject of a Garda investigation and was forced to resign from the army he found that he was very much alone.
Jack Lynch moved quickly to fire two cabinet ministers, Neil Blaney and Charlie Haughey, the son-in-law of former taoiseach Sean Lemass. The pair had been central figures in the Fianna Fail's fundraising group Taca.
But Mr Haughey was a survivor and the 'Houdini' of Irish politics. Three weeks after his sacking as finance minister he was told by Garda detectives that his name had come up frequently when they were investigating allegations of arms smuggling. He simply replied: "My name comes up in a lot of things."
Captain Kelly, Mr Haughey, Mr Blaney, IRA man John Kelly and Belgian businessman Albert Luykx were tried and found not guilty by a High Court jury in 1970.
But all five were dogged by innuendo and suspicion for decades afterwards. Every Haughey backgrounder contains a reference to the arms trial.
Mr Haughey was always one of life's survivors, however, and went on to live a luxurious lifestyle, purchasing an island, breeding horses and reaching the pinnacle of politics in the state.
Mr Kelly concentrated on civilian life, raising his children and battling for 33 years to clear his name.
In my capacity as southern correspondent for the Irish News I spoke to the former captain on several occasions over the past two and a half years. I was always struck by the bitterness he felt at being "'abandoned" by the state and his unfailing determination to get to the truth.
Two years ago an RTE documentary claimed that the government had altered a statement by key witness Colonel Michael Hefferon to protect the defence minister during the trial. The discovery was made by Mr Kelly after he spent weeks poring over official documents from the time.
As the state spent millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on official inquiries into politicians' finances – a staggering €26 million so far on the planning tribunal alone – Mr Kelly was eaten up by his one-man campaign.
As news that he was terminally ill with cancer became public last week, opposition parties called for the state to finally clear Mr Kelly's name.
Hours after Mr Kelly died in a Dublin hospice on Wednesday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that the former captain had "acted on what he believed were the orders of his superiors".
But Mr Ahern's comment is just a first step in the right direction – it is now time for the state to officially recognise that a great injustice was done.
James Kelly's battle should not be laid to rest just yet.
