 Reynolds became interested in politics at the time of the Arms Crisis in 1970, a controversial episode in which two cabinet Ministers, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Neil Blaney and Minister for Finance Charles Haughey, were removed from the government over an attempt to send arms to Northern Ireland, where thousands of Catholic families had been driven from their homes, of whom 1,000 had fled across the border to the Republic.Blaney and Haughey were later acquitted in court.In the wake of this case, Reynolds decided to launch a political career from his background as a successful west-of-Ireland businessman, although, at 44 years of age when first an electoral candidate, he was considered a late starter.