The stories I heard about Charlie Haughey from those that knew him In
the FCA were of a Jack the Lad who drove a Jaguar when they were lucky if they
had secondhand pushbikes and who
was a graduate and Chartered Accounant when few of them had been past primary
school. Like them Charlie came from families of modest means. His father, an
IRA veteran and Regular Army
Officer, had to retire on a modest pension after contracting Multiple
Scelerosis .Free Secondary and Tertiary Education were unknown then except for
those that won Scholarship.Pensions for
Public Servants remained static, taking no account of inflation -until Charlie
became Minister for Finance. I had no reason to doubt the stories I heard from
those that knew him, and still believe
later stories which seemed in character.
But there are stories circulating by liars and chancers – for instance that he
bought his Kinsealy Mansion, when, as Minister of Finance he was forewarned of
Jim Callaghan’s devaluation of the
pound, That comes from the School of History that maintains that the Cork
Militia bate the Turks at Waterloo.
In fact years before Labour came to power under Harold Wilson, Haughey had a
substantial mansion and grounds near Howth Junction with a gatehouse manned by
Gardaí when he was Minister of Justice.When I left Dublin in November 1964,
many hundreds of acres north of the railway from Sutton to Amiens Street, now
covered with thousands of houses, now celebrated in Roddy Doyle’s works, were fields. I don’t think Charlie was Don
Juan enough to account for the huge population increase. He sold his mansion at
a huge profit and bought Kinsealy with the profits.
When Charlie bought the first mansion he invited his old FCA comrades to
drill or exercise in his broad acres and presented them with grass-cutting
implements. Eamonn or Dessie Francis told him what to do with the implements
and led their Platoon away
Sources I trust say that the Financial Services Centre in Dublin originated in
the brain of Dermot Desmond and he contacted the then Taoiseach John Bruton who
pooh-poohed it. He then approached Dick Spring who dismissed it as a place for
yuppies. The Socialist Spring became a Director of some companies there.
It was Charlie Haughey who recognised the idea and backed it. It now employs
over 30,000 in smart modern offices in what had been one of the poorest areas
in Dublin.
Haughey also backed the building of Knock Airport, a boon for the West
and Northwest of Ireland and home to a major aeronautical business.
As Finance Minister Haughey had the brilliant idea of not taxing writers. Most
writers scrape a living so there is no loss to the State there.But the sale of
books brings money into the country, and
successful writers, thankful for their good fortune might praise the country
and its appreciation of their worth.
For nearly 50 years the State subsidised the Abbey Theatre. When Charlie became Finance Minister he gave the impecunious Gate Theatre, which had survived producing brilliant work for nearly 40 years, a regular subsidy which kept its head above water.
I’m indebted for this information
to a biography (THE BOYS) of Micheal MacLiammoir (Alfred Wilmore) and his
lover, Hilton Edwards, two Londoners who served Drama and Ireland heroically
for many decades. I got the book, at a snip in a Charity
shop the same day as I bought POINT TO POINT NAVIGATION, the second part of
Gore Vidal’s Memoirs. In the combined memoirs covering 70 years. I think Vidal
only mentioned Ireland once, when he credited Haughey with making Ireland rich.
When the Presidency of the European Union fell to Ireland and Charles Haughey
was Taoisech the Berlin Wall had fallen, France under Mitterand and Britain
under Thatcher were opposed to the unification of Germany. The heads of
Government of the Union met in Dublin Castle and Haughey was instrumental in
facilitating the Germans, who showed their appreciation when Albert Reynolds
had succeeded Haughey, when they directed many billions of EU funds to Ireland.
Charles Haughey, behind the scenes supported the Hume-Adams dialogue which
brought about the end of a nearly 30 year war. If that didn’t earn Charlie a
place among the Angels, his action, described by Stephen Collins in the Irish
Times, places him among Laocra Gaeil. When Stephen asked Charlie if he was
going to resign, Charlie grabbed him by the throat and told him to F***
Off. Bravo Charlie, Bravo!
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