Haughey’s Mixed Legacy

NO one was neutral about Charles Haughey. The 80-year-old former taoiseach (prime minister) who died on Tuesday morning is as controversial in death as he was in life, a larger than life figure who shaped Irish politics for a generation.

The truth about Haughey lies midway between the two extremes — the corrupt Machiavellian politician out only to enrich himself and his cronies, and the forward thinking leader who delivered Ireland into the 21st century by creating the Celtic Tiger.

He was seriously flawed and seriously brilliant, a man who suffered fools very poorly, but who was also a fool himself in terms of his naked corruption and belief he could avoid any day of reckoning for it.

On the plus side he was the finest political mind of his era, a man who saw before anyone the potential for a peace process in the North, the potential for the Irish economy and the potential to make Ireland a haven for artists and writers which it certainly has become.

Not incidentally for Irish Americans, he was the first to rebuild links that had become very frayed because of the Troubles in the North. Part of his legacy will be that greatly improved rapport which continues to this day.

The Irish love their leaders larger than life, and in the diminutive Haughey they found one. Capable of acts of great kindness, he also stole millions, including money meant for his friend and political sidekick Brian Lenihan which was earmarked for a liver transplant for Lenihan. On a scale of total and utter betrayal and cynicism it rated a 10.

It was that mixture of vision and viciousness that drove his opponents and much of the media nuts, but in the end produced a sullied legacy which will be debated as long as the Irish breathe air.

His funeral will be massive. He was, after all, “The Boss,” the only Irish political figure since de Valera who could claim that title.

But there will also be many on the sidelines who believe that he coarsened political dialogue in Ireland to the point where it has become a vicious contact game, and that he introduced rampant corruption into a system that up to his ascension has been relatively free of it.

In death as in life, Haughey will continue to spark debate, provoke anger and generally take his place among the most controversial figures ever in Irish politics. It will be a decidedly mixed legacy.

A Friend to Irish America

IN terms of Irish America, Haughey was an invaluable ally and a man who will be fondly remembered by many.

You must remember that before Haughey came to power the Irish American community was generally treated as unclean by successive Irish leaders, especially Jack Lynch and Garret FitzGerald. Everyone in Irish America, it seemed, was in the grip of the IRA, and they were definitely not to be mingled with.

The Irish government spent a lot of the 1970s and ‘80s fighting Irish America on issues such as the MacBride Principles, rather than trying to sort out the problem directly with the British and using the U.S. as a lever, which was eventually what worked.

It is hard to imagine, but back then there were boycotts of Irish American events, blacklists at the Irish consulates and the embassy (including one ambassador who insisted on having security at Irish American events), and an overall perspective that Irish America was to be demonized, not understood.

Charles Haughey changed all that. Critical to it was an interview he gave to Irish America magazine in September 1987 where for the first time an Irish government leader essentially endorsed the MacBride Principles after years of fighting Irish Americans on them.

His exact words were, “We find the MacBride Principles totally acceptable. We understand fully the anxieties of Irish Americans about discrimination in employment in Northern Ireland and we are also deeply concerned about it.”

That was quite a significant shift in thinking and led to a re-opening of good relations between Irish America and the Irish government which has lasted to this day.

Key to that was the appointment of diplomats to the U.S. who engaged the Irish American community rather than berating it. Haughey can take immense credit for that.

In the 1987 interview he stated bluntly, “This government is determined to work to the greatest extent possible in harmony and cooperation with our Irish American family.”

The words were prophetic, and ever since then the relationship, so long fraught with difficulties, has become a major plus on both sides, as the current cooperation on illegal immigration shows.

Downfall Began Here

IN a strange occurrence, Haughey’s downfall also began in America when Irish businessman Ben Dunne, high on cocaine, was arrested by police in Florida as he threatened to commit suicide by jumping off a balcony.

An investigation into Dunne followed during which it became evident that he had secretly bankrolled Haughey for several years. “Thanks Big Fellah” became a national catchword, as it was what Haughey said to Dunne after one such payment.

Once the floodgates opened the Haughey financial empire came under intense scrutiny. Though he had protested for decades he had made his money legitimately, it soon became evident such was not the case, and the biggest corruption investigation in Irish politics ensued.

Though he was clearly guilty on most counts, Haughey never did any time. Ireland seems remarkably reluctant to jail any of its politicians, but his reputation as a financial genius was destroyed.

In the end, however, his core supporters stood by him and to the end of his life Haughey was an almost God-like figure to many of them.

Haughey Inspired Peace Process

IN short order, what Haughey will be best remembered for apart from the corruption is his scheme to allow artists to live tax free in Ireland, his establishment of the Financial Services Center in Dublin, which was the first brick in the process that became the Celtic Tiger, and his early probings of possibilities for a peace process in the North which set up his successor Albert Reynolds to complete the job.

Indeed, when Reynolds came into power he realized the extent of Haughey’s dealings with senior Republicans and other leaders in the North and he seized the opportunity to deliver an IRA ceasefire in August 1994. Without Haughey none of that would have been possible.